Professor Selina Todd argues that you can be taught to write well, as demonstrated by American and Australian university students. Plus letters from Christopher Dodd and Anthony OrmsonIan Jack’s wariness towards writing manuals and classes is a peculiarly British response to teaching this craft (So you want to write better sentences than Jane Austen?, 27 May. While visiting Australian universities a few years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the fluency and clarity of the (history) students’ prose. It turned out they were taught to write – not by rote learning grammar, which is the only form of pedagogy recognised by the current British government, but in lively writing workshops that encouraged them to believe that anyone, given time and hard work, could write well. Conversations with American colleagues revealed a similar mindset and introduced me to the American writer William Zinsser, whose book On Writing Well I recommend to all my students. Zinsser’s democratic premise is that good writing is the result of hard work, not innate “talent”. That’s a radical realisation for many British students, brought up with the gentlemanly myth that talent is hereditary, effortless and looks a lot like a public schoolboy.It is no coincidence that Zinsser spent part of his career at the New School in New York, the self-declared “comprehensive university”. In Britain, the adult education movement, including the Workers’ Educational Association, and the Open University, has... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 17/03/2011 - 15:57 Luke Johnson, best known in the book trade for his spell owning Borders, and fellow Financial Times journalist Mrs Moneypenny are writing business titles for Penguin's business imprint Portfolio. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 10/03/2011 - 15:22 Christian book wholesaler STL Distribution is cutting a quarter of its 124-strong workforce following poor sales. The Carlisle-based company said 30 positions will be affected, with only around 5% of employees opting for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 07/03/2011 - 09:14 HMV Group has moved to reassure publishers of Waterstone's future, revealing the bookseller is on track to achieve its predicted 2%3% operating margin by the end of its financial year. Tuesday's [1st March] trading statement... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Little, Brown imprint Sphere has acquired a "shocking" debut novel about the murder of a little girl. Editorial director Catherine Burke acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) including audio and ebook in The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood from Laetitia... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After a month of negotiations, Hearst has made an offer to buy 102 magazine titles from the French publisher. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Puffin is to publish a new picture book by The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle, his first in four years. The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse will be published in October 2011, in a global, simultaneous publication with Philomel, a Penguin Young Readers... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones The system of lending one ebook per library user works for authors, agents, booksellers and librarians, a session at Digital Book World discussing the sector heard yesterday. At the session, entitled 'Where Do Libraries Fit Into the Ecosystem?', publishers were... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 1919, the young E.B. White, future New Yorker writer and author of Charlotte's Web, took a class at Cornell University with a drill sergeant of an English professor named William Strunk Jr. Strunk assigned his self-published manual on composition titled "The Elements of Style," a 43-page list... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2011-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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