The Little Red Writing Book Deluxe Edition: Two Winning Books in One, Writing plus Grammar

by Brandon Royal

Overview

This deluxe edition contains the complete contents of The Little Red Writing Book and The Little Gold Grammar Book. Whereas writing is based on principles -- in which writing is deemed better or worse, more effective or less effective -- grammar is based on rules, in which writing is deemed right or wrong, correct or incorrect. With coverage of the most useful writing principles and the most commonly encountered rules of grammar, The Little Red Writing Book Deluxe Edition is an invaluable guide for anyone who wants to master those skills that will make a good writer even better.

Enjoy the benefits of your own self-paced writing course: Writing has four pillars -- structure, style, readability, and grammar -- and each pillar is like the single leg of a sturdy chair.

*Structure relates to organization and deciding in which order to present your ideas. Learn how to choose the best writing structure to develop your ideas, how to break your writing topic into two to four parts, and how to write with a top-down approach.

*Style describes how one writes, including how to use specific examples to support what is written. Learn how to make writing more simple, powerful, and vivid. Understand how to vary sentence beginnings, how to create a formal and informal tone, and how to keep writing gender neutral.
*Readability focuses on presentation and how to make your document visually pleasing and easy to read. Learn how to make key words stand out, how to use headings and headlines to "frame" writing, and how to increase the use of white space to allow your document to "breathe."
*Grammar is about expressing language in a correct and acceptable form. Review the rules of grammar in terms of six common categories (subject-verb agreement, pronoun usage, modification, parallelism, comparisons, and verb tenses), and use short exercises and problems to help integrate key concepts of grammar, diction, idioms, and style.
*Also included are special sections on editing tips and punctuation, America English vs. British English, and traditional writing vs. digital writing.

Author's bio: Brandon Royal is an award-winning writer whose educational authorship includes The Little Red Writing Book, The Little Gold Grammar Book, The Little Green Math Book, and The Little Blue Reasoning Book. During his tenure working in Hong Kong for US-based Kaplan Educational Centers - a Washington Post subsidiary and the largest test-preparation organization in the world - Brandon honed his theories of teaching and education and developed a set of key learning "principles" to help define the basics of writing, grammar, math, and reasoning. A Canadian by birth and graduate of the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, his interest in writing began after completing writing courses at Harvard University. Since then he has authored a dozen books and reviews of his books have appeared in Time Asia magazine, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal of America, Midwest Book Review, The Asian Review of Books, Choice Reviews Online, Asia Times Online, and About.com. Brandon is a five-time winner of the International Book Awards, a seven-time gold medalist at the President's Book Awards, as well as recipient of the "Educational Book of the Year" award as presented by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. He has also been a winner or finalist at the Ben Franklin Book Awards, the Global eBook Awards, the Beverly Hills Book Awards, the IPPY Awards, the USA Book News "Best Book Awards," and the Foreword magazine Book of the Year Awards. He continues to write and publish in the belief that there will always be a place for books that inspire, enlighten, and enrich.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781897393253
Publisher:	Maven Publishing
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	354
Sales rank:	485,458
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Brandon Royal is an award-winning writer whose educational authorship includes The Little Red Writing Book, The Little Gold Grammar Book, The Little Green Math Book, and The Little Blue Reasoning Book. During his tenure working in Hong Kong for US-based Kaplan Educational Centers – a Washington Post subsidiary and the largest test-preparation organization in the world – Brandon honed his theories of teaching and education and developed a set of key learning “principles” to help define the basics of writing, grammar, math, and reasoning. A Canadian by birth and graduate of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, his interest in writing began after completing writing courses at Harvard University. Since then he has authored a dozen books and reviews of his books have appeared in Time Asia magazine, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal of America, Midwest Book Review, The Asian Review of Books, Choice Reviews Online, Asia Times Online, and About.com. Brandon is a five-time winner of the International Book Awards, a five-time gold medalist at the President’s Book Awards, as well as a winner of the Global eBook Awards, the USA Book News “Best Book Awards,” and recipient of the 2011 “Educational Book of the Year” award as presented by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.

Table of Contents

Topics covered in this book include: Preface; Introduction; Part I – Structure (1. Write with a top-down approach, 2. Break things down, 3. Use transition words, 4. Review the six basic writing structures, 5. Keep like things together); Part II – Style (6. Support what you say, 7. Personalize your examples, 8. Keep it simple, 9. Cut down long sentences, 10. Eliminate needless words, 11. Gain active power, 12. Favor verbs, not nouns, 13. Use parallel forms 14. Capitalize on sentence variety, 15. Choose an appropriate tone, 16. Keep your writing gender neutral); Part III – Readability (17. Capitalize on layout and design, 18. Employ readability tools, 19. Use headings and headlines, 20. Go back and rework your writing); Part IV – Grammar (100-question quiz, grammatical munchkins, word gremlins, 30 all-star grammar problems); Appendix I – Summary of the 20 Writing Principles and the 40 Rules of Grammar; Appendix II – Editing Tune-up; Appendix III – Punctuation Highlights; Appendix IV – American English vs. British English; Appendix V – Traditional Writing vs. Digital Writing; Selected Bibliography; Index; About the Author

Editorial Reviews

"Appropriate for its audience of ambitious students and professionals - those who have plenty of brains, but need a little brush-up with the pen."--Publishers Weekly Online Reviews

From the Publisher