How to Take the Fog Out of Business Writing


Book Description

"How to Take the Fog Out of Business Writing" shows you how to save time, money, and energy for your business. It introduces you to The 10 Principles of Clear Statement; 24 simple ways to lift fog and improve your writing; the Fog Index scale; and how to measure the complexity of your writing. Plus, 18 of the most commonly asked questions about business writing and helpful clear writing exercises to help you sharpen your business writing skills.







Knitting the Fog


Book Description

Weaving together narrative essay and bilingual poetry, Claudia D. Hernández’s lyrical debut follows her tumultuous adolescence as she crisscrosses the American continent: a book "both timely and aesthetically exciting in its hybridity" (The Millions). Seven-year-old Claudia wakes up one day to find her mother gone, having left for the United States to flee domestic abuse and pursue economic prosperity. Claudia and her two older sisters are taken in by their great aunt and their grandmother, their father no longer in the picture. Three years later, her mother returns for her daughters, and the family begins the month-long journey to El Norte. But in Los Angeles, Claudia has trouble assimilating: she doesn’t speak English, and her Spanish sticks out as “weird” in their primarily Mexican neighborhood. When her family returns to Guatemala years later, she is startled to find she no longer belongs there either. A harrowing story told with the candid innocence of childhood, Hernández’s memoir depicts a complex self-portrait of the struggle and resilience inherent to immigration today.




How to Take the Fog Out of Business


Book Description

"How to Take the Fog Out of Business Writing" shows you how to save time, money, and energy for your business. It introduces you to The 10 Principles of Clear Statement; 24 simple ways to lift fog and improve your writing; the Fog Index scale; and how to measure the complexity of your writing. Plus, 18 of the most commonly asked questions about business writing and helpful clear writing exercises to help you sharpen your business writing skills.




Editor-Proof Your Writing


Book Description

Veteran editor Don McNair lays out an easy-to-follow and systematic method for clearing up foggy writing--writing that's full of extra, misused, and overused words--in this guide to producing sparkling copy that attracts readers, agents, editors, and sales. McNair explains the common mistakes made by most writers and shows how eliminating unnecessary words strengthens action, shorten sentences, and makes writing crackle with life. Containing 21 simple, straightforward principles, ""Editor-Proof Your Writing"" teaches how to edit weak verb forms, strip away author intrusions, ban redundancies, eliminate foggy phrases, correct passive-voice sentences, slash misused and overused words, and fix other writing mistakes. A superb addition to any writer's toolkit, this book will not only make writing clearer and more grammatical, it will also make it more concise, entertaining, and appealing to publishers.




Do I Make Myself Clear?


Book Description

A wise and entertaining guide to writing English the proper way by one of the greatest newspaper editors of our time. Harry Evans has edited everything from the urgent files of battlefield reporters to the complex thought processes of Henry Kissinger. He's even been knighted for his services to journalism. In Do I Make Myself Clear?, he brings his indispensable insight to us all in his definite guide to writing well. The right words are oxygen to our ideas, but the digital era, with all of its TTYL, LMK, and WTF, has been cutting off that oxygen flow. The compulsion to be precise has vanished from our culture, and in writing of every kind we see a trend towards more -- more speed and more information but far less clarity. Evans provides practical examples of how editing and rewriting can make for better communication, even in the digital age. Do I Make Myself Clear? is an essential text, and one that will provide every writer an editor at his shoulder.




Writing Through the Fog


Book Description

Ronayne began struggling with MS-related brain fog more than a decade ago, and relearning to write became her obsession. In the years since, she's discovered and cultivated a number of tricks to keep a muddied writing mind - whether from brain fog or not - on track and energized.In Writing through the Fog, you'll learn how to: Re-frame your attitudes toward brain fog and writing Find and use the inspiration that's all around you Determine your optimal writing times Harness small windows of clarity and creativity Work with your foggy brain to develop routines that work for you Set up a writing space that helps you realize your writing goals Banish distractions And much more Learn how to stay focused while you pen the great American novel - or a simple birthday card to your cousin. If you feel that brain fog has forced you to give up writing, but the urge to create hasn't gone away, this book is for you. Cognitive issues don't have to be the end of your writing. You still have the same abilities you've always had; the process just requires a different approach these days. With patience, persistence and a healthy dose of humor, you can reclaim the writing life you once took for granted.What About Writer's Block? If you don't have brain fog but you feel unable to produce the same kind of writing you once did, this book is also for you. Aging brains, overwhelming schedules, a life of distractions and an inability to focus on our writing lives can be just as maddening as dealing with fog caused by chronic illness or medications. No matter how large or small your writing project, Writing through the Fog will help you reach the end of it with your sanity intact.




Aug 9—Fog


Book Description

"The searing strokes of this book remind me of the infinitude inside every life." --Leslie Jamison Paris Review Staff Pick, one of Chicago Tribune's 25 Hot Books of Summer, and one of The A.V. Club's 15 Most Anticipated Books of 2019 A stark, elegiac account of unexpected pleasures and the progress of seasons Fifteen years ago, Kathryn Scanlan found a stranger’s five-year diary at an estate auction in a small town in Illinois. The owner of the diary was eighty-six years old when she began recording the details of her life in the small book, a gift from her daughter and son-in-law. The diary was falling apart—water-stained and illegible in places—but magnetic to Scanlan nonetheless. After reading and rereading the diary, studying and dissecting it, for the next fifteen years she played with the sentences that caught her attention, cutting, editing, arranging, and rearranging them into the composition that became Aug 9—Fog (she chose the title from a note that was tucked into the diary). “Sure grand out,” the diarist writes. “That puzzle a humdinger,” she says, followed by, “A letter from Lloyd saying John died the 16th.” An entire state of mourning reveals itself in “2 canned hams.” The result of Scanlan’s collaging is an utterly compelling, deeply moving meditation on life and death. In Aug 9—Fog, Scanlan’s spare, minimalist approach has a maximal emotional effect, remaining with the reader long after the book ends. It is an unclassifiable work from a visionary young writer and artist—a singular portrait of a life revealed by revision and restraint.