How to Be Your Own Best Editor : The Toolkit for Everyone Who Writes

by Tarshis, Barry

• ISBN13: 9780517883662
• ISBN10: 051788366X
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1998-10-01
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press

Summary

A hip, unpretentious, and easy-to-follow guide to editing your own work--or the work of others--more objectively, more efficiently, and with greater precision.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(7)
1. Get into the Right Mind Set	8	(6)
2. Set Priorities	14	(15)
3. Bone Up on the Fundamentals	29	(7)
4. Make Sure the Words Say What You Want Them to Mean	36	(12)
5. "Umbrella-ize" the Ideas in Your Paragraphs	48	(8)
6. Let Your Readers Know What's Coming	56	(7)
7. Be Paranoid About Pronouns	63	(8)
8. Put Modifiers in Their Place	71	(8)
9. Zero in on Subjects and Their Verbs	79	(9)
10. Get the Most Out of Verbs	88	(9)
11. Make Sure Your Voice Is in Good Shape	97	(7)
12. Cut What You Don't Need, but Don't Go Overboard	104	(11)
13. Use Sentence Structure to Control Emphasis	115	(17)
14. Keep Your Readers in the Loop	132	(11)
15. Use Signposts to Smooth Out the Reader's Ride	143	(15)
16. Create Mini-umbrellas for Complex Information	158	(8)
17. Put Parallelism into Practice	166	(9)
18. Know When--and How--to Combine	175	(22)
Afterthoughts	197