PART ONE: Style as Choice Lesson One: Understanding Style Lesson Two: Correctness PART TWO: Clarity Lesson Three: Actions Lesson Four: Characters Lesson Five: Cohesion and Coherence Lesson Six: Emphasis PART THREE: Grace Lesson Seven: Concision Lesson Eight: Shape Lesson Nine: Elegance PART FOUR: Form Lesson Ten: Motivating Coherence Lesson Eleven: Global Coherence PART FIVE: Ethics Lesson Twelve: The Ethics of Style Glossary Suggested Answers

Clear, accessible prose provides model for good writing in any context. Quick Tips throughout provide brief summaries of important information. An ethical analysis, using the Declaration of Independence as its focus, demonstrates how good writers manipulate language and, as a result, our responses to their writing. A list of “common errors” in Lesson 2 offers an easy quick reference. “Here’s the Point” summaries provide quick and easy reviews of important material. Exercises throughout encourage readers to work and learn with others. A wealth of epigrams provide witty support for the lessons themselves.

1. A new coauthor,  Joe Bizup of Boston University, created the revision for the 11th edition.  Joe’s long-standing relationship with The Little Red Schoolhouse and both Joe Williams and Greg Colomb, make him the ideal candidate to revise the new edition and carry on the unique voice of Style.   2. The lesson on “Motivating Coherence” and the lesson on  “Global Coherence”  have been moved to become Lessons 7 and 8 respectively. This move continues the trajectory of the last few editions where the importance of global or document-level features of texts was increasingly emphasized. Now, rather than moving from sentence-level to document-level issues, the book follows the logic of its subtitle and proceeds from clarity to grace.     3. Many exercises have been revised--trimming or eliminating some and adding others. Most significantly, Lessons 3 through 12 now end with new exercises, grouped under the heading “In Your Own Words,” that invite writers to work with their own prose, first alone and then with help from readers.   4. In response to readers’ suggestions, some explanations have been streamlined, examples have been updated, and the book’s hallmark “fixed/variable” diagrams are now found in the “Summing Up” section at the end of each lesson.    5. Throughout the text, there has been careful attention to detail including meticulous line editing to adhere to Joe Williams’ original adage that he  “would never forgive even the smallest infelicity . . . intentionally left behind.”