Online Writing Books

If you're looking for a guide on writing e-mails in a business setting, look no further. This book covers every aspect of writing e-mails and even some tips on how to organize your e-mail as well. The chapters take you through different topics regarding e-mail and at the end of each chapter are some activities that you can do to help build your awareness of your e-mail writing skills and how examining the messages you receive from others can help improve your awareness of writing skills. This book is perfectly designed for training courses, since each chapter could be completed in one training session. I recommend this if you are looking to write e-mails as professionally as you can.

Like it or not, we live in a world of electronic communication. E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide is a practical and helpful guide for those who aren't totally familiar or comfortable with the medium as well as for those who use it routinely, but perhaps not always effectively or appropriately. Most important, it urges people to take their e-mail communication as seriously as their other written communication - and tells them how.

This book is exactly what every e-mail should be (and so few are): clear, sensible and pointed. Compare the advice here to the emails you receive daily and you will agree that it is filled with uncommon good sense. You'll find yourself trying to figure out how to secretly get copies to your colleagues! Jim Knutsen, President, Boatz Knutsen Communications

Like it or not, all of us are up to our eyeballs in emails everyday. We feel pressed for time yet need to write coherent emails that effectively communicate important information. This guide is an excellent resource on how to write readable emails that come to the point quickly without leaving any of the important stuff out. After going through the material, I recognized a lot of mistakes that our company frequently commits in our frequent volleys of emails with clients. I wish I would have had this book sooner! Thanks for cutting through the jungle for us, Write it Well!
Thanks,
Mike O'Quin
PowerPointPartners.Com

As the author of an English reference guide/workbook, I think this book is exceptionally helpful to everyone needing to send out professional e-mails. E-mail has just about replaced informal memos and even reports. Therefore, we all need to learn how to convey the right tone, present a professional image, get our messages across clearly, learn the etiquette of e-mail, and avoid the pitfalls and hazards that e-mail technology poses. The author provides excellent, relevant examples and lays the material out in a logical, easy-to-understand fashion. I highly recommend it to individuals, HR departments, and training professionals.
Jane Straus
Author of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
and
Enough Is Enough! Stop Enduring and Start Living Your Extraordinary Life

Medieval Calligraphy; Its history and technique, is a comprehensive book on the whys and wherefores of Medieval Calligraphy.
It covers the development of different scripts and letterings. It gives a bit of background on each script, how it was used and when it was used. It then gives details of each letter and some variations as well as how to form the letter.
As well as the focus on calligraphy itself this book puts scripts into context. It gives individuals the tools to use the scripts to complete a project with a medieval tone and flavour. It talks about page layouts, how to alter scripts for capitals, additions of ligatures and numbers. The book also covers materials that can be used to produce a completed piece that looks very close to medieval without going to all the bother of making the inks and other items yourself- although this too is covered.
This book is fantastic for anyone with a serious interest in calligraphy in the middle ages.

The book provided an excellent history of the evolution of letter formations used in medieval manuscripts. Especially interesting was the impact that the Emperor Charlemagne and a Benedictine monk had on standardization of text forms throughout much of Europe.

Pros: Nearly half the book covers the history of calligraphy as well a selection of various scripts. The other half covers basic technique and specific instructions for 13 different scripts plus numerals.

Con: No colour images of period examples.

Great for SCA/reenactor

This is an excellent book with the exception of the glaring lack of colour in the photos.
Great explanations, good connnections between the different eras and styles, but again, if one is depending on a book for colour suggestion, this is not the tome.

Medieval Calligraphy by Marc Drogin is comprehensive and historically informative, certainly worth having in your collection.

This is a great book for any teacher. It gives great ideas for teaching writing in an exciting way! I recommend Melissa's other books as well.

After borrowing this book from a colleague, I decided I had to have my own copy. It's a resource I keep going back to each year. My sixth graders love the activities, which are fun and easy to follow. Melissa Forney knows how to motivate students to improve their writing.

I am using this as my guide for writing instruction in my classroom. This book is full of fun activities that involve the students, while delivering the message.

Great ideas for beginning writers in terms of organization. Breaks down the steps simply. Explains what makes interesting writing.

I have used this book with my own lessons and bought it for all the 2-5 teachers in my building. Very user friendly. Has great ideas for mini-lessons and wonderful resources to copy for students to keep in their wirters' notebooks. I highly recommend this book!

A suggested read for anyone (emphasis). Through the essays, abridged novels, and interviews, one can gather a personal and philosophical history of MLK, a summary of the civil rights movement, and a greater understanding of life and religion (which are inextricably attached really). I particularly appreciated the notion that civil rights was really about human rights on a global scale. He oft points out that poor whites, Latinos, and Asians, faced the same issues in the U. S. and across the globe.

A central theme is the principles of nonviolent resistance, which are essentially (if properly understood) unbiased and unwavering compassion and respect for (all) human life. I believe this is the single greatest area of failure in our current society. The book has entrenched that position further, with a deepened understanding of what it means, where the problems have exhibited themselves, and how we might improve upon the situation.

I must say as a native Alabamian and habitant of Birmingham for almost 10 years, the book has particular relevance to me. However, the history chronicled within is the history of man and is therefore applicable to everyone.

As a Hispanic-American increasingly involved in speaking out about social issues and looking for inspiration, I stumbed upon this incredible book.

I have since learned to love the writings and speeches of Doctor Martin Luther King. They are mighty and powerful and beautifully crafted. Biblical in their content and style, they are tremendously moving. They simplify the complicated and elevate the important!

His words ring out as loud and clear today as they did some forty years ago. For example, in one of his last and most radical speeches, "Where Do We Go From Here?" Doctor King exhorted:

"Let us go out with a 'divine dissatisfaction!

Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of Creeds and an anemia of Deeds!

Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and dispair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice!

Let us be dissatisfied until those that life on the outskirts of hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security!

Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history and every family is living in a decent sanitary home!"

This book is recommended for anyone looking for wisdom and inspiration and wishing to learn more about Doctor Martin Luther King and America's civil rights movement.

Buy it! Read it! And get involved in the battle for social justice for all Americans.

I thought that I knew a lot about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but this book has really opened up to me his true character. As I read his precious speeches, articles and books I am so happy that I purchased this compilation of Dr. Kings' works and I have been given a special glimpse into the life of such a genuine and extraordinary individual.

Yesterday, the 40th anniversary of MLK's assassination, I spent the better part of the day thumbing through A Testment of Hope. The book is an old friend of mine. I've read and reread it for nearly twenty years now, both privately and with students in at least a dozen classes.

What I like so much about editor James Washington's collection is its comprehensiveness. In a single volume, one finds MLK's thoughts on nonviolence, civil rights and integration, the Vietnam War and poverty, Christianity and social responsibility, and justice and morality. His ideas are conveyed here through essays, sermons, interviews, and lengthy, meaty excerpts from his five books. Everything that one could want is here, including what I personally take to be his very best work: "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" (1963), "Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience" (1961), "A Christmas Sermon on Peace" (1967), "A Time to Break Silence" (1967), the "I Have a Dream" speech (1961), and Stride Toward Freedom's masterful discussion of the tactics and principles of nonviolence (1958).

Today, four decades after his death, the country is still struggling to grow into MLK's vision of reconciliation and nonviolence. One can only imagine how sad he would be at the post-9/11 turn toward militarism the nation has taken, the current wave of sentiment against Latino immigrants, the constant economic disparity between white households and African American ones, or the upswing in hate crimes against Muslims. In re-reading A Testament of Hope, I was reminded yet again of how very much we need a present-day prophet of King's caliber, vision, and courage, and of how very grateful I am that we once had King himself.
________
* "And I submit that the individual who disobeys the law, whose conscience tells him it is unjust and who is willing to accept the penalty by staying in jail until that law is altered, is expressing at the moment the very highest respect for law." From "Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience," p. 49.

Martin Luther King Jr. the great American Civil Rights leader was a voice not only for black people in the United States, but for Mankind as a whole. He dreamed but he did not dream for black people alone but for every single American, and every single human being. Essentially his message was one of hope.
He was perhaps the most powerful speaker the United States had in the twentieth century. His 'I have a dream' speech on the Mall in Washington at the height of the Civil Rights movements was a call for and affirmation of human dignity and freedom.
He spoke in the language and rhythms of the Bible.
In his Nobel Prize Speech he articulated his faith in nonviolence as a means for human liberation. While it might be possible to question the validity of the non- violent option when confronting the most ruthless forms of totalitarian Evil it nonetheless is tribute to the spirit of King's deep Christian faith that he so passionately preached the 'non- violent doctrine'.
This book is a testimony to one of the truly great Americans of the twentieth - century. A man who by his example , by his deeds, ( And his words too are great deeds) gave hope and freedom to so many.
This work could not be recommended more highly.

As an author, I'm always on the lookout for books that can help with publicity, marketing, and promoting. This book was a pure gem.

This book is worth the purchase price just for Chapter 11 (E-mail Blasts) alone. With tips for propelling your book to the top of the bestseller lists by e-mail marketing, this chapter takes you by the hand and leads you through the process step by step in a quick and painless way.

This book doesn't just tell you how to promote and publicize your book; it shows you with sample letters and action steps.

If you're ready to pump up your promotion and get your book noticed, then this book should be on your list of must-haves!

Author 101 Bestselling Book Publicity is what every author needs to promote themselves and their book. This is a very practical, easy to follow and affordable handbook. Get it now! You're missing sales!

While I own all four of the "Author 101" books by Rick Frishman and Robyn Spizman, I feel this one is the most valuable. In fact, I wish I had it BEFORE I started writing my first book. The information and helpful tips included from these industry insiders is worth a hundred-times the price of the book. I have met and spoken with both Rick and Robyn, and I will attest that what they tell you in this book is gospel truth.
After you read this book, you will gain insight into how best to plan the marketing and publicity of your book even before you write it. This is key information whether you are using a traditional publisher, or if you are self-publishing. In fact, if you are self-publishing, READ and MEMORIZE chapter 8 on Interviews -- this will be the primary source of your income.
I highly recommend this and the other three books in the "Author 101" series.

Happy reading and successful writing,

Stuart Gustafson, Author
www.stuartgustafson.com

As a fellow book publicist it's imperative for me to keep up with all of the great books and magazine articles being published about the book business. I've read dozens and dozens of such books and can recommend this book without hesitation.

One thing about the book marketing and book promotion business is that there are so many nice people in the business. I rank Rick Frishman as one of the top publicists in the U.S. not to mention he's a nice guy too!

His book, co-authored by Robyn Freedman Spizman and Mark Steisel, offers advice and insight about every stage of the publishing world. Using testimonials and commentary, this book lets authors, agents, and publishers alike show you the things you should and shouldn't do in promoting your book.

Scott Lorenz
President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that specializes in book marketing and author publicity.
[...]

This book is GOLDEN! It truly is a must-have for any author, especially a brand new author such as myself. The chapter on E-mail blasts was so fascinating with its step-by-step process, that even I felt confident I could produce this "flurry of sales" to launch my book into bestseller status. Newly published authors and seasoned authors alike should definitely add this gem to their library.

Dan Poynter's book is a virtual gold mine for authors and publishers. He shares his years of experience in the publishing business with a dictionary of every aspect of publishing, promoting and sales of books. Dan shares the secrets of e-books, audio-books and where to go to get the author's books changed to digital copies for mass marketing on the internet. This is his best book yet.

Poynter's Encyclopedia and Shepards' Aiming at Amazon are both perfect manuals for anybody interested in self-publishing. Brief, informative, and easy to use - what else is needed? Highly recommended.

Yuval Lirov, Practicing Profitability - Billing Network Effect for Revenue Cycle Control in Healthcare Clinics and Chiropractic Offices: Collections, Audit Risk, SOAP Notes, Scheduling, Care Plans, and Coding

Poynter, as always, knows his subject: Self-publishing. This book hits all the high points in an easy-to-access format.

Loads of useful information for the self-publisher/author. I would have
preferred to have it in chapter form. That would have made it more readable.

If you have questions about the publishing industry, you will be hard-pressed to find a better resource than Dan Poynter's book, The Book Publishing Encyclopedia. This alphabetical resource guide is filled with facts, figures, tips, and tactics.

Any resource guide filled with so much information is bound to motivate a writer to continue striving for the exciting status of publication. It becomes a matter of absorbing enough information and doing enough research about all the available publishing options to make the right decision. Not all authors are destined for Random House, but that doesn't mean they have to remain unpublished. There are alternatives! Whether you are seeking an independent press, a mainstream publisher, or the convenience of a turn-key publisher, this book defines the terms you should know. - Brent Sampson, author of Self-Publishing Simplified

I thought this was a good book for a layman like me. My son has a learning disability related to reading. That is why I wanted to read this book. The book helped me understand how complex reading really is and what my son is probably experiencing. I would recommend this book to anyone who has similar problems.

I find it a bit odd that Wolf cites Hebrew and Aramahic, not Arabic, which is by far the most widely spoken and important Semitic language today, as examples of writing systems that are written from right to left. Any hidden/political agenda here for the omission?

This book is well-written and clearly developed, sharing information about a subject (the ability to read and write) we all accept as a given, but which is really quite an astonishing ability. The information on the brain is presented in an manner that novices to neuroscience can understand, yet still offers detail and new information for people who have done more reading in this area. A very useful resource for teachers, students, and the general reading public!!

This book is simply fascinating. It is also well-written by a very insightful researcher. Cognitive neuroscience is not everyone's passion, but this book will astonish you from the first paragraph.

This is not an easy read---somewhat ponderous at times---but it IS a fascinating one. The book makes many connections between different areas of research and our understandings about the human brain and written language. As a former first grade teacher, I was captivated.

I just got this Voice Lessons book, and, as I hoped, it is jam packed with reproducibles! Each lesson could take one class period or less, and there is a lot of variety. I was glad it wasn't primarily a book about theory. This is a take it to the photocopier and you have a lesson for the day book.

I teach a pre-AP class, and one of the major skills the kids practice is learning to recognize an author's tone through diction, syntax, etc. This book is a collection of excellent warm-up exercises that develop close reading and writing skills. I would highly recommend it; my copy is, in fact, loaned out at the moment to one of my colleagues!

This title was recommended to me by our AP English teacher and she was right. A few simple lessons from each section and my high school students had a much better understanding of voice.

This book is good for a class warmup. It probably could benefit from more indepth questions or more complex examples built on the
basic ones in the book, but it is very easy for the students to
comprehend. It might be a bit too basic for anything more than
grade level classes. The questions and answers are very obvious
for my Pre Ap students. I think it is a very good start!

Voice is perhaps the hardest of the 6 traits to teach. With my sophomore core English students, I would do 1 voice lesson each week for their warm up and it was amazing how much more accessible that vague idea of "voice" came to both myself and my students over the school year. The whole English department at my school uses Voice Lessons...9th grade teachers do a certain number, 10th grade, etc. By the time a student graduates, they will have done all the voice lessons. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any English teacher or teacher who teaches writing (and which teachers don't?!).

This is the one to get. Trust me, I write resumes for a living.

This is an easy read. The descriptions are concise. The author explains the reason for his suggestions. There are numerous examples for form and format. The one thing I found missing was how to set up a resume for those who have worked for one company for over 30 years but have had several jobs and titles within that time frame.

I have recommended this book to people of all ages and disciplines. It has more pertinent information then any other resume book I've ever seen. It actually was entertaining to read, and provided realistic, hopeful solutions to people in recovery who struggle with how to handle gaps in employment.
I hope that it is used in schools because it is a great tool!

Mr. Bennett leaves no stone unturned here...he takes readers through each step of writing a resume so diligently that I feel as if he has practically re-written my resume himself! Throughout the book he reinforces the importance of being honest about work histories and teaches readers how to position job hopping and gaps in employment. (Now I can feel confident in selling myself despite the many detours I've taken in my career!) He puts readers in the point of view of the employer and goes into great detail about how to use language and visual layout of the resume to make the most impact. He supplies tons of descriptive words and shows how to turn terms like, "strong interpersonal skills" and "great team-player" into actionable statements with evidence that actually mean something to employers. (This was very enlightening to me!) He also explains best practices with cover letters, inquiry letters and replying to salary history requests...you NAME it and this book's got it. Mr. Bennett clearly has a lot to teach on the subject and I feeled armed with a powerful weapon in being able to re-position myself on paper and get myself hired. This book is a must buy!

I enjoyed the author's common sense approach to the resume miracles often promised by other books and resume services. Functional resumes do hide a lack of experience but employers already know that. Tricks with format and fonts might look neat but most resume reviewers are going to look past the presentation at some point. This book focuses on the basics, words that work, emphasizing accomplishments over position, keeping things simple, clear, concise and easy to read. But once you get past the large list of action words, there really isn't much more to this book. Personally, I like the formatting ideas in books like Resume Magic and the emphasis on using keywords which are often how resumes are filtered in the Internet age. While the author of The Elements of Resume Style seems to belittle these stupid resume tricks, they do seem to work.

Still,in spite of this quibble I'm giving this book a good recommendation because I found the information on grammer, fonts, style and basic format very helpful, as well as the grain of skeptism that comes with it. But comparing the sample resumes presented in this books and the ones found in other like Resume Magic, and putting oneself in the place of an employer, I think the visual formatting and style does make a difference. This book is a good start or even a complement but not the last word on resumes.

Red Pine's exposition of the Heart Sutra is an open invitation to dive deep into the mysteries of our very Being; right into the Heart of Emptiness. Prajnaparamita indeed; the wisdom before knowing, beyond words and concepts, beyond the limits of 'self'. Right now as it is! Yes!!

Red Pine is a translator, historian, scholar and Zen practitioner. His clear writing demonstrates that he knows his own mind....the essence of the sutra's teaching. Besides, he has a great sense of humor.

The detail and focus of this work is considerable. The Heart Sutra is only 2 pages, but this book goes on for 208 pages. Red Pine goes through the Sutra, word for word at times, helping to explain the nuances, the rich connotations of the words. Without all of this detail, it is difficult to understand completely the approach used. Because of this work, I went out and got Red Pine's The Diamond Sutra: The Perfection of Wisdom.

The Heart Sutra is quick and to the point. It sounds to me as if it was a direct transmission of knowledge from one master to another passed on for a few thousand years. Although it is tough to understand (still trying to figure it out), and should be read a few times, I love the Heart Sutra!

In The Heart Sutra: The Womb of Buddhas, Pine presents a very thorough, rigorous, and enlightening exegesis of the Heart Sutra. First, he introduces his own translation of the Heart Sutra, which is, by far, the best English translation available, which is easy and helpful to commit to memory. Then, he provides a very informative historical background of the Heart Sutra, where he introduces the idea that the Heart Sutra is a rejection of the Sarvastivadin Abhidharma, an idea he returns to throughout the book, so much so, that it seems to be his main thesis. Next, he goes through the four parts of the Heart Sutra line by line, where he also details the Sarvastivadin concepts of skandhas, abodes, elements, causal connections, the Chain of Dependent Origination, the Four Truths, and much more. After providing an exegesis of each line, each section is punctuated by quotes from other various commentaries. Finally, there is a helpful index of names, terms, and texts.

This book is a good read for philosophers (especially existentialists), psychologists (especially those interested in meta-cognition), historians, and, of course, Buddhists or anyone interested in Buddhism. This book is a great introduction to Buddhism, with more substance than any "for dummies" book could offer, but the depth of this book will also appeal to Buddhist scholars. The reading can be abstract-sometimes too abstract. There are few concrete examples, so the reader needs to be comfortable with abstract concepts. Pine makes a good faith effort at citing sources, which is helpful for further research. I wish he included more content about the concept of dharma matrixes, which Pine only mentions in passing.

After reading this book, the reader will have gained, first, a deeper appreciation overall for the Heart Sutra, and second, a fresh perspective and a new way of looking at things, perhaps viewing the world "in the light of prajnaparamita" and even expanding one's worldview.