Ben Yagoda

I almost liked this one, but not quite. The premise is a good one: teaching people to avoid the worst mistakes in their writing and produce competent prose that will serve most purposes. However, the tone felt harsh at times, especially in characterizing the students who produced some of the examples of bad writing, and I couldn't agree with the author's stance against logical punctuation (putting commas and periods outside quotation marks when they are not part of the material being quoted) show more and the use of "they" as a singular pronoun. I'd rather people use "they" than clunk around with "he/she" all the time. It's how people talk and will be understood. (If I think the audience of the document will object to this use of "they", I will recast the sentence to make the subject plural. Take that!)

This may be a better book to read if you haven't read too many books about writing -- I've read a lot of them and didn't get much new out of this one (except for the interesting tidbit about opening single quotes vs apostrophes). show less

For anyone who loves the English language or good writing or both this is a brief but essential book. With wry humor the author skewers the abusers of English while providing an important message for those who are able to calm down after each fit of laughter.

In some ways this seems like a high-brow version of Richard Armour, but just not too high. The book covers parts of speech from Adj. to V. and seven others in between. With quips like this - "Every word, when a grammarian knows not what show more to make of it, he calls an adverb." - from the Roman Servius. Or there are examples of words that go rogue like prepositions that end up being adverbs or phrasal verbs. For what it's worth I enjoyed the ride and survived to, hopefully, use adjectives and other words with a bit more circumspection than I may have in the past. show less

Oddly enough, I've never been a reader of The New Yorker. I've been aware of the magazine since my teens and have read references to it quite often, but I've never sat down and actually read through a single issue. So it was surprising that I enjoyed this book so much--or maybe not surprising. Even in my teens, I read James Thurber's books with glee. I've loved E.B. White since my third-grade teacher read Charlotte's Web to our class. I am familiar with the writers and cartoonists of The New show more Yorker the way I am familiar with classical music. It has always been in the background of my life and I've heard it, but often haven't paid attention to it.

Yagoda gained access to the archives of The New Yorker when they were donated to the New York Public Library. He recognized a good story when he saw it. He covers the events of the magazine from its beginnings with the legendary editor Harold Ross until the late 1990s. He goes into fascinating descriptions of the people involved in the magazine and how their personalities and quirks shaped it. To me, the book was as engrossing as a good novel. For decades, I've looked at many of its writers as mythical figures. It was humbling and somehow heartening to find that they were human after all.

Now I need to find his book on Will Rogers. show less

An excellent reincarnation of Strunk and White. Anyone who attempts to teach writing, in any subject, should assign this book. Like The Elements of Style, How to Not Write Bad begins with a general essay on the importance of clarity and brevity and then moves into more specific advice. Yagoda's examples of weak writing are perfectly chosen. Reading this will make you even more self-conscious of what your write, as I was when I began this review with a fragment. Yagoda's goal is not to show more inspire budding geniuses or brownbeat the reader into memorizing rules; instead, his assumption (reflected in his title) is that writing "not bad" is a challenge--nevermind writing like Orwell. The book reminded me of a sign I once saw in a classroom: "Don't try to be different. Just try to be good. Being good is different enough." Writing "not bad" is different enough, too. Recommended. show less