About this item
Make Every Word Memorable!To be remembered for your words, you need to write with skill and style. Whether youre crafting a novel, composing an e-mail, or creating a technical report, Mastering the Craft of Writing presents 52 practical techniques to improve your prose. Spend a week with each technique, or use this book as a go-to reference. Either way, youll have the tools to enliven your writing and delight your readers.Write with economy Eliminate wordiness, use strong verbs to drive your sentences, and dont trust modifiers.Write with emphasis Use punctuation for effect, structure sentences and paragraphs for coherency and flow, and employ repetition to make your point.Write with distinction Use your imagination to create the unexpected, add a light-hearted touch to your writing, and go beyond clarity to eloquence and grace.
About the Author
Stephen Wilbers, Ph.D.
wilbe004@umn.edu
www.wilbers.com
About the Author
Stephen Wilbers is an award-winning author, columnist, and writing consultant who has presented seminars to more than 10,000 writers. His most recent book (published in April 2014) is "Mastering the Craft of Writing: How to Write with Clarity, Emphasis, and Style," a compilation of 52 techniques of style drawn from his free monthly writing tips that includes fun exercises and humorous commentary.
His earlier book on stylistic technique, "Keys to Great Writing," has been described as "a writing class in a book" that "breaks down general advice on what to do into practical steps on how to do it." His doctoral dissertation, a history of the renowned Iowa Writers' Workshop, was published by the University of Iowa Press in 1980. He has published two collections of his columns, "Writing for Business" (winner of a 1994 Minnesota Book Award) and "Writing by Wilbers."
He has also written three books about wilderness canoeing and has a fourth one on the way. The first, "This Northern Nonsense: Ernest Oberholtzer and Mallard Island," is a chapbook of poems about the legacy of the preservationist who helped save the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from development. "A Boundary Waters History: Canoeing Across Time" depicts efforts to preserve a remarkable wilderness on Minnesota's northern border while telling the story of canoeing for nearly 30 years with his father, and "Canoeing the Boundary Waters Wilderness: A Sawbill Log" continues the story of the challenges, dangers, and rewards of wilderness canoeing.
With Sawbill Canoe Outfitter Bill Hansen, he is currently writing a guidebook on how to enjoy wilderness canoeing, to be published by The History Press in the spring of 2015.
In addition, he has recently completed "A Grammatical Affair," a genre-breaking literary lark that offers writing instruction, memoir, and a wildly romantic love story in the form of a novel.
Dr. Wilbers earned his B.A. at Vanderbilt University and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Iowa. In 1979, as Director of the University of Iowa's Undergraduate Academic Advising Center, he established the university's first campus-wide advising program, and in 1985 he was a Visiting Fulbright Fellow at the University of Essex in Colchester, England. From 1981-88 he directed the University of Minnesota's Student Academic Support Services in the College of Liberal Arts, and in 1988-90 he served as Associate Director and Acting Director of the Program in Creative and Professional writing, where he worked with the creative writing faculty members Charlie Sugnet, Michael Dennis Brown, Patricia Hampl, and Alan Burns to establish a multi-section introduction to creative writing course that is still offered t
