ISBN: 9781877371653 Publication Date: August, 2007 Author(s): Helen Sword, University of Auckland Edition: 1st Number of Pages: 108 Binding Type: Paperback RRP: $26.99  Add to cart

Is your writing flabby or fit?

The Writer's Diet will help you energise your writing, boost your verbal fitness levels and strip unnecessary padding from your prose.

In contrast to most other writing and editing guides, The Writer’s Diet offers no ‘big picture’ advice on argument or audience, no instruction on composition or paragraph structure, no primer on grammar and punctuation. Instead, this book zeroes in on five common problems that frequently plague unfit sentences - weakness and excess in verbs, nouns, prepositions, adjectives/adverbs, and ‘waste words’.

Writers at every level, from students to professionals, will benefit from The Writer’s Diet workout and enjoy the experience. Before long, you will find yourself producing stylish, energetic prose every time you put pen to paper. 

Take the 'Wasteline Test' @ www.writersdiet.ac.nz

Acknowledgements
Preface The Writer’s Diet
Introduction The Wasteline Test 
Chapter 1 Verbal verve 
Chapter 2 Noun density
Chapter 3 Prepositional podge
Chapter 4 Ad-dictions 
Chapter 5 Waste words 
Afterword Healthy writing 
Appendix
• Suggestions for further reading 
• Frequently asked questions
• Condensed Wasteline Test
• Extended Wasteline Test
References
Index

Helen Sword earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and taught in the English Department at Indiana University before moving to New Zealand, where she now works as a senior lecturer in the Centre for Academic Development at the University of Auckland. Her publications include two books on modernist literature, Engendering Inspiration (1995) and Ghostwriting Modernism (2002). The Writer’s Diet draws on her extensive experience as a writer, editor and teacher of academic writing.