WRT533

A Writer's Bookshelf

I believe that a good writer occasionally reflects about the act of writing itself, including thinking about words and sentences as well as overall content and the method of presentation. I have found the following useful to have nearby, for reference or for contemplation. Start with dictionary, thesaurus, and a good guide to grammar and syntax, as these are essential. The rest are for depth and pleasure.

Dictionaries

• Webster's New World Dictionary. College Edition.
• The American Heritage Dictionary. New College Edition.

Thesaurus

• Roget's International Thesaurus

Writer's Handbooks (Grammar and Syntax)

• Fowler & Aaron. 2009. The Little, Brown Handbook, 11th ed. Addison Wesley Longman, 992p plus index. (Look for earlier editions as used books, too.)
• Tufte, Virginia. 2006. Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style. Graphics Pr. 308 p.

Style Guides

• Council of Biology Editors (CBE Style Manual Committee). 1994. CBE Style Manual, 6th ed. Council of Biology Editors, Inc., Bethesda , MD. 324 p.
• Morse, ed. 1985 . Webster's Standard American Style Manual. Merriam-Webster. 464p.
• Strunk & White. 2000 . The Elements of Style. 4th ed. MacMillan. 105 pages.
• Turabian. 2007. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 7th ed. Univ. Chicago Pr. 466 p.
• University of Chicago Press. 1993 . The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers. 14th edition. 933 p.

Guides to Science Writing

• Day, Robert A. 2011. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. 7th edition. Greenwood. 300 p.
• Day, Robert. 1992. Scientific English. Oryx Press. 125p.
• Markel, Mike. 2012. Technical Communication, 10th edition. Bedford/St. Martin's. 832 p. ($99, Amazon).
• Montgomery. 2003. The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science. Univ. Chicago Pr. 228 p.

Good Books About Scientific Writing

• Atkinson. 1999. Scientific Discourse in Sociohistorical Context: The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1675-1975. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. Pub. 208 p.
• Fulwiler. 2002. College Writing: A Personal Approach to Academic Writing. 3rd ed. Boynton / Cook. 245 p.
• Gross. 1990. A Rhetoric of Science. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press. 248p.
• Gross, Harmon, and Reidy. 2002. Communicating Science: The Scientific Article from the 17th Century to the Present. 267 p.
• Harmon and Gross. 2010. The Craft of Scientific Communication. Univ. Chicago. 225 p.
• Prelli. 1989. A Rhetoric of Science: Inventing Scientific Discourse. Columbia: Univ. South Carolina Press.
• Zinsser. 2006. On Writing Well (30th Anniversary Edition). HarperCollins. 321 p.
• Zinsser. 1988. Writing to Learn. Harper & Row. 255 p.