Just to Be Clear: Writing What You Mean

5 stars

Clearly good writing advice

I loved this book. Although it is short and doesn’t cover a lot of ground, what it does cover it does excellently. Author Lynn McNamee focuses on misplaced or dangling modifiers and shows some common errors writers make. McNamee also shows possible fixes. Then there are practice quizzes with solutions. Importantly, McNamee gives multiple solutions as there is rarely only one correct way to write. I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in improving their writing.

Disclosure: I received this book for free via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

What a fantastic and concise guide to pinpoint issues in scripts that just don't seem to fit quite right. The guide is a very succinct summary of how to spot misplaced or dangling modifiers and participles, vague antecedents and in what manner to address paragraphing correctly. There are hints as to methodology to correct the problems from the many examples offered. Each section also presents a quiz with answers to ensure the reader has understood the specifics.
The writing style of this guide is clear and easy to follow. I liked the fact that not just one correction was offered at times so that many ways of fixing sentences was offered. Even seasoned editors and writers need a bit of brushing up every now and then, and this handy little guide looks to be part of a great series able to do that.
Received from Netgalley for a review.

'Just to Be Clear: Writing What You Mean' by Lynn McNamee is a short work with perhaps a confusing title. It's actually book four of the Beyond the Style Manual series.

The book seeks to correct sentence grammar errors. Topics covered include Dangling Participles, Misused Participial Phrases, Vague Antecedents, and more. There are examples given along with quizzes for most sections. For the quizzes, sample sentences are given and the reader has to decide if they are written correctly, and, if not, prompted to rewrite them.

At only 42 pages, it is pretty short, but at less than a dollar, it offers some helpful advice. I just wish the title were a bit clearer. It's part of a larger series, and that should be more apparent, and the subtitle should be clearer on what the focus of this volume is on. Yes, it is on clearer writing, but it seems to be mainly in sentence modifiers. Nevertheless, the samples, advice and quizzes are all helpful.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Red Adept Publishing, LLC and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

For $1, you can spend 1-2 hours to read this booklet about how to avoid several common grammatical mistakes, such as:

- Dangling participles
- Misused participial and prepositional phrases
- Squinting modifiers
- How to paragraph a narrative

As an author of 2 books, I didn't learn that much, but it's a nice refresher.

On the one hand, you can learn most of these basic lessons (and many more) by just surfing websites about writing and grammar. So perhaps it's not worth getting this book.

On the other hand, it's only $1. Therefore, if it saves you the hassle and you want to collect the series, then go for it.

The publisher gave me a free review copy for this review.