Academics who write books are usually specialists in their fields and should therefore write well --but do not bet your house on it! Many, it is suggested here, are not specialists in academic writing. For every book or article that is cogently penned, two are convoluted, abstruse, or opaque. Williams' book, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace, is none of these. It is clearly written in a concise style. It is a very good companion for helping undergraduate students to develop the complex cognitive skills that must be nurtured to write first class essays. It is a good reminder to authors of scholarly publications that mere mortals read their work too, and expect them to write clearly and concisely. So if you know the subjunctive pluperfect progressive and still cannot write, read on, and this book will get you on the right track.
Williams takes an altogether different view to Strunk and White. He does not promulgate "platitudes" and arcane advice like, "16. Be clear", Strunk & White (1979). Equally pedantic are other books that demand we strive for "clarity" or "coherence" and woe to the writer who mixes his "whichs " with his (sic) "thats" but seem somehow never to provide useful advice on just how we are to do this. Williams tells us how to do it. We can use his advice because it is reader based, unlike The Elements of Style which is rule based and tells us what to do, nicely. Williams postulates on a theory of why the rules are as they are and what to do when they conflict. Most undergraduate students are aware that they are writing for an audience but they become sidetracked by lack of mental discipline which torpedoes their work. Williams profoundly emphasises that the audience must be left in no doubt what he or she is reading.
He begins at the sentence level. His simple formula recognises the logical correlation of thought to understanding viz. sentences must be lexically tied. Williams evokes Van de Kopple's (1980) work with the "functional sentence perspective" which segments "new" and "old" information, the "old" information always providing a context for the "new". Van de Kopple found that the passages in which the sentences that followed FSP were "significantly more readable and memorable than their variants" (Van de Kopple, 1980 p.90). Accordingly, the beginning of the sentence looks back and the end of the sentence looks forward and is the place to put new ideas and new information. A grasp of Williams' "formula" is profoundly significant as it is uncomplicated and provides a symmetrical framework of reference from where the student writers can begin to construct and argue their position.
Williams then continues the writing process at the paragraph level. A paragraph's coherence stems from one single summary sentence at the end which binds the topics and themes contained in the paragraph's introductory sentence(s). Examples of his principles and techniques are illustrated in considerable detail without delving to deeply at this juncture into the "mechanics" of grammar and usage.
Style: Toward Clarity and Grace is not in competition with The Elements of Style, it is complimentary to it. The former provides an insight into how the mind operates during reading and applies this insight to the process of writing. In the latter, Strunk does the footwork and then informs the reader what should be avoided and what should be practiced. In short, Professor Williams' book provides undergraduate students with an intelligent, at times demanding but always a rich and challenging reference book. It will immeasurably lift our ability and deepen our appreciation and understanding of how to write better assignments at university.
There are ten chapters in the book, Williams devotes five of them to cohesion and concision. The others are "Causes", "Emphasis", "Length", "Elegance" and "Usage". His first chapter, "Causes" discusses the evolution and idiosyncrasies of the English language as a construct and platform for his major thesis contained in the remaining five chapters. The remainder of the book is given over to a thorough explanation of the principles and techniques involved in achieving clarity, grace, and attributes of good writing. The final chapter is a thirty page, tongue-in-cheek, "gloves off" attempt to discredit the grammar technicians. Williams succeeds at pinpointing why certain writing does not coalesce. He is also very good at demonstrating how writing is ultimately too vast, elusive, and personal a subject to ever be easily quantified. The book has a bighearted index, lots of examples, and is within the range of most students' budgets. Keep "Style" handy and refer to it often. It should take pride and place next to The Elements of Style on every student's bookshelf. |
