Empower Your Writing.

By Brianna D.

    The book that I read this month was Keys to Great Writing by Stephen Wilbers. It is a non fiction novel that revolves around bettering your writing by using different techniques. This is only one of two writing novels that Wilbers has written with the newest one being under the name Mastering the craft of writing. He has also, written two novels focusing on boundary waters named A Boundary Waters History: Canoeing Across Time and the other Canoeing the Boundary: Waters Wilderness. During Keys to Great Writing Wilbers first touches on the two styles that one can write by, surface style and deep style. Surface style is writing with technique which may be perfected by  research and practice. Deep style on the other hand has to do with yourself only and is perfected over time. Wilbers also, discuss the five elements of writing which are economy, precision, action, music, and personality. Then, focuses on the five elements of composition which include purpose, point of view, organization, support, and coherence. Then lastly, touches on the writing process and how to create checklists for when revising and making drafts.

    This book was engaging throughout the entire book because it was fascinating to see the most common mistakes that can be made while writing and the ways to fix them. I also, enjoyed the part of the book where Wilbers discusses on how to make every word count and a checklist that will help with taking out unnecessary words. The whole book is straightforward and is written in a way that most people will be able to understand. The checklists are used because they help have more knowledge when revise my own essay and make it the best I can possibly make it. The only thing that I felt was not its best was when Wilbers would take to discuss different strategies for writing he would mostly on talk on how to strengthen the strategies instead of first talking about what the strategy even meant.

    I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to empower their writing and make it the best it can possibly be. For people who do not write on a regular basis may benefit from this book the most based how this book is a writing coach available 24 hours! It shows how to develop a voice in writing and make it as unique and precise as possible. This is available at most book realtors and libraries.

Keys to Great Writing, by Stephen Wilbers, Writer's Digest Books, 2000, 252 pages.