Books like Oxford guide to plain English by Martin Cutts

A guide to effective writing techniques and the art of clear communication.

A practical guide to writing clear, engaging English, grounded in contemporary research from linguistics, cognitive science, and related fields.

A practical guide offering 50 concise tools that help writers of all backgrounds—novelists, journalists, business professionals—to write more clearly, creatively, and effectively.

xxvi, 323 pages : 19 cm

Everyone talks about style, but no one explains it. The authors of this book do; and in doing so, they provoke the reader to consider style, not as an elegant accessory of effective prose, but as its very heart. At a time when writing skills have virtually disappeared, what can be done? If only people learned the principles of verbal correctness, the essential rules, wouldn't good prose simply fall into place? Thomas and Turner say no. Attending to rules of grammar, sense, and sentence structure will no more lead to effective prose than knowing the mechanics of a golf swing will lead to a hole-in-one. Furthermore, ten-step programs to better writing exacerbate the problem by failing to recognize, as Thomas and Turner point out, that there are many styles with different standards. In the first half of Clear and Simple, the authors introduce a range of styles - reflexive, practical, plain, contemplative, romantic, prophetic, and others - contrasting them to classic style. Its principles are simple: The writer adopts the pose that the motive is truth, the purpose is presentation, the reader is an intellectual equal, and the occasion is informal. Classic style is at home in everything from business memos to personal letters, from magazine articles to university writing. The second half of the book is a tour of examples - the exquisite and the execrable - showing what has worked and what hasn't. Classic prose is found everywhere: from Thomas Jefferson to Junichiro Tanizaki, from Mark Twain to the observations of an undergraduate. Here are many fine performances in classic style, each clear and simple as the truth.

A concise guide for everyday speakers and writers, offering practical rules and common pitfalls to help readers communicate correctly in everyday language.

An authoritative handbook that teaches essential principles of rhetoric, grammar, and clear English writing, helping students and professionals craft polished reports, essays, and other documents.