Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace reflects the wisdom and clear authorial voice of Williams' best-selling book, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, while streamlining every chapter to create a very brief, yet powerfully direct guide to writing with style. The concise clarity of this book makes it a quick and ideal guide for freshman composition courses, writing courses across the disciplines, and as a supporting text in courses that require clear and direct writing. Style: The Basics covers the elemental principles of writing that will help students diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of their prose quickly and revise effectively. The text features principles of effective prose written in Williams' hallmark conversational style, offering reason-based principles, rather than hard and fast rules, for successful, effective writing.

Table of Contents

Preface Lesson One: Understanding Style Lesson Two: Correctness Lesson Three: Actions Lesson Four: Characters Lesson Five: Cohesion and Coherence Lesson Six: Emphasis Lesson Seven: Concision Lesson Eight: Shape Lesson Nine: Elegance Lesson Ten: The Ethics of Style