Writing is hard but liberating. As a kid, I used to think that long, complicated sentences and fancy words made good writing. Obviously, they do not! Good writing is concise and simple. One powerful book that extolls the necessity to be consise and simple is William Strunk's ``Elements of Style''. It is a great book for writers of all levels. Let me give you a small excerpt from the book to illustrate the power of concise writing :
``Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.''
- William Strunk, Elements of Style
 

True to E. B. White's comments on the above paragraph, ``... fifty-nine words that could change the world'', those fifty-nine words by Strunk changed my writing world forever. If you have not yet read this book, please pick up a copy and read. You will not be disappointed (promise!). You can also read it for free here.

It is sad that writing techniques are rarely taught in professional education. We are taught many things that we may never use but not the one thing that we will definitely need. Irrespective of our job, we will be required to write. Good news is, good writing can be learnt.

There are many great books and short articles that teach the craft of good writing. In fact, there are so many books that you may not always find the right ones. All I am doing here is to point you in the right direction. I do not claim these books that I have listed here are the best. I think they are good. I stumbled upon most of the books listed below in other books by successful authors.

Books on Writing

  1. Elements of Style, William Strunk & E. B. White
  2. Writing on Both sides of the Brain, Henriette A Klouser (great tips for getting around writer's block)
  3. On Writing Well, William Zinsser
  4. The Craft of Scientific Writing, Michael Alley
  5. Publishing for Tenure and Beyond, Franklin H. Silverman
  6. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss (a witty book on punctuation)
  7. Simple and direct : A Rhetoric for writers, Jacques Barzun
  8. Writing for professional publication, Kenneth T. Henson
  9. Scientists must Write, Robert Barrass
  10. Effective writing for Engineers Managers Scientists, H. J. Tichy
  11. Handbook for academic authors, Beth Luey
  12. The MLA's Line by Line, How to edit your own writing, Claire K Cook
Try the books in bold if you want to quick start your writing.

The tools for writing are better dealt in a separate section. You can find useful links under LaTeX.

 

Visitors during September 2007.

Visitors for Sep-2007