Plain Style: A Guide to Written English

Plain Style is a fantastic book for anyone learning how to write better. Lasch builds off of Shrunk and White and directs toward an audience (specifically historians). I think that first-year students (undergrads and graduates) need to read this book as to help write in a readable and concise manner.This book helped me get rid off useless writing tricks that so many people see in academic writing. Lasch criticizes many authors for deliberately using jargon that separates the writer from the audience and points out many famous authors that were inspirational, but their writing was less than desirable (Herbert Croley comes to mind). He also is based on George Orwell's notion of plain writing.If you want to be a better writer, this book will be a tool you can use. Plain Style will not guarantee one will be a better writer because writing is a craft that takes time grasp, but this book, combined with Shrunk and White, Kate Turabian, George Orwell's Politics and the English Language and Willam Zinsser will help a person think about writing and will help you become a conscious writer.

A brilliant work. On the surface just a great guide, but simple, guide to writing; however, there is an underlying theme of witty biting political commentary about the use and abuse of the English language. The best part is in the introduction where it gives examples of some of the arcane writing Lasch was rebelling against.

Product arrived timely with good condition.

Plain Style was written in 1985 by Christopher Lasch, a history professor who was frustrated with his students' lack of writing ability. There are six sections:Elementary Principles of Literary ConstructionConventions Governing Punctuation, Capitalization, Typography, and FootnotesCharacteristics of Bad WritingWords Often MisusedWords Often MispronouncedProofreaders' MarksApparently Lasch's frustration with students went beyond just their writing skills. "I keep simplifying my course in 20th century American history, but the students keep getting dumber faster than I can simplify it," Lasch wrote in a letter to his father. "Every year the illiteracy gets worse."The current book was published after the author's death and includes an introduction by Stewart Weaver. The introduction is disproportionately long, taking up 42 of 121 pages.

Great book. Very useful for me that english is my second language.

I appreciate what the author was attempting to do, but do not feel the book succeeds. It is too dry to read on its own (as a sort of William Safire-style curmudgeon rant on language), and not comprehensive enough to be a useful desk reference.In addition, the first 30 or so pages are actually a biography of the author (who died a few years ago) by one of his colleagues. Perhaps to someone researching Lasch himself (who was, admittedly, a renown academic) this material would be interesting, but it isn't in the context of language reference.

The introductory essay alone makes this book worthwhile -- the editor traces Lasch's evolution as a historian, and shows how his interest in plain writing evolved along with his political thinking. The examples in the text are both entertaining and informative, and the writing advice is excellent. A good resource people who care about how writing and thinking impact our society.