The How to Write series aims to give students a recipe of sorts for creating excellent creative and academic prose and poetry. Each book is constructed as a set of instructions that are meant to illuminate the writing process, eliminating the mystery that so many other books seem to celebrate. Our belief is that writing well is a skill all students can learn, if they have the right guidance along the way.
Many of the editions by this group of authors are actually guides to books rather than the works.
If the author of the SparkNotes is known, they should be the first author. Please leave these SparkNotes Editors as the second author and the author of the original work as the last author. Do not combine with the original work. Do not put the author of the ORIGINAL work first.
This was a tough read, only because it is not meant to be read cover to cover—which I did. As painstaking as it was, reading the book in its entirety was worth every second. I now have a much firmer grasp on English style and grammar. In fact, I will assign myself to read this once each year.
This is an excellent reference book to keep handy for quick and clear refreshers.
This book was a pretty good basic style guide. It's not a universal guide, but it has all the standard grammar and style rules that apply to most types of writing, and it has some pretty good examples and explanations. Most of the entries are pretty short, though, and I think some of them would be better if they were a little longer. Overall, though, I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants some refreshing on the basics or if someone wants a pocket guide to keep near their desk to quickly check things.