The Cranky Editor's Book
of Intolerable Fox Paws
(Oops! Faux Pas!):
Helpful Writing & Style Tips
So You Won't Look Stoopid
By Reginald W. Bacon
(Newburyport, Mass.:
Variety Arts Press, 2014)
148 pages; indexed
ISBN: 978-0-9817945-6-3
LOC: 2013956190
This book is a planning guide, grammar coach, typographic stylebook, graphics tip-sheet, pep-talk, and a plea for literacy rolled into one. The author, adopting the persona of The Cranky Editor, identifies --- in his no-nonsense fashion --- the common transgressions known as the "Intolerable Fox Paws" (faux pas). These are followed by the Fox Paw Remedies, with illustrative examples derived from the author's five decades of real-world experience. The aim of the book: To help motivated business and organizational writers address common troubles faced when preparing writing and printing projects. Offering so many laugh-out-loud examples of flabby phrasing, bungled usage, and boring business-speak, could the author really be that cranky? Read the book, find out, and along the way learn what you never knew about the craft of writing, editing, and typographic style.
The book addresses the challenges that a writer faces in the order usually encountered in a project: goals & purpose; organization; sentence structure & voice; subject & verb agreement; word choice & phrasing; usage & spelling; editing for sense & clarity; punctuation; typographic style; proofreading; and --- as a bridge to its companion book --- an introduction to design & layout.
For those who engage professionals for writing, advertising, or Web content projects, this book will help buyers distinguish a polished professional writer from a typist. For do-it-yourselfers, students, and even professionals, the author's curated and categorized bibliography is a fine basis for a reference library on the writer's craft.
The Cranky Editor's Book of Intolerable Fox Paws(Oops! Faux Pas!) was also the companion book for the now-retired seminar "Helpful Writing & Style Tips So You Won't Look Stoopid." Seminar attendees received a copy of the book for reference and follow-up study.
$16.00 (US) includes book-rate shipping in the U.S. (Inquire for additional international shipping cost.)
Payment accepted by PayPal, check, or money order.
To order by postal mail, send order details, your shipping address, and payment to Variety Arts Enterprises, P.O. Box 489, Newburyport, MA 01950.
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Book of Intolerable Fox Paws (Oops! Faux Pas!) ONLY,
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Get BOTH "Cranky Books" for only $30
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