A former managing editor of the "Oregonian" who guided several Pulitzer Prize-winning narratives to publication shares guidelines for writers of nonfiction that encompass such topics as story theory, scene establishment, and preparing work for submission.

Today's researchers have access to more information than ever before. Yet the new material is both overwhelming in quantity and variable in quality. How can scholars survive these twin problems and produce groundbreaking research using the physical and electronic resources available in the modern university research library? In “Digital Paper”, Andrew Abbott provides some much-needed answers to that question. Abbott tells what every senior researcher...

For students, scientists, journalists and others, a comprehensive guide to communicating data clearly and effectively. Acclaimed by scientists, journalists, faculty, and students, “The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers” has helped thousands communicate data clearly and effectively. It offers a much-needed bridge between good quantitative analysis and clear expository writing, using straightforward principles and efficient prose. With this...

Q. Is it happy medium or happy median? My author writes: We would all be much better served as stewards of finite public funds if we could find that happy median where trust reigns supreme. Thanks! A. The idiom is happy medium, but I like the image of commuters taking refuge from road rage on the happy median. Q. How do I write a title of a song in the body of the work (caps, bold, underline, italics, etc.)? Example: The Zombies Shes Not There looped...

The author of The Chicago Manual of Style's popular "Grammar and Usage" chapter, Bryan A. Garner is renowned for explaining the vagaries of English with absolute precision and utmost clarity. With The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation, he has written the definitive guide for writers who want their prose to be both memorable and correct. Garner describes standard literary English-the forms that mark writers and speakers as educated...

For more than a decade, writers have turned to William Germano for his insider's take on navigating the world of scholarly publishing. A professor, author, and thirty-year veteran of the book industry, Germano knows what editors want and what writers need to know to get their work published. Today there are more ways to publish than ever, and more challenges to traditional publishing. This ever-evolving landscape brings more confusion for authors...

Do your sentences sag? Could your paragraphs use a pick-me-up? If so, “The Writer's Diet” is for you! It's a short, sharp introduction to great writing that will help you energize your prose and boost your verbal fitness. Helen Sword dispenses with excessive explanations and overwrought analysis. Instead, she offers an easy-to-follow set of writing principles: use active verbs whenever possible; favor concrete language over vague abstractions;...

Will Dunne first brought the workshop experience down to the desk level with “The Dramatic Writer's Companion”, offering practical exercises to help playwrights and screenwriters work through the problems that arise in developing their scripts. Now writers looking to further enhance their storytelling process can turn to Character, Scene, and Story. Featuring forty-two new workshop-tested exercises, this sequel to “The Dramatic Writer's Companion”...

Spark your creativity, hone your writing, and improve your scripts with the self-contained character, scene, and story exercises found in this classic guide. Having spent decades working with dramatists to refine and expand their existing plays and screenplays, Dunne effortlessly blends condensed dramatic theory with specific action steps-over sixty workshop-tested exercises that can be adapted to virtually any individual writing process and dramatic...

Each year, tens of thousands of students who are interested in politics go through a rite of passage: they take a course in research methods. Many find the subject to be boring or confusing, and with good reason. Most of the standard books on research methods fail to highlight the most important concepts and questions. Instead, they brim with dry technical definitions and focus heavily on statistical analysis, slighting other valuable methods. This...