So You Want to Write! Tips and Pep Talks to Get You Started and Keep You on Track is the ideal starter text for newcomers to the profession.

The 50 essays on the writing craft in this book by Maeve [...]]]> Thanks to the ease of online publication, more people than ever are setting up shop as writers.

So You Want to Write! Tips and Pep Talks to Get You Started and Keep You on Track is the ideal starter text for newcomers to the profession.

The 50 essays on the writing craft in this book by Maeve Maddox originated as informal blog posts at DailyWritingTips.com/. Edited and updated for this print edition, they provide practical guidelines for the beginner, as well as useful reminders for veterans.

In Chapter One Maeve addresses questions that beset every writer:

How can you know if you’re really a writer?
What do writers read?
What is talent?
How do you find time to write?

Chapters Two to Seven offer definitions and discussions related to genre, the writing process, style, technique, and the mechanics of presentation.

Chapter Eight emphasizes the writer’s need for three essential tools: dictionary, thesaurus, and usage guide.

Chapter Nine provides five specialized vocabulary lists, including terms for writing about religion and crime.

Chapter Ten illustrates and discusses common errors of grammar and usage. Without condemning regional or ethnic speech patterns, Maeve focuses on standard American English and its usefulness to speakers and writers of all backgrounds.

So You Want to Write! is available from Amazon.

The ability to read serious literature or advanced non-fiction depends upon more than the ability [...]]]> Communication is more than a matter of words. Shared knowledge contributes to mutual understanding. For example, football and baseball metaphors may illuminate an argument for sports-minded American listeners, but only obscure it for listeners unacquainted with the games alluded to.

The ability to read serious literature or advanced non-fiction depends upon more than the ability to recognize words. True literacy requires a fund of common knowledge about the world and the world’s literary canon.

When an American college student complains that the writing of Martin Luther King, Jr. is “too hard,” something is missing from that student’s vocabulary and store of common knowledge.

I’ve decided to discontinue my fruitless rants and commentary on current affairs and stick to what I know something about. I shall in future devote this site to the transmission of vocabulary and the fund of common knowledge that enable a reader to interpret the allusions that writers of the past–and educated writers of the present–use to convey their thoughts.

Tomorrow’s post will focus on vocabulary and allusions in Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”