Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace

Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (also known as Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace and Style: Toward Clarity and Grace) is a book by Joseph M. Williams, late professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. The author claims and aspires to demonstrate that “it is good to write clearly, and anyone can.” (Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (9th Edition) 4). The book, based on a course, "The Little Red Schoolhouse," taught for many years at Chicago by Williams,^[1] has gone through numerous editions and become a popular text for writing classes.

Content

• Preface

Part One: Style as Choice

• Lesson One: Understanding Style
• Lesson Two: Correctness

Part Two: Clarity

• Lesson Three: Actions
• Lesson Four: Characters
• Lesson Five: Cohesion and Coherence
• Lesson Six: Emphasis

Part Three: Grace

• Lesson Seven: Concision
• Lesson Eight: Shape
• Lesson Nine: Elegance

Part Four: Form

• Lesson Ten: Motivating Coherence
• Lesson Eleven: Global Coherence

Part Five: Ethics

• Lesson Twelve: The Ethics of Style

• Appendix: Punctuation
• Glossary
• Suggested Answers
• Acknowledgments
• Index

Editions in print

• Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. 9th Edition. New York: Pearson Longman (2007) ISBN 0-321-47935-1 ISBN 978-0321479358 (paper)
• Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace. 2nd Edition (2006) ISBN 0-321-33085-4 ISBN 978-0321330857 (paper)
• Style: Toward Clarity and Grace (1995) ISBN 0-226-89915-2 ISBN 978-0226899152 (paper)

Earlier editions

• Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman (1981, 1985, 1989), New York: HarperCollins (1989, 1994), New York: Longman (1997, 2000, 2003), Toronto: Longman (2005), New York: Pearson Longman (2005)
• Style : The Basics of Clarity and Grace. New York: Longman (2003)
• Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1990) with two chapters coauthored by Gregory G. Colomb

Translations

Russian (2003, 2005)

On-line reviews

• Review of Style: Toward Clarity and Grace (1990) by J. Bradford
• Review of Style: Toward Clarity and Grace (1990) by Susan Stepney

Notes

External links

• Style: Toward Clarity and Grace at UoCP
• Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity & Grace, 1st. ed., at Amazon
• Four steps to better writing, a handout prepared by Paul Dudenhefer based on Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace