In Point Made, Ross Guberman uses the work of great advocates as the basis of a valuable, step-by-step brief-writing and motion-writing strategy for practitioners. The author takes an empirical approach, drawing heavily on the writings of the nation's 50 most influential lawyers.

Good writers follow the rules. Great writers know the rules—and follow their instincts! Finding the right words, in the right order, matters—whether you’re a student embarking on an essay, a job applicant drafting your cover letter, an employee composing an email . . . even a (hopeful) lover writing a text. Do it wrong and you just might get an F, miss the interview, lose a client, or spoil your chance at a second date. Do it right, and the world is yours. In Write to the Point, accomplished author and literary critic Sam Leith kicks the age-old lists of dos and don’ts to the curb. Yes, he covers the nuts and bolts we need to be in complete command of the language: grammar, punctuation, parts of speech, and other subjects half-remembered from grade school. But more importantly, he charts a commonsense course between the “Armies of Correctness” and the “Descriptivist Irregulars.” For Leith, knowing not just the rules but also how and when to ignore them—developing an ear for what works best in context—is everything. In this master class, Leith teaches us a skill of paramount importance in this smartphone age, when we all carry a keyboard in our pockets: to write clearly and persuasively for any purpose—to write to the point.

Practical, proven techniques to make writing for business more effective and less stressful. Thanks to e-mail, voice mail, cell phones, pagers, and, of course, the ever-expanding Web, we live in an age of information overload. Although all these wonders were designed to make life and communication easier and faster, speed and efficiency have come with a price. Clear business writing has never been more difficult or stressful. Writers are expected to respond quickly to an endless flow of e-mail messages. Readers complain about an increasing lack of clarity along with an abundance of mechanical errors. Supervisors and managers are bewildered by employees’ inability to simply say what they mean and the lack of appropriate tone and sense of decorum in the written communications they produce. This book presents proven techniques developed in Dr. Iacone’s seminars that will enable greater ease, proficiency, and clarity in writing. The conversational, instructional format walks you through the actual stages of the writing process—from planning and writing the first draft, to editing and proofreading. This invaluable handbook also includes helpful guidelines to correct punctuation, lists of often-confused words, and step-by-step procedures for generating effective e-mail, memos, letters, and reports.

For those looking to become great business writers, this practical guide supplies clear instruction and examples of how to organize thoughts into written form, impart information with pinpoint accuracy, persuade, and hold the reader's interest: in short, to use language to get what you want. In today's business world, writers need to be prepared and comfortable with various forms of writing: reports, blogs, social media, white papers. Written by an established expert on writing and communication, journalism professor Carl D. Hausman, Write Like a Pro: Ten Techniques for Getting Your Point Across at Work (and in Life) can make you a better writer, regardless of your experience and current skill level; and will teach you how to vastly improve your written communication through a straightforward, easy-to-follow method. This book doesn't just cover the essential "mechanics" of good writing; it focuses on developing the more subtle skills of infusing your writing with eloquence, power, accuracy, and persuasiveness—and it shows readers how to achieve those qualities with no-nonsense advice. The information is highly accessible, sometimes amusing, and replete with memorable examples that demonstrate what works and teaches a strategy for solving any writing problem. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to write effectively, in any form, from emails to complaint letters to social media.

In Point Taken, Ross Guberman delves into the work of the best judicial opinion-writers and offers a step-by-step method based on practical and provocative examples. Featuring numerous cases and opinions from 34 esteemed judges - from Learned Hand to Antonin Scalia - Point Taken, explores what it takes to turn "great judicial writing" into "great writing". Guberman provides a system for crafting effective and efficient openings to set the stage, covering the pros and cons of whether to resolve legal issues up front and whether to sacrifice taut syllogistic openings in the name of richness and nuance. Guberman offers strategies for pruning clutter, adding background, emphasizing key points, adopting a narrative voice, and guiding the reader through visual cues. The structure and flow of the legal analysis is targeted through a host of techniques for organizing the discussion at the macro level, using headings, marshaling authorities, including or avoiding footnotes, and finessing transitions. Guberman shares his style "Must Haves", a bounty of edits at the word and sentence level that add punch and interest, and that make opinions more vivid, varied, confident, and enjoyable. He also outlines his style "Nice to Haves", metaphors, similes, examples, analogies, allusions, and rhetorical figures. Finally, he addresses the thorny problem of dissents, extracting the best practices for dissents based on facts, doctrine, or policy. The appendix provides a helpful checklist of practice pointers along with biographies of the 34 featured judges.

All students and professors need to write, and many struggle to finish their stalled dissertations, journal articles, book chapters, or grant proposals. Writing is hard work and can be difficult to wedge into a frenetic academic schedule. In this practical, light-hearted, and encouraging book, Paul Silvia explains that writing productively does not require innate skills or special traits but specific tactics and actions. Drawing examples from his own field of psychology, he shows readers how to overcome motivational roadblocks and become prolific without sacrificing evenings, weekends, and vacations. After describing strategies for writing productively, the author gives detailed advice from the trenches on how to write, submit, revise, and resubmit articles, how to improve writing quality, and how to write and publish academic work.

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times

This book provides you with all the tools you need to write an excellent academic article and get it published.

Jeffrey Gitomer¿s The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way digs deep into the 9.5 elements that make persuasion, and getting your way, happen. By breaking down the elements, the reader will begin to understand, take action, become proficient, and then master the ability to persuade. Because persuasion occurs in so many different areas of life and business, Gitomer leads the reader from mental readiness to the principles of getting your way and the power that persuasion offers. He challenges the reader to prepare before they present, to prepare before they try to persuade. He demonstrates how to change a presentation into a performance and shows how this can be done in any environment.But because persuasion most often takes place in business, he draws special emphasis to the reader¿s ability to write and sell persuasively. The book talks about the persistence that enables winning persuasion. He brings the Benjamin Franklin quote ¿If at first you don¿t succeed, try, try again¿ to the Gitomer level of ¿You only fail when you decide to quit,¿ and the book ends challenging the reader how to think about excellence and eloquence. It will be up to the reader to take advantage of the opportunity and harness the power.

Rhetoric gives our words the power to inspire. But it's not just for politicians: it's all around us, whether you're buttering up a key client or persuading your children to eat their greens. You have been using rhetoric yourself, all your life. After all, you know what a rhetorical question is, don't you? In this updated edition of his classic guide, Sam Leith traces the art of argument from ancient Greece down to its many modern mutations. He introduces verbal villains from Hitler to Donald Trump - and the three musketeers: ethos, pathos and logos. He explains how rhetoric works in speeches from Cicero to Richard Nixon, and pays tribute to the rhetorical brilliance of AC/DC's "Back In Black". Before you know it, you'll be confident in chiasmus and proud of your panegyrics - because rhetoric is useful, relevant and absolutely nothing to be afraid of.