A Review of Books on Writing From The Brisbane Times

 Precision not pedantry: how to become a better writer reviews:

Writely or Wrongly: An Unstuffy Guide to Language Stuff
Joanne Anderson; illus., Matt Golding
Murdoch Books, $29.99

Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World
Todd Rogers & Jessica Lasky-Fink
Scribe, $32.99

They may be only found in Australia, but what the reviewer has to say transcends borders. 

It is not easy to write well, and there is an inexhaustible supply of expert guidance to how we can do better when working with words. These books can be counted among the many useful writing guides out there. Two of the best-remembered pieces of advice on writing offered to me were received a long time ago from, respectively, a literature professor in Ireland and a former senior editor at The Age. Don’t show off, counselled the former, while the latter advised that you should try to find common ground with the reader no matter how different their perspective might be from yours.

The advice is echoed in these two books. The act of writing is solitary, yet it amounts to nothing without maximum engagement with readers. “Thinking of readers is the polite thing to do,” writes Joanne Anderson. “It’s also crucial.”

Which means I am as screwed as I always thought I was - I have no idea who would want to read what I have written! I have spent much time the past week doing research on a legal matter; I find I can still do that, as well as draft a legal pleading. I have a little disagreement for the person for whom I did the drafting: he is not paying attention to his audience. I did it as it would have been in the old days - a memo for a judge explaining clearly the intention is to appeal because the judge has clearly screwed up. No debating diction - the judge has the upper hand in that contest. It is also ready to be re-purposed for an appellate brief, where the audience wants to know the facts and the law in such a way that they can make a decision. Two different audiences who will (should?) read the memo differently - the trial judge will see it as a warning, and the appellate judges will see it as making their job easier.

Good advice here:

 In the end, writing and reading are inseparable acts. The process-driven approach to writing set out by Rogers and Lasky-Fink is intended to benefit writers at least as much as readers. “Effective writing is not a form of altruism for the reader, though it certainly makes the reader’s life easier. It is really a way for writers to clarify and distill their own goals, and to increase the likelihood that those goals are achieved.”

I wish I had knocked off an hour ago, so I could crack a book. As Jerry Lee Lewis used to say, “Think about it.”

sch 11/6