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Book

Simple and Direct

by Jacques Barzun

See its constellation

Published
1975
Genre
Nonfiction
Pages
288
URL
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58239.Simple_and_Direct?ref=nav_sb_ss_2_17

Reading measures

Suggested reading age
ages 17–18
Ambleside year
Year 12 onwards · ages 17–20

An Ambleside year is a year of the Ambleside Online programme, not a reader's age. Year 0 is its first year, and a book used over several years shows the span. The ages beside it are that band offered two grades up and none down, which is how we offer a band; they are a placement, not a reading measure.

After a lifetime of writing and editing prose, Jacques Barzun has set down his view of the best ways to improve one's style. His discussions of diction, syntax, tone, meaning, composition, and revision guide the reader through the technique of making the written word clear and agreeable to read. Exercises, model passages both literary and casual, and hundreds of amusing examples of usage gone wrong show how to choose the right path to self-expression in forceful and distinctive words.

Tags

EditingGrammarLiteratureWriting