{"id":265,"date":"2011-11-13T12:34:16","date_gmt":"2011-11-13T17:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulbegley.com\/2011\/11\/things-im-reading-to-improve-my-writing\/"},"modified":"2011-11-13T12:34:16","modified_gmt":"2011-11-13T17:34:16","slug":"things-im-reading-to-improve-my-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/?p=265","title":{"rendered":"Things I\u2019m reading to improve my writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m re-reading some and I\u2019m sorry it took me this long to re-read them.&#160; With the volume of electronic communication we produce and consume daily, I believe it\u2019s more important than ever to be mindful of the use of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.&#160; Not only does this make you appear more competent (not smart, just not stupid), but it assures people read and understand what you are trying to say.&#160; <\/p>\n<p><em>The Elements of Style<\/em>, is under 100 pages including index, glossary, Introduction (E.B. White), and Afterword (Charles Osgood).&#160; It is a quick read and essential guide to English.&#160; The Introduction sums it up best:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>\u201cSeven rules of usage, eleven principles of composition, a few matters of form, and a list of words and expressions commonly misused \u2013 that was the sum and substance of Professor Strunk\u2019s work.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I recommend reading <em>The Elements of Style <\/em>first. It\u2019s concise, and offers the greatest benefit for the least amount of effort. Leave it in the bathroom, and set a reminder to re-read it every 3-4 months until you have incorporated it into your everyday communication.<\/p>\n<p>On Writing Well is a more comprehensive guide, and will require a bit more effort to read and process. This should still be left in the bathroom or bedside table.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk\/dp\/020530902X\" target=\"_blank\">The Elements of Style<\/a> \u2013 Strunk and White <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Writing-Well-30th-Anniversary-Nonfiction\/dp\/0060891548\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1321204353&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\">On Writing Well<\/a> \u2013 William Zinsser<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m re-reading some and I\u2019m sorry it took me this long to re-read them.&#160; With the volume of electronic communication we produce and consume daily, I believe it\u2019s more important than ever to be mindful of the use of capitalization, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/?p=265\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[36,53],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-personal","tag-education-2","tag-personal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YWFc-4h","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}