Painless Writing

by Jeffrey Strausser

Titles in Barron's Painless Series are textbook supplements designed especially for classroom use by middle-school and high school students. The approach of each title is an appeal to students who think that the subject is boring, or too difficult, or both. The authors, all experienced educators, take a light approach, showing kids what is most interesting about each subject, and how seemingly difficult problems can be transformed into fun quizzes, brain-ticklers, and challenging puzzles with rational solutions. Here is practical advice that transforms essay writing into a satisfying experience for middle school and senior high school students. The author offers tips on enlivening writing with vivid images, smoothing out sentences, silencing the dull passive voice, and adding rhythm to writing. He also shows how to create a template that students can use when writing research papers for all subjects. In addition, students will find web site reference s cited throughout the text, which they can access. Brain ticklers (short quizzes) appear throughout the book with an answer key at the back.

Genres: Writing, Reference, Teaching, Language, Nonfiction, Academic, School

246 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2001

Reviews

[Fleur_de_soie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting and clear. Help you with your term paper with 8 techniques. I use this book to improve my academic writing skill. Very useful, I think. However, I am a bit shamed to read it, when it says in the book that it was written for students struggling with their first term paper. I have read several materials on academic writing. Almost all of them turned up to be boring or useless. So far this is the best one I have seen. Believe it or not.

[Patrick Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an experienced writer, I was not in the target audience of this book. However, the author, Mr Strausser, provided an interesting schema about teaching concepts of writing. This was my interest. The book is well edited and abounds with examples. I would recommend to any student who still hasn't quite grasped how to express ideas in their writing. It is also a model of how a book of instruction on a complex subject can be offered in bite-sized and interesting pieces.

[Netty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find the book interesting and enjoyed the exercises. Became more conscious of my writing and started spotting areas for improvement in articles etc. Students will find it useful while teachers will appreciate the reminders.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great tips and exercises. Sometimes goes a bit overboard. Overall, great.

[Tiffany Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

A excellent, easy-to-read book that explains the basics of clear, coherent writing. It's mostly geared towards middle and high schoolers, but as a college student, it did me well when I wanted to refresh my memory. It's not written in a loaded language, either; in fact, it was fun enough to finish for the Goodreads. Highly recommended.
I also recommend the "Painless Grammar" book, which does a perfect job at clearing up all the little grammar kinks that I notice far too many people of all ages struggle with.

[Karen]

This is a book I would like to read based on the review by Meg O'Rourke (M.A. in English from Cal Poly Pomona) in the January 2012 issue of "Language Magazine". Here are the first 2 paragraphs of her review:

"Painless Writing is just that. In clear, concise and engaging language, it provides students with nine techniques to help them improve their writing style. The often arduous process of attending to style becomes painless with the help of witty chapter titles, such as 'Clean up Preposition Clutter' and 'Silence the Passive Voice,' and Strausser's conversational writing style. Careful combinations of font styles and colors, text boxes, and illustrations that often humorously complement the text create visual appeal on every page. Neutral topics and simplistic examples in combination with sophisticated concepts make this text appropriate for early-advanced to advanced learners of various ages.

For students and teachers, defining effective style is often challenging. However, Strausser identifies fundamental aspects of academic style. Chapters cover local issues such as choosing active and vivid language, omitting unnecessary prepositions, passive constructions, and nominalizations; and more global issues like sentence variety, flow, rhythm, and essay-writing. However, if you're looking for a writing process or strategies guide, Painless Writing only touches on these subjects. What Painless Writing mostly means by the term 'writing' is style. Only one short chapter of the text discusses the writing process and study skills. Perhaps in the next edition, this chapter will be used as an introductory chapter and expanded by explaining how attending to and revising for style fits into the writing process. Overall, Painless Writing provides students with strategies that will help them produce clearer, more concise, and more interesting writing."

[Dianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Painless Writing" is another necessary addition to the series, a very clear and engaging book with sample problems and solutions. It has good, relatable examples and covers a variety of techniques that can be helpful to amateurs. Though it emphasizes on concise and direct writing, it can be too verbose and a little digressive (such as the introduction of prepositions without follow the book's note-like presentation). The science examples are (disappointingly) English opinions rather than scientific articles. One of the topic that were covered was vivid verb and though the book gives a few examples, a thesaurus is hinted to be a writer's best resource. Overall, it's one of the most clear and engaging books and definitely a good, quick, refreshing review.

[VampAmber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this out from the public library in hopes that it would help me with writing articles as a freelancer. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that it was intended for middle school students until I was almost done with it. Had I been a middle schooler trying to learn how to write term papers, this book would've been a lot better. But since I wasn't, I had to give it only three stars. There were some helpful bits, and I'll be able to use some of this with my articles, so it wasn't time wasted. I would definitely recommend this book to anybody in middle or high school who was trying to learn how to write term papers. It'd be really helpful for them.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeffrey Strausser's Painless Writing has immensely helped me with my writing. The lessons are clear and insightful. In addition, I've found writing to be more exciting and fun through working out the exercises in this book. I must admit though that I started to read it only recently. I still have a long way to go to improve my writing, but overall this book is the bomb! A definite read and it works great as a reference book.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked the pictures that were in it. overall i thought it was a good college essay help book, because it gave me a lot of fresh ideas to work with and i like how my essay has turned out. i defenitly recommend this book when they get stuck with boring writing it makes.

[Shivani Garg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve upon their comprehension skills. This book teaches simple yet effective ways to improve your written English. Highly useful for graduate students too who struggle with writing papers all the time!

[Ksenia Chernyshova · Rating 1 out of 5]

there are some useful tips, but I guess the book is mainly for students without any writing experience

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hesitated between two and three stars on this one. Some of my students have benefitted from it but others have really hated it. I think it has value if utilized properly and with the right person.

[Mars D.]

I enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot from it.

[Annie Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

It gave helpful tips! Would highly recommend.