The 28 Biggest Writing Blunders and How to Avoid Them by William Noble shows the writer how to keep from making some of the worst mistakes that can be made by strictly sticking to the rules. which take away from the writer's creativity and uniqueness. With clear examples, it explains how to create a magical way of writing. It is well-indexed making topics easy to find by the user.
The 28 Biggest Writing Blunders Advice
The 28 Biggest Writing Blunders has twenty-eight chapters emphasizing style and attitude while not neglecting grammar. Among them are:
- Don't write for your eighth-grade teacher when you can free your writing from outmoded rules.
- Don’t complicate the obvious when you can avoid distracting, unnecessary quirks.
- Don’t be a slave to the grammar guru when you can make writing choices for yourself.
- Don’t freeze and formalize language when you can involve the reader with vivid details and a more conversational approach.
- Don’t “journalese” or “slangify” words and phrases when you can communicate better with simple, everyday language that won’t date your work.
- Don’t overuse the Thesaurus when you can develop the eye, and the ear, to choose precisely the right word for your purpose.
- Don’t under use the dictionary when you can expand your resources of words and learn exact shades of meaning.
- Don’t duck the punch in punctuation when you can use dashes, ellipsis points and (with caution) unconventional typography.
- Don’t wallow in a sentence straitjacked when you can change rhythms, improve pacing, and add variety for greater impact
- Don’t write the perfect paragraph when you can bend, stretch, and even sometimes break the conventional rules to make your writing more lively.
- Don’t add adverbs and adjectives to prettify your prose when you can use a more natural style for greater power.
- Don’t pacify your verb voice when you can rely on verbs that do things.
- Don’t dabble with “smoky” words when you can be more precise and detailed.
- Don’t repeat without relevance when you can decide which repeats work and which don’t.
The 28 Biggest Writing Blunders and Individuality
The 28 Biggest Writing Blunders emphasizes the importance of individuality in writing, the uniqueness of the author’s presentation on the way something is written. For this reason, he recommends more flexibility and not sticking with iron-clad rules. Nobel writes: ….if all of us followed the same grammar rules and thought in the same grammar terms, there would be little distinction in our styles, in the way we write.”
The 28 Biggest Writing Blunders as a Classic
The 28 Biggest Writing Blunders was published in 1992 and reprinted in 1993, 1994, and 1995.. It is still listed on sites such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and others that handle out- of- print or used books because it has never gone out of favor. The advice given by author William Noble about writing is as pertinent today as it was when the book was first published.
Noble, William. The 28 Biggest Writing Blunders (and How to Avoid Them). Cincinatti, OH: Reader’s Digest Books, 1992
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