
The Elements of Writing
(14 book series)
Kindle Edition
From Book 1:
In his work as a writing professor at Columbia, Yale, and other schools—and in writing seminars all over the country—Charles Euchner has developed a sure-fire trick to guide writing at all levels—from the sentence to the paragraph to the section to the whole piece.
By using this simple, intuitive rule, with short case studies to show how it’s done, The Golden Rule of Writing gives you a simple process for writing everything better and faster—right away.
In this book, you’ll discover:
Never again should you get tangled in your own prose. When you “learn and burn” this skill, you can instantly improve your writing. If you like clear instruction, with instructive case studies and a dash of humor, you’ll love Charlie Euchner’s powerful—and simple—system for raising your writing skills in the time it takes to read this short guide.
All you need to do is follow the format Euchner offers. The rest is up to you. BuyThe Golden Rule of Writing today to master the simplest, most powerful trick in writing well.About the Author
Do you struggle to start and organize your writing projects? Do you sometimes go off the track, writing sentences and paragraphs that confuse even you? Are you looking for a simple “hack” that can improve your writing—right away?
Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned professional, author and teacher Charles Euchner’s book shows you how to use a simple eight-word imperative—called the Golden Rule of Writing—to write with clarity and verve at all levels. This trick will save you hundreds of hours—and save your readers unnecessary confusion about what the heck you’re trying to say.In his work as a writing professor at Columbia, Yale, and other schools—and in writing seminars all over the country—Charles Euchner has developed a sure-fire trick to guide writing at all levels—from the sentence to the paragraph to the section to the whole piece.
By using this simple, intuitive rule, with short case studies to show how it’s done, The Golden Rule of Writing gives you a simple process for writing everything better and faster—right away.
In this book, you’ll discover:
- Why every level of writing—sentence, paragraph, section, and whole piece—is a “journey” that takes the reader from one “place” to another different “place.”
- How you can create a simple shortcut to create the “journeys” of your documents by “starting strong” and “finishing strong.”
- How to use a simple hack, called the Landscape View, to check every piece of writing—easily identifying whatever problems a draft might have.
- How to “toggle” back and forth from the standard “block” view to the “landscape” view of your document.
- How to apply the Golden Rule of Writing to give every piece of writing dramatic power as well as clarity—so you never get lost writing your piece … and the audience never gets lost reading it.
Never again should you get tangled in your own prose. When you “learn and burn” this skill, you can instantly improve your writing. If you like clear instruction, with instructive case studies and a dash of humor, you’ll love Charlie Euchner’s powerful—and simple—system for raising your writing skills in the time it takes to read this short guide.
All you need to do is follow the format Euchner offers. The rest is up to you. BuyThe Golden Rule of Writing today to master the simplest, most powerful trick in writing well.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing. Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics. A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups. Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D.
You've subscribed to The Elements of Writing!
We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
There was an error.
We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.
Get the series on Kindle
There are 14 books in this series.
Select the number of items you want to purchase.
Items
See included books
Get the series on Kindle
There are 14 books in this series.
Select the number of items you want to purchase.
Items
Kindle price
$7.97
$13.95
$27.90
$36.87
+ applicable tax
By clicking on "Buy now" you agree to Amazon's Kindle Store Terms of Use
Sold by:
Amazon.com Services LLC
Additional items, like pre-orders, may be ordered individually
Items included:
Something went wrong.
Kindle price
$7.97
$13.95
$27.90
$36.87
+ applicable tax
By clicking on "Buy now" you agree to Amazon's Kindle Store Terms of Use
Sold by:
Amazon.com Services LLC
Additional items, like pre-orders, may be ordered individually
Books in this series (14 books)
1
Do you struggle to start and organize your writing projects? Do you sometimes go off the track, writing sentences and paragraphs that confuse even you? Are you looking for a simple “hack” that can improve your writing—right away?
Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned professional, author and teacher Charles Euchner’s book shows you how to use a simple eight-word imperative—called the Golden Rule of Writing—to write with clarity and verve at all levels. This trick will save you hundreds of hours—and save your readers unnecessary confusion about what the heck you’re trying to say.In his work as a writing professor at Columbia, Yale, and other schools—and in writing seminars all over the country—Charles Euchner has developed a sure-fire trick to guide writing at all levels—from the sentence to the paragraph to the section to the whole piece.
By using this simple, intuitive rule, with short case studies to show how it’s done, The Golden Rule of Writing gives you a simple process for writing everything better and faster—right away.
In this book, you’ll discover:
- Why every level of writing—sentence, paragraph, section, and whole piece—is a “journey” that takes the reader from one “place” to another different “place.”
- How you can create a simple shortcut to create the “journeys” of your documents by “starting strong” and “finishing strong.”
- How to use a simple hack, called the Landscape View, to check every piece of writing—easily identifying whatever problems a draft might have.
- How to “toggle” back and forth from the standard “block” view to the “landscape” view of your document.
- How to apply the Golden Rule of Writing to give every piece of writing dramatic power as well as clarity—so you never get lost writing your piece … and the audience never gets lost reading it.
Never again should you get tangled in your own prose. When you “learn and burn” this skill, you can instantly improve your writing. If you like clear instruction, with instructive case studies and a dash of humor, you’ll love Charlie Euchner’s powerful—and simple—system for raising your writing skills in the time it takes to read this short guide.
All you need to do is follow the format Euchner offers. The rest is up to you. BuyThe Golden Rule of Writing today to master the simplest, most powerful trick in writing well.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing. Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics. A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups. Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$1.99
Or
$0.00
2
The Most Concise and Powerful Guide to Storytelling You Will Ever Find . . . for Business, Education, Journalism, Publishing, and Life
Rule 1 of human influence: Tell stories.
Rule 2: Tell stories with vivid, passionate characters, facing daunting challenges, in memorable places, with compelling action and memorable details.
These days, it seems, everyone extolls the importance of storytelling. Sure, we need to crunch numbers and understand complex, abstract ideas too. But to connect with people, tap our creativity, and solve complex problems of all kinds -- in all contexts -- we need to tell stories.
Storytelling, Part 2 of The Elements of Writing Series, shows you how to hold your audience from the beginning to the end, with emotionally powerful tales. Other titles in the series, such as Characters, The World of the Story," and Details and Surprise, offer other skills useful for storytelling.
With this powerful “Mini” book, you will get the simple template for creating a story that takes the characters from aspiration to action, from struggle to overcoming, from misunderstanding to revelation.
Storytelling offers four simple, intuitive skills for constructing great narratives:
Anyone can learn these skills—quickly. Whether you’re a student in high school or college, a journalist or an author, a business strategist or a family doctor, a sales person or a public servant, you can master all of these skills.
This book offers case studies and exercises for all of the skills of storytelling. You get lessons from great storytellers from antiquity to the present—including Homer (The Odyssey), Judith Guest (Ordinary People), Robert Caro (The Passage of Power), and L. Frank Baum (The Wizard of Oz). And much more.
So you get simple explanations of all the skills of storytelling you need … and examples from the some of the best writers of different genres and periods.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Rule 1 of human influence: Tell stories.
Rule 2: Tell stories with vivid, passionate characters, facing daunting challenges, in memorable places, with compelling action and memorable details.
These days, it seems, everyone extolls the importance of storytelling. Sure, we need to crunch numbers and understand complex, abstract ideas too. But to connect with people, tap our creativity, and solve complex problems of all kinds -- in all contexts -- we need to tell stories.
Storytelling, Part 2 of The Elements of Writing Series, shows you how to hold your audience from the beginning to the end, with emotionally powerful tales. Other titles in the series, such as Characters, The World of the Story," and Details and Surprise, offer other skills useful for storytelling.
With this powerful “Mini” book, you will get the simple template for creating a story that takes the characters from aspiration to action, from struggle to overcoming, from misunderstanding to revelation.
Storytelling offers four simple, intuitive skills for constructing great narratives:
- The Narrative Arc: Since Aristotle storytellers have understood the power of the arc, which takes readers from a “normal world” to a series of escalating conflicts to resolution. In Storytelling, Charles Euchner now only shows how to do that—but also to create overlapping arcs that give the story greater complexity and unity.
- Seven Basic Plots: Most stories follow one of the seven major plots. In addition to sketching out those story lines, Euchner shows the single plot that underlies them all.
- Hitting Brick Walls: Stories are accounts of struggle. Only when characters confront their “brick walls,” with energy and creativity, can they achieve and transcend their desires.
- Yo-Yoing Scenes and Summary: Your story needs the energy of action. We need to see characters reveal and transform their true selves by acting on the world. But we also need to stand back and make sense of everything that happened. When you yo-yo, from scene to summary, you give the reader both essential experiences.
Anyone can learn these skills—quickly. Whether you’re a student in high school or college, a journalist or an author, a business strategist or a family doctor, a sales person or a public servant, you can master all of these skills.
This book offers case studies and exercises for all of the skills of storytelling. You get lessons from great storytellers from antiquity to the present—including Homer (The Odyssey), Judith Guest (Ordinary People), Robert Caro (The Passage of Power), and L. Frank Baum (The Wizard of Oz). And much more.
So you get simple explanations of all the skills of storytelling you need … and examples from the some of the best writers of different genres and periods.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$2.99
Or
$0.00
3
“Plot," Ray Branbury once said, "is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”
Welcome to the Essential Guide for Creating Memorable Characters—and Getting Them To Write Your Story
Everyone knows that stories are only as good as their characters. When readers fall in love with your story’s hero—or hate the lead character—you can create stories that take the reader wherever you want to go. You can create not only a great story or novel… but also long-running series that captivate people forever.
Now, in this Elements of Writing “Mini,” you can get the lowdown on how to get the lowdown on sizzling, compelling characters for your story.
Because here’s the deal: When you create a great character, the character almost writes the story. Sure, you need to understand the basic structure of narrative. We’ve got you covered for that too, in Storytelling: How to Create Powerful Plots To Give Your Readers a Memorable Journey.
In this brief guide, Charles Euchner shows how to create three-dimensional characters who create a whole, captivating world.
Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction—whether you want to produce short pieces or whole books or even series—this is the place to get started. You will learn how to:
Each chapter includes case studies—showing how masters of the craft apply these skills—as wella s exercises for you to practice your new skill in your own projects.
About the author
Charles Euchner is the author of books on civil rights, baseball, politics, public policy, and writing. Now teaching writing at Columbia University, Euchner ahs been the director of the Rappaport Institute at Harvard University and the coordinator of a longterm planning initiative for the City of Boston. He was educated at Vanderbilt University and the Johns Hopkins University.
Welcome to the Essential Guide for Creating Memorable Characters—and Getting Them To Write Your Story
Everyone knows that stories are only as good as their characters. When readers fall in love with your story’s hero—or hate the lead character—you can create stories that take the reader wherever you want to go. You can create not only a great story or novel… but also long-running series that captivate people forever.
Now, in this Elements of Writing “Mini,” you can get the lowdown on how to get the lowdown on sizzling, compelling characters for your story.
Because here’s the deal: When you create a great character, the character almost writes the story. Sure, you need to understand the basic structure of narrative. We’ve got you covered for that too, in Storytelling: How to Create Powerful Plots To Give Your Readers a Memorable Journey.
In this brief guide, Charles Euchner shows how to create three-dimensional characters who create a whole, captivating world.
Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction—whether you want to produce short pieces or whole books or even series—this is the place to get started. You will learn how to:
- Compile dossiers for your characters
- Explore Characters’ Lives, Zone by Zone
- Find Your Characters’ Throughlines
- Use the Wheel of Archetypes
- Spin the Wheel of Archetypes
- Assess Your Characters’ Energy and Love of Life
- Wrap Your Characters in a SCARF
Each chapter includes case studies—showing how masters of the craft apply these skills—as wella s exercises for you to practice your new skill in your own projects.
About the author
Charles Euchner is the author of books on civil rights, baseball, politics, public policy, and writing. Now teaching writing at Columbia University, Euchner ahs been the director of the Rappaport Institute at Harvard University and the coordinator of a longterm planning initiative for the City of Boston. He was educated at Vanderbilt University and the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$2.99
Or
$0.00
4
Do your stories offer the settings and scenes that transport the reader to a different place? Do you help the reader "suspend disbelief" by creating dynamic, vivid, and meaningful places?
To give your stories life—to give your readers a sense of being in the middle of your drama—you need to create vivid, sensual settings.
You need to create whole new worlds for your readers to inhabit.
That's just what you'll learn how to do in The World of the Story, this succinct how-to guide written by the acclaimed author and teacher Charles Euchner.
The world of the story plays a crucial role in your storytelling.
When you create a vivid and telling place for your story, you create an “extra character” that shapes what all the other characters do. The setting does not just containthe action; it also shapes the action.
The World of the Story makes it simple to put your characters and action in a place that explains what the characters and actions mean. Specifically, this brief how-to guide shows you how to:
• Create small, knowable places.
• Use place to reveal character and ideas.
• Use place to explain identity.
• Reveal places with movement and action.
• Place stories in a larger world.
Each chapter in this brief guide offers case studies from classic works of storytelling and journalism, including Emma Donoghue's Room, Robert Caro's The Path to Power, Judith Ortiz Cofer's Silent Dancing, John Knowles's A Separate Peace, Elizabeth Gilbert's The Last American Man, and Henry Roth's Call It Sleep. Each chapter also offers a section called "Your Turn," which offers simple exercises you can use to put your new skills to work right away.
Readers of Charles Euchner's books on writing and students in his seminars rave about the simple, powerful "tricks of the trade" that he offers to master even the toughest writing challenges. Some samples from recent seminars: "I wish I had known about this years ago" ... "Why aren't they teaching this in schools?" ... "On a scale of 10, I'd give it a 12" ... "I tried it and it works! Thanks!"
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
To give your stories life—to give your readers a sense of being in the middle of your drama—you need to create vivid, sensual settings.
You need to create whole new worlds for your readers to inhabit.
That's just what you'll learn how to do in The World of the Story, this succinct how-to guide written by the acclaimed author and teacher Charles Euchner.
The world of the story plays a crucial role in your storytelling.
When you create a vivid and telling place for your story, you create an “extra character” that shapes what all the other characters do. The setting does not just containthe action; it also shapes the action.
The World of the Story makes it simple to put your characters and action in a place that explains what the characters and actions mean. Specifically, this brief how-to guide shows you how to:
• Create small, knowable places.
• Use place to reveal character and ideas.
• Use place to explain identity.
• Reveal places with movement and action.
• Place stories in a larger world.
Each chapter in this brief guide offers case studies from classic works of storytelling and journalism, including Emma Donoghue's Room, Robert Caro's The Path to Power, Judith Ortiz Cofer's Silent Dancing, John Knowles's A Separate Peace, Elizabeth Gilbert's The Last American Man, and Henry Roth's Call It Sleep. Each chapter also offers a section called "Your Turn," which offers simple exercises you can use to put your new skills to work right away.
Readers of Charles Euchner's books on writing and students in his seminars rave about the simple, powerful "tricks of the trade" that he offers to master even the toughest writing challenges. Some samples from recent seminars: "I wish I had known about this years ago" ... "Why aren't they teaching this in schools?" ... "On a scale of 10, I'd give it a 12" ... "I tried it and it works! Thanks!"
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$2.99
Or
$0.00
5
Do you want to create "water cooler moments" in your stories? Do you want readers to talk about how they were riveted action and scenes in your work?
Action and Scenes: How To Move Your Stories Forward, Beat by Beat, the fifth volume of The Elements of Writing Series, provides a simple but detailed strategy for producing the moments that people remember in stories.
Let’s face it. Action is an essential ingredient of all stories. Even stories about “nothing,” like Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov, are chock-full of action words. Even the most abstract description and analysis benefit from using action scenes.
If you want to capture and hold your reader, you will give them action—and lots of it.
In Action and Scenes, we start by exploring how to create action. We identify the four key moments of action
• The decision to act
• Hesitation before the action
• The moment of action
• The followthrough
Give your readers every phase of action—even if only takes a few words—and you will get them physically involved. Seriously.
Along the way, we explain how to use speech is a form of action.
Then we turn our attention to constructions of whole scenes.
We begin with the simple imperative to make every scene a complete drama, with beginning, middle, and end. Then we show how to start at the end to build the most coherent scene. Finally, we show how to use beats to create whole scenes.
Each chapter includes case studies from great stories, including Shakespeare's Macbeth and Othello, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, Elizabeth Gilbert's"Lucky Jim," and the film Casablanca.
Each chapter also includes exercises for you to master action and scenes.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$2.99
Or
$0.00
6
Back by Popular Demand...
Next time you go to a party or attend a meeting, pay attention to who gets all the attention.
Chances are, that person tells stories and explains issues with vivid details -- details that surprise listeners. Moment after moment, people want to know more.
In fact, nothing attracts audiences more than surprising and vivid details. People go experience their lives on autopilot, following the same routines and experiencing the same basic ideas, day after day. So when they see something different, they pay attention.
"Details and Surprise" shows you how to go beyond the ordinary "context" information for your stories. The secret is simple: All great details are really surprises. When readers see things that they can't predict -- which they would not see on their own -- you give them great value.
"Details and Surprise" shows you specifically how to:
• Use small details to make big points.
• Find details by looking inside-out and upside-down.
• Use status details to reveal ego and desire.
• Freeze some details and put others into action.
• Use beats to describe people, places, and things.
• Surprise the reader, with heart.
"Details and Surprise" explains these skills with case studies of exemplary literature and journalism, including The New York Times “Portraits of Grief” series, Isabel Chenoweth’s “Hanging Out,” Tom Wolfe’s "A Man in Full," Fatima Mernissi’s "Dreams of Trespass," and Charlotte Bronte’s "Jane Eyre."
About the Author
Charles Euchner, a case writer at the Yale School of Management and a longtime college teacher and author, is the creator of The Writing Code, the only comprehensive learning system for writing.
Euchner has spent most of his career in academe, most recently directing a policy think tank at Harvard and teaching writing at Yale.
He is also the author or editor of ten books. His latest book "Nobody Turn Me Around: A People’s History of the 1963 March on Washington" (Beacon Press, 2010), has been praised as a dramatic reinterpretation of the civil rights movement. Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, called it “dynamic ... sharp, riveting.” Juan Williams, author of Eyes on the Prize, called it “compelling and dramatic.”
Euchner’s other books include a trilogy on the state of sports in modern America ("Playing the Field," "The Last Nine Innings," and "Little League, Big Dreams"), grassroots politics ("Urban Policy Reconsidered" and "Extraordinary Politics"), presidential politics ("Selecting the President" and "The President and the Public"), and regional politics (the two-part "Governing Greater Boston" project).
7
“The great book of Nature,” Galileo said, “is written in mathematical language and the characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures.”</b?
You could say the same about writing. Every story, essay, description or analysis needs to take a clear form. Stories usually take the shape of a narrative arc. But you can use other shapes – lines, circles, and triangles – to structure a piece.
The Structure of Writing, Volume 7 in The Elements of Writing, offers the concise how-to guide for managing whole pieces of writing––from memos to reports, from articles to books.
Whatever you want to write, this concise ebook shows the way.
Step by step, you will learn how to:
• Make Every Piece a Journey
• Nest Journeys Inside Journeys
• Find the Right Shape
• Label Paragraphs to Chart the Journey
• Yo-Yo To Pace Your Writing
• Use Ones to Highlight Characters, Places, and Issues
• Use Twos to Establish Oppositions and Complements
• Use Threes to Show Dynamism and Complexity
• Use Lists of Four or More to Show Complexity
The Structure of Writing" offers a number of case studies to illustrate the skills you need to structure your piece, including Maureen Dowd’s coverage of the White House, Andre Agassi’s Open, Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Terrazzo Jungle,” Joe Eszterhas’s Charlie Simpson’s Apocalypse, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters, and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.
Each chapter also offers exercises you can do to master the skills of writing.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
You could say the same about writing. Every story, essay, description or analysis needs to take a clear form. Stories usually take the shape of a narrative arc. But you can use other shapes – lines, circles, and triangles – to structure a piece.
The Structure of Writing, Volume 7 in The Elements of Writing, offers the concise how-to guide for managing whole pieces of writing––from memos to reports, from articles to books.
Whatever you want to write, this concise ebook shows the way.
Step by step, you will learn how to:
• Make Every Piece a Journey
• Nest Journeys Inside Journeys
• Find the Right Shape
• Label Paragraphs to Chart the Journey
• Yo-Yo To Pace Your Writing
• Use Ones to Highlight Characters, Places, and Issues
• Use Twos to Establish Oppositions and Complements
• Use Threes to Show Dynamism and Complexity
• Use Lists of Four or More to Show Complexity
The Structure of Writing" offers a number of case studies to illustrate the skills you need to structure your piece, including Maureen Dowd’s coverage of the White House, Andre Agassi’s Open, Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Terrazzo Jungle,” Joe Eszterhas’s Charlie Simpson’s Apocalypse, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters, and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.
Each chapter also offers exercises you can do to master the skills of writing.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$2.99
Or
$0.00
8
Ernest Hemingway one remarked that the ultimate challenge of writing is to produce "one true sentence." If you can write one great sentence, you can write two, three, and more great sentences. If you can write many great sentences, line after line, you can master any writing project from a school paper to a published book.
So: Can you craft “one true sentence,” again and again?
Sentences and Paragraphs, by Charles Euchner, is the completely updated best-selling and most authoritative book available on the essential two units of writing. Building on the foundation of The Golden Rule of Writing, Charles Euchner shows you everything you need to write good sentences and paragraphs.
Get it and use it. You will write better than ever––and spare yourself hundreds of hours of confusion and agony.
Once you can write great sentences, then what?
Strangely, few teachers or editors can even define a paragraph. And so paragraphs become a hodge-podge collection of ideas, some related and some not. But without a clear understanding of this basic unit of writing, we struggle to write well.
The definition of a paragraph is actually quite simple: A paragraph is a cluster of sentences (usually) that states and develops just one idea. The development of this idea, ideally, takes the reader on a "journey" from one understanding of the world to another. Ideally, the paragraph "starts strong" and "finishes strong."
This concise how-to guide shows you, with clear examples, how to:
• Follow the Golden Rule for Sentences
• Give Every Sentence an Action Packet
• Make Every Sentence a Revolver
• Use the Verbs To Be and To Have Sparingly
• Make Some Sentences More Complicated
• Alternate Short and Long Sentences
• Follow the Golden Rule in Every Paragraph
• ‘Climb the Arc’ in Most Paragraphs
• Make Every Paragraph an “Idea Bucket”
Sentences and Paragraphs includes vivid case studies of The New York Times coverage of national crises, Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, Milan Kundera’s Slowness, Stanley Fish’s How to Write a Sentence<.i>, Ernest Hemingway’s journalism, James Van Tholen’s “Surprised By Death,” and Martin Luther King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”
Each chapter also includes exercises for you to put your new skills to work.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
So: Can you craft “one true sentence,” again and again?
Sentences and Paragraphs, by Charles Euchner, is the completely updated best-selling and most authoritative book available on the essential two units of writing. Building on the foundation of The Golden Rule of Writing, Charles Euchner shows you everything you need to write good sentences and paragraphs.
Get it and use it. You will write better than ever––and spare yourself hundreds of hours of confusion and agony.
Once you can write great sentences, then what?
Strangely, few teachers or editors can even define a paragraph. And so paragraphs become a hodge-podge collection of ideas, some related and some not. But without a clear understanding of this basic unit of writing, we struggle to write well.
The definition of a paragraph is actually quite simple: A paragraph is a cluster of sentences (usually) that states and develops just one idea. The development of this idea, ideally, takes the reader on a "journey" from one understanding of the world to another. Ideally, the paragraph "starts strong" and "finishes strong."
This concise how-to guide shows you, with clear examples, how to:
• Follow the Golden Rule for Sentences
• Give Every Sentence an Action Packet
• Make Every Sentence a Revolver
• Use the Verbs To Be and To Have Sparingly
• Make Some Sentences More Complicated
• Alternate Short and Long Sentences
• Follow the Golden Rule in Every Paragraph
• ‘Climb the Arc’ in Most Paragraphs
• Make Every Paragraph an “Idea Bucket”
Sentences and Paragraphs includes vivid case studies of The New York Times coverage of national crises, Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, Milan Kundera’s Slowness, Stanley Fish’s How to Write a Sentence<.i>, Ernest Hemingway’s journalism, James Van Tholen’s “Surprised By Death,” and Martin Luther King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”
Each chapter also includes exercises for you to put your new skills to work.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$2.99
Or
$0.00
9
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word,” Mark Twain once quipped, “is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.”
So how do you select just the right word? What words create the greatest impact—not only intellectually, but also emotionally?
If sentences and paragraphs make up the basic structure of writing, words provide the planks and nails and screws. To give our writing clarity and verve, we not only need a good method of construction, but also good materials. So what's the best way to pick these materials?
In Words, Words, Words, the author and teacher Charles Euchner shows you how to:
• Use simple words, almost always.
• Deploy longer words as precision instruments.
• Use active verbs ... Even to describe passivity.
• Pay attention to “function words.”
• Avoid bureaucratese, academese, and words that lie.
• Avoid aggressive adjectives.
• Ban adverbs … almost always.
• "Verb" your nouns and "noun" your verbs, cautiously.
This concise how-to guide not only offers step-by-step guides to picking the right words, but also case studies of John McPhee’s The Curve of Binding Energy, the essays of William F. Buckley, Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov, James Pennebaker’s The Secret Life of Pronouns, Fredric Jameson’s Signatures of the Visible, Tom Wolfe’s “Girl of the Year,” J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and fragments from all over.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$2.99
Or
$0.00
10
Grammar: A Simple Approach to the Abstract Requirements of Writing (The Elements of Writing Book 10)
Ugh. Grammar. Could there exist a more boring, abstract, contradictory, frustrating topic?
Well, that's one way to look at it.
To many writers, in fact, grammar poses an intimidating set of abstract dos and don’ts, with exceptions that bewilder more than enlighten. In school, many of us learned how to diagram sentences and memorized long lists of rules.
But we never learned to love grammar.
Until now.
As Charles Euchner shows in this brief how-to guide, grammar is really just a simple way to coordinate your writing. This ebook offers three simple ways to think about grammar—as a process of getting along, managing traffic, and being precise.
Euchner, the acclaimed author of Nobody Turn Me Around and “The Last Nine Innings who teaches writing at Columbia, explains just how simple grammar can be.
Using a bevy of examples––as well as more extended case studies––Euchner offers an intuitive way to think about grammar.
With this simple approach to grammar, Euchner also shows how to enliven your writing and stay on track from the start to the finish of your projects.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$3.99
Or
$0.00
11
"Could it be any easier?"
That's the response of participants at writing seminars taught by Charles Euchner all over the U.S., after learning this unique and powerful approach to editing.
For most writers, editing poses the most difficult challenge of writing. Faced with an ungainly draft—filled with problems of sentence and paragraph structure, technicalities of grammar and punctuation, spelling, and word choice—most writers work methodically from beginning to end.
Editing Without Pain offers a different approach––a how-to guide that makes this most painful process simple.
By moving from the biggest to smallest pieces of your piece, you can edit faster and more effectively.
With the “Search and Destroy” system, you can catch more mistakes and avoid “melting down” from overexertion.
In Editing Without Pain, the acclaimed author and teacher Charles Euchner, who teaches writing at Columbia University, shows you how to:
• Edit From the outside inward
• Fix problem paragraphs by giving ideas tabloid headlines
• Edit by reading aloud and backward
• Murder your "darlings"
We use a number of case studies from accomplished works, including Zadie Smith’s Changing My Mind, John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, and Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle.
In addition, each chapter contains exercises for you to master these skills yourself.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$0.99
Or
$0.00
12
"Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of style," Jonathan Swift said.
Writing with clarity is the core challenge of writing. But once you master all the basics––building clear, vivid sentences and paragraphs, grammar, editing––it’s time think about style.
That’s where this concise little guide comes in.
Style puts your special stamp on your writing. You might be as straightforward as an old-fashioned newspaper reporter or as ornate as Tom Wolfe. But your style makes a statement about your values and skill.
In the concise and practical how-to guide Writing With Style, author Charles Euchner shows you, step by step, shows you how to.
• Tap into life’s natural rhythms.
• Help the reader to feel.
• Help the reader to see.
• Help the reader to hear.
• Use metaphors to show underlying similarities.
• Use similes to show similarities, casually.
• Riff to discover and express ideas.
• Remember that "good is great."
• To get playful, think like a child.
Writing With Style shows you how to perfect these skills with case studies of classic and modern writing, including Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi, Scott Russell Sanders’s “Under the Influence,” John Updike’s Rabbit, Run," Rick Reilly’s sports journalism, memoirs and essays of Thomas Lynch, Roy Blount’s Alphabet Soup, and Tom Wolfe’s From Bauhaus to Our House.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$2.99
Or
$0.00
13
It's time to start making sense of the world
How do you analyze the complex issues we face these days in business, government, education, and public affairs? How do you make sense of the "blooming, buzzing confusion" of modern life?In modern society, the ability to make smart decisions—in business, government, education, and community affairs—depends on assessing a welter of information and ideas.
In this step-by-step how-to guide, Charles Euchner shows how to analyze complex issues in all fields -- how to develop good questions, brainstorm, identify variables that might explain a question, “operationalize” the variables, gather evidence, and assess various explanations.
Euchner, the acclaimed author of Nobody Turn Me Around and Urban Politics Reconsidered (with Steve McGovern), shows how anyone can learn these skills. Whether you’re a student in high school or college, a journalist or an author, a business strategist or a family doctor, a sales person or a public servant, you can master all of these skills.
Euchner, who has taught writing to undergraduates and graduate students at Yale and Columbia, shows all the essential skills of analytic writing:
- Ask This-or-That and W Questions
- Brainstorm to Open Your Mind--And With Discipline
- Identifying Causality
- Finding Key Variables to Answer Questions
- Operationalizing Variables
- Using the Testimony of Experts ... and Ordinary People
- Making the Best Possible Case
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing. Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics. A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups. Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$2.99
Or
$0.00
14
To succeed in business -- and every other realm of modern life -- you need to master storytelling.
In practically every profession these days -- business and the law, journalism, government and public policy -- professionals need to analyze and explain complex problems.
Ultimately, all analysis is just storytelling at a higher level of abstraction. Stories offer accounts of “one time only” events—particular people doing particular things at particular times, with particular outcomes. Analysis shows recurring patterns of events by looking at large samples of people and things.
While stories focus on the actions of characters, analysis looks at variables. Models offer a shorthand for analyzing problems in all fields. Most models simplify problems into three variables. You can use these models in both natural and human inquiry.
In this concise how-to guide, Charles Euchner explains how to:
• Analyze complex issues with stories and characters
• Give your narrative analyses suspense
• Let ideas unfold, one by one
• Use beats to make arguments
• Work With "Super Models"
To see how to put these skills into action, this guide offers case studies of Norman Doidge’s The Brain That Changes Itself, Barry Bluestone’s “The Inequality Express,” some of the leading works of social science, the "social contract" theorists, and a number of journalistic works.
Each chapter also offers exercises you can do to apply the skills, right away.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
In practically every profession these days -- business and the law, journalism, government and public policy -- professionals need to analyze and explain complex problems.
Ultimately, all analysis is just storytelling at a higher level of abstraction. Stories offer accounts of “one time only” events—particular people doing particular things at particular times, with particular outcomes. Analysis shows recurring patterns of events by looking at large samples of people and things.
While stories focus on the actions of characters, analysis looks at variables. Models offer a shorthand for analyzing problems in all fields. Most models simplify problems into three variables. You can use these models in both natural and human inquiry.
In this concise how-to guide, Charles Euchner explains how to:
• Analyze complex issues with stories and characters
• Give your narrative analyses suspense
• Let ideas unfold, one by one
• Use beats to make arguments
• Work With "Super Models"
To see how to put these skills into action, this guide offers case studies of Norman Doidge’s The Brain That Changes Itself, Barry Bluestone’s “The Inequality Express,” some of the leading works of social science, the "social contract" theorists, and a number of journalistic works.
Each chapter also offers exercises you can do to apply the skills, right away.
About the Author
Charles Euchner, an author and teacher, is the creator of The Elements of Writing.
Euchner is the author of books on the presidency (Losing the Peace, forthcoming), civil rights (Nobody Turn Me Around), baseball (The Last Nine Inningsand Little League, Big Dreams), urban affairs (Urban Policy Reconsidered and Playing the Field), and other topics.
A long time teacher—most recently at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—Euchner has taught writing at seminars to corporate and education clients as well as author groups.
Euchner holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kindle Price
$2.99
Or
$0.00
Customers who bought from this series also bought

Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing58 books
Howard S. Becker, Frances W. Zweifel, Richard Eckersley, Richard Angstadt, Charles M. Ellertson, Richard Hendel, Luke Eric Lassiter, Scott Norton, Nancy C. Mulvany, Joseph E. Harmon, Alan G. Gross, Susan M. Bielstein, John Van Maanen, Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz, Linda L. Shaw, Philippa J. Benson, Susan C. Silver, Anne E. Greene, Jane E. Miller, Mark Monmonier, W. Matthew Shipman, Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, William T. FitzGerald, Joli Jensen, Peter Chilson, Joanne B. Mulcahy, Kate L. Turabian, Charles Lipson, Wendy Laura Belcher, Bryan A. Garner, The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff, Jack Hart, Annette Lareau, William Germano, Thomas S. Mullaney, Christopher Rea, Joseph M. Williams, Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Ned Stuckey-French, Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, Helen Sword, Will Dunne, Kristen Ghodsee, Carol Fisher Saller, Chris Mackenzie Jones, Andrew Abbott, Philip Gerard, Arlene Stein, Jessie Daniels, Brooke Borel, Christopher Howard, Scott L. Montgomery, Rachel Toor, Ted Conover, Jane Friedman, Peter Ginna, Corey Fields, Stephen T. Ziliak
Report an issue with this series
Is this series page incomplete or incorrect? Tell us.
Thank you!
Your feedback helps us make Amazon shopping better for millions of customers.
Customer reviews
5 star (0%) |
|
0% |
4 star (0%) |
|
0% |
3 star (0%) |
|
0% |
2 star (0%) |
|
0% |
1 star (0%) |
|
0% |
How customer reviews and ratings work
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonNo customer reviews
More About the Author
Discover more books by the author, see similar authors, read author blogs, and more here