Research Writing

This book helps you plan and write reports, proposals, procedures, and other professional documents. You'll review a range of techniques to communicate complex information clearly. You'll also review ways to use your writing to extend your analytical, problem-solving, teamwork, and leadership skills.

Have you written a book that just isn't selling? Would you like to write a book that readers eagerly devour? Many authors write then market. Successful authors write to market. They start by figuring out how to give readers what they want, and that process begins before writing word one of your novel. This book will teach you to analyze your favorite genre to discover what readers are buying, to mine reviews for reader expectations, and to nail the tropes your readers subconsciously crave.

The first book in The Art Of series of books on the craft of writing, fiction writer and essayist Charles Baxter's The Art of Subtext discusses and illustrates the hidden subtextual overtones and undertones in fictional works haunted by the unspoken, the suppressed, and the secreted.

More than three decades after his death, John Steinbeck remains one of the nation's most beloved authors. Yet few know of his career as a journalist who covered world events from the Great Depression to Vietnam. Now, this original collection offers a portrait of the artist as citizen, deeply engaged in the world around him. In addition to the complete text of Steinbeck's last published book, America and Americans, this volume brings together for the first time more than 50 of Steinbeck's finest essays and journalistic pieces.

In their 2014 best seller, Write. Publish. Repeat, authors Platt and Truant told a generation of indies the path to self-publishing success. In this long-awaited follow-up, they'll tell you what they've learned since, plus all the fiction-specific stuff they didn't include the first time around.

Like a seasoned sportscaster, Fish marvels at the adeptness of finely crafted sentences and breaks them down into digestible morsels, giving listeners an instant play-by-play. Drawing on a wide range of great writers, from Philip Roth to Antonin Scalia to Jane Austen, How to Write a Sentence is much more than a writing manual—it is a spirited love letter to the written word, and a key to understanding how great writing works. It is a book that will stand the test of time.

From master language creator David J. Peterson comes a creative guide to language construction for sci-fi and fantasy fans, writers, game creators, and language lovers. Peterson offers a captivating overview of language creation, covering its history from Tolkien's creations and Klingon to today's thriving global community of conlangers.

To get the job you want, you don’t just need a great resume—you need an outstanding resume, one that puts you in the top 1 percent of candidates for the job. That means ditching the same old advice you’ve been following with little results and adopting a tried-and-true process for getting your resume noticed in even the most competitive situations. In this book, Dan Clay breaks down the exact method he’s carefully developed over a period of 10 years and provides a precise step-by-step set of instructions for crafting the perfect resume, down to the last period.

Go to the heart of your world and build it well! Memorable world-building enhances story, attracts readers and listeners, and sells books and audiobooks! Find the core of your science fiction or fantasy people and instill your narrative with universal themes and concepts derived from real-world cultures. World-Building from the Inside Out challenges you to go deep and build fantastical worlds that truly bring your story to life!

For nearly two centuries, the authorship of William Shakespeare's plays has been challenged by writers and artists as diverse as Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Henry James, Helen Keller, Orson Welles, Malcolm X, and Sir Derek Jacobi. How could a young man from rural Warwickshire, lacking a university education, write some of the greatest works in the English language?

Vibrant, believable characters help drive a fictional story. Along with a clever plot, well-drawn characters make us want to continue reading a novel or finish watching a movie. In Creating Characters, Dwight V. Swain shows how writers can invent interesting characters and improve them so that they move a story along.

This seminal work of nonfiction recounts the new, journalistic mass movement of today. Compiled from more than a decade of investigative reporting, coupled with a vast reference of philosophical research, American Muckraker is the definitive guide of truth-telling in the video age.

From Plato to present, the wisdom of the western world in writing is summarized. Oratory is also covered.

A book for any Canadian who has wanted to self-publish. Get an overview of publishing a book, and answers to some Canadian-specific questions. What is withholding? How do I stop it? What's an ISBN and will I need to mortgage my house to buy one? Should I use Canadian spellings in my book? What publishing platforms are out there? If you’re a Canadian who has always wanted to write and self-publish, this book will give you a great overview of the industry, answer some of the most common questions people have, and get your career off on the right foot.

What if I told you you could write and publish your first novel in 90 days? All you have to do is ignore conventional wisdom and follow this book’s proven steps and techniques. In this book, best-selling author Jerry Minchey shows you his easy-to-implement, proven techniques for writing your first novel.

The Zettelkasten method is the perfect way to harness the power of technology to remember what you read and boost creativity. Invented in the 16th century and practiced to its fullest extent by a German sociologist who wrote 70 books and hundreds of articles, the Zettelkasten method is exploding in popularity. Writers of all types are discovering that digital tools make the method more powerful than ever, turning your digital life into an “external brain” or “bicycle for the mind”.

Today's writers need more spunk than Strunk: whether it's the Great American email, Madison Avenue advertising, or Grammy Award-winning rap lyrics, memorable writing must jump off the page. Copy veteran Constance Hale is on a mission to make creative communication, both the lyrical and the unlawful, an option for everyone. With its crisp, witty tone, Sin and Syntax covers grammar's ground rules while revealing countless unconventional syntax secrets that make for sinfully good writing.

Over her four decades of working in newsrooms big and small, Margaret Sullivan has become a trusted champion and critic of the American news media. In this bracing memoir, Sullivan traces her life in journalism and how trust in the mainstream press has steadily eroded.

While on a research trip in Peru, science journalist Alice Robb became hooked on lucid dreaming - the uncanny phenomenon in which a sleeping person can realize that they're dreaming and even control the dreamed experience. Finding these forays both puzzling and exhilarating, Robb dug deeper into the science of dreams at an extremely opportune moment: just as researchers began to understand why dreams exist. They aren't just random events; they have clear purposes. They help us learn and even overcome psychic trauma.

Finally—a book of writing advice that accounts for all of the messy, perverse, practical, and inexplicable parts of being a human who writes.