Can You Recommend Some Good Books For Improving My Writing Please?

[Jonathan 2.0]

Hello Warriors.

I'm looking for books on being a good writer and improving my writing skills. Mainly I'm looking for print books from Amazon and the like however if you have any information products to recommend then I'd be happy to hear about them also. What are the best and most popular ones? Which ones have you found helpful? Where should I invest my money?

Cheers!

[itsliz]

The answer depends on what kind of writing you will be doing? Sales copy? Articles? Press releases?

There are plenty of good books on writing, but if you have a specific type of writing in mind, I've found the best way to improve your skills is to get specialized training on that particular type of writing.

[Loren Woirhaye]

Stephen King, "On Writing"
Strunk & White "The Elements of Style"

[Jonathan 2.0]

Originally Posted by itsliz

The answer depends on what kind of writing you will be doing? Sales copy? Articles? Press releases?

There are plenty of good books on writing, but if you have a specific type of writing in mind, I've found the best way to improve your skills is to get specialized training on that particular type of writing.

They'll be for creating information reports however I want them to be more professionally written rather than a friendly "me to you" style of writing.

Thank you for the suggestions so far.

[Gringo]

Why not take a class at the community college?

[summer07]

For writing, my favorite is "Writing With Power" by Peter Elbow. He teaches a technique called "free writing", which also happens to be great for getting unstuck from writer's block. I thought it would only work for "creative" writing (like novels and short stories), but it works surprisingly well for non-fiction writing (like writing articles).

For research techniques, I like "The Curious Researcher" by Bruce Ballenger. His method of making notes while researching seems to make articles and reports write themselves.

Two other things that help:

• Write a lot, then write some more, then keep writing....
• Read a lot of examples of the type of writing you want to do. (Reading anything by Paul Myers or Paul Hancox -- among several others here in the Warrior Forum -- is excellent for those of us who write and market.)

Enjoy!

[Jonathan 2.0]

Thanks Summer. The Curious Researcher sounds like exactly like what I'm looking for (in terms of preparation) because I'll be doing a lot of research.

And Gringo taking a class is definitely a good idea. At the moment I'm mostly looking for books/information/advice that I can start learning and practicing within the next month or so.

[Dave777]

Ken Evoy and Joe Robson's make your words sell! Written awhile back but still an excellent resource and Free is hard to beat...
Make Your Words Sell!

Dave

[Gringo]

Np Zig after reading my own post it comes off sounding rude as all heck and That is not what I ment. Sorry beer and forum writing are not a good mix. But drinking beer is what this soldier does best

[Jonathan 2.0]

You shouldn't have told me that Gringo. I thought it was a good suggestion. Still, I appreciate you being honest. Good suggestion Dave. That's a book about selling (rather than creating information reports) but useful nonetheless.

[Paul Myers]

Figure out the style you want, and read a lot of it. Or, just go with the style you already read a lot of, which is probably going to be more authentic.

Along with that, I strongly recommend that everyone get - and read - at least two collections of Dave Barry's columns. Any man who regularly writes about boogers and still wins a Pulitzer prize has something to teach you about keeping it real.

He's also in a rock band with Stephen King.


Paul

[ashwinsatyanarayana]

I Agree with Loren here...

Stephen King, "On Writing"
Strunk & White "The Elements of Style"

You could also try

" On writing Well" by William Zinsser

My Suggestion would also be to read a lot. Reading books written by good authors has a way to improve your writing skills too.

[gharold]

Not a book recommendation...but a helpful technique.
Find an excellently written sales letter.
Preferably one that has proven the test of time and sold millions of dollars of products and services.
Copy it verbatim in your hand writing everyday for 30 days in a row.
You will be absolutely amazed.

[Woody C]

I taught Enlgish as a Second Language and two books I would recommend are

Woe Is I by Patricia T. O'Connor (for grammar)
Amazon.com: Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to...
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (for ideas, general experience, inspiration)
Amazon.com: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the...
I hope this helps.