The Reader's Brain: How Neuroscience Can Make You a Better Writer

by Yellowlees Douglas

Overview

Have you ever found yourself re-reading the same sentence four or five times and thought 'I should get more sleep'? Are you clueless as to why one paragraph just seems to 'flow' while you simply can't recall the contents of another? Guess what: you are not alone. Even the best writers fail to grasp why their writing works. The Reader's Brain is the first science-based guide to writing, employing cutting-edge research on how our minds process written language, to ensure your writing can be read quickly, assimilated easily, and recalled precisely - exactly what we need to transform anyone into a highly effective writer. Using the 5Cs - clarity, continuity, coherence, concision, and cadence - this book combines irreverent humour with easy-to-follow principles that will make readers perceive your sentences, paragraphs, and documents to be clear, concise, and effective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107496507
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/11/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	225
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Yellowlees Douglas is Associate Professor of Management Communication at the University of Florida.

Table of Contents

1. So much advice, so much lousy writing; 2. The new science of writing; 3. Choosing words and structuring sentences: the first C: clarity; 4. Putting sentences together: the second C: continuity; 5. Organizing paragraphs and documents: the third C: coherence; 6. Maximizing efficiency: the fourth C: concision; 7. Making music with words: the fifth C: cadence; Supplement: everything you ever wanted to know about grammar, punctuation, and usage – and never learned.

Editorial Reviews

"There is a lot to like in this book, not least the pragmatic examples, acerbic humor, and insights into why some writing is impenetrable."
Vint Cerf, internet pioneer and Vice President, Google

"Be warned: if you read this book, you’ll see how flawed your writing is. But take heart too, because if you follow Douglas’ advice, those flaws will start to disappear. Her bracing, mordant and lucid words show that good writing is a skill you can learn - and that the best way to do it is not to defer to grammarians and style gurus but to understand what goes on in the mind of the reader. In other words, you should write to be read. This book offers some of the best advice on writing that I have seen, whether you are writing a legal document or an email to your mother."
Philip Ball, science writer and author of The Music Instinct

"This book is desperately needed across great swaths of corporate America and should be taught at every level from K-12 to graduate schools."
Andrew Hargadon, Soderquist Chair in Entrepreneurship, Graduate School of Management, University of California, Davis

From the Publisher

08/01/2015
Douglas (management communication, Univ. of Florida) explains that most writing guides cover grammar and content but say little or nothing about structure. How we build our sentences is important, explains the author, because the best writing conforms to the patterns with which our brains interpret what we read. We can understand sentences in which the grammatical subject and the verb are at the beginning, for example, so it's recommended to pen sentences that way. Chapters address five Cs: clarity, continuity, coherence, concision, and cadence. The advice—which includes compelling discussions on the neuroscience of reading—can get quite involved, but readers who want only a little at a time can use the chapter divisions and index to find what they need, making the book great as a reference or a narrative read. Sprinkled throughout are boxed "expert tips," and each chapter ends with a short list of "takeaways." Closing the presentation is a handy grammar, punctuation, and usage supplement. VERDICT This writing guide with a difference can help even seasoned authors make their work easier on readers.—Henrietta Verma, Library Journal

Library Journal