4 ms·

Note, Joseph M. Williams now has 3 different 'Style' books: Style: Toward Clarity and Grace Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace Style: The Basics of Clarity

Note, Joseph M. Williams now has 3 different 'Style' books: Style: Toward Clarity and Grace Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace I can't speak to the first 2, but I purchased the 3rd and found it to be excellent.

tptacek 16y ago
... Toward ... is the one I have, and every time I reread it I feel like I should find a way to transcribe it into emacs lisp.
- akkartik 16y ago
  Hmm, you mean have emacs warn you when you violate the guidelines?
  - tptacek 16y ago
    Yeah, or give metrics. There should be a startup in here. Paste bad writing in. Get good writing out. Improve income by 30%.
- telemachos 16y ago
  Have you seen the post 3 shell scripts to improve your writing, or "My Ph.D. advisor rewrote himself in bash."? It's Bash, not Emacs Lisp, but you might still enjoy it. Post: http://matt.might.net/articles/shell-scripts-for-passive-voice-weasel-words-duplicates/ http://matt.might.net/articles/shell-scripts-for-passive-voi... HN discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1529166 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1529166
telemachos 16y ago
When I was a TA, this book was in very heavy use across departments as a recommended add-on for undergrad classes. (Say you're teaching Roman Civilization. You plan to assign at least 2 papers and probably also some short writing assignments. Recommend the Williams, prod them towards it, and discuss it a little - even if you don't have tons of time in your class to teach writing.) All great, and I liked the book quite a lot. However, the publisher decided to max out on the book's popularity. First, there were quickly about 4-6 (slightly different) versions of it in print, all at the same time. Second, they would release a new version of the main edition (Style: Toward Clarity and Grace) every year. Once they realized it was a textbook, the price leapt up and up. I suppose it's just supply and demand, but it made it very hard to get students to buy the book (once it went from $10 or $12 to $35), if it was recommended and not required. tl;dr Buy the 1995 edition for $8.93 on Amazon, not the 10th edition for $35. I'm reasonably confident that the essential advice and meat of the book is the same.

tptacek 16y ago

... Toward ... is the one I have, and every time I reread it I feel like I should find a way to transcribe it into emacs lisp.

akkartik 16y ago
Hmm, you mean have emacs warn you when you violate the guidelines?
- tptacek 16y ago
  Yeah, or give metrics. There should be a startup in here. Paste bad writing in. Get good writing out. Improve income by 30%.
telemachos 16y ago
Have you seen the post 3 shell scripts to improve your writing, or "My Ph.D. advisor rewrote himself in bash."? It's Bash, not Emacs Lisp, but you might still enjoy it. Post: http://matt.might.net/articles/shell-scripts-for-passive-voice-weasel-words-duplicates/ http://matt.might.net/articles/shell-scripts-for-passive-voi... HN discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1529166 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1529166

telemachos 16y ago

When I was a TA, this book was in very heavy use across departments as a recommended add-on for undergrad classes. (Say you're teaching Roman Civilization. You plan to assign at least 2 papers and probably also some short writing assignments. Recommend the Williams, prod them towards it, and discuss it a little - even if you don't have tons of time in your class to teach writing.) All great, and I liked the book quite a lot. However, the publisher decided to max out on the book's popularity. First, there were quickly about 4-6 (slightly different) versions of it in print, all at the same time. Second, they would release a new version of the main edition (Style: Toward Clarity and Grace) every year. Once they realized it was a textbook, the price leapt up and up. I suppose it's just supply and demand, but it made it very hard to get students to buy the book (once it went from $10 or $12 to $35), if it was recommended and not required. tl;dr Buy the 1995 edition for $8.93 on Amazon, not the 10th edition for $35. I'm reasonably confident that the essential advice and meat of the book is the same.