Writing-Communication – Page 6 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Review: Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion

By Scott J. Pearson | June 27, 2019April 1, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Thompson has an interesting professional biography. He earned a PhD in rhetoric, taught at a community college, decided he didn’t like academe, and went into police work. I have never met anyone who has combined police work with rhetoric, but Thompson seems to have been successful at this task. His main content consists of teaching about rhetoric – or less pretentiously, verbal communication. However, he entertains by filling in with stories about police work, family…

Writing-Communication

Review: The Essential Guide to Freelance Writing

By Scott J. Pearson | June 23, 2019June 23, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Those who follow me might notice a trend. I am reading a series of books on freelance writing and on writing and communication in general. This book, part of a series by Writer’s Digest, talks about how the author continues to pursue a career in freelance writing. Petit talks about the art of the query (i.e., pitching an idea), how to freelance both as a full-timer and as a part-timer, and what to expect from…

Writing-Communication

Review: 2019 Writer’s Market

By Scott J. Pearson | June 19, 2019June 19, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

How do writers put bread on the table and figure out places to publish their works? This reference resource, republished every year, is a big part of the how. Perusing its listings will put the writer in better shape for publishing her/his works. The first section of this work (about 900 pages long!) is about the business of writing – how to pitch pieces as a freelance writer and how to manage a business in…

Writing-Communication

Review: Writer’s Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing

By Scott J. Pearson | June 17, 2019June 17, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Writing is as much of a tradition as it is an art form, and like most traditions, tricks of the trade are passed down from practitioner to apprentices. This book, informed by Flanagan’s 20 years of experience as a writer, introduces readers to the publishing industry. As the title implies, this work is specifically geared towards writing magazine articles. Flanagan describes how to organize one’s self towards the production of copy for magazines. This book…

Writing-Communication

Review: Arts Reviews: And How to Write Them

By Scott J. Pearson | May 22, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Is it fair to write a review about a book on writing reviews? Perhaps not, but I will attempt the feat nonetheless. In this work, British author Celia Brayfield offers her readers wisdom and experiences from her career of writing arts reviews for periodicals. (She has since moved on to writing full books.) She spends first eight of the ten chapters sharing the rules of the road for writing arts reviews. She fills in these…

Writing-Communication

Review: The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing

By Scott J. Pearson | May 12, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

by Mayra Calvani and Anne K. EdwardsTwilight Times BooksCopyright (c) 2008ISBN13: 9781933353227Page Count: 190 pagesGenre: Non-fiction, reference Have you ever been frustrated by the lack of quality of book reviews on Amazon.com? So many “love it” or “hate it” comments, but so little who tell you why this book meant so much to them… I desire to change that in my writing, so I bought this book to learn to write book reviews better. Mayra…

Writing-Communication

Review: How To Write a Simple Book Review: It’s easier than you think

By Scott J. Pearson | May 2, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

How To Write a Simple Book Review: It’s easier than you think by Allyson R. Abbott My rating: 3 of 5 stars I picked up this book in an attempt to master the art of writing book reviews further. This is a hobby of mine, and I like to practice it in combination with my “day job” of computer programming. This “indie” author provides an introduction to book reviewing. It reads conversationally – in a…

Writing-Communication

Review: You Are A Writer

By Scott J. Pearson | April 9, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

You Are A Writer by Jeff Goins My rating: 0 of 5 stars This book is a short introduction into the mindset and practices that writers today can succeed with. It places a principle that writers are mainly designed to write. Nonetheless, there are also other marketing, technology, and networking skills that can help writers, like me, to succeed financially in their ventures. Goins takes the position opposite of Hemingway and stereotype that writers ought…

Writing-Communication

Review: A Moveable Feast

By Scott J. Pearson | April 7, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway My rating: 0 of 5 stars This memoir, published posthumously, covers Hemingway’s early days in Paris, right after he decided to leave journalism to become a writer of fiction. He was married, a father, constantly writing, friends with some very intelligent and very successful writers (Gertrude Stein and Scott Fitzgerald), and – to use his words – “very poor and very happy.” In this series of short essays, he…

Writing-Communication

Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method

By Scott J. Pearson | December 6, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Gerald M. WeinbergCopyright (c) 2011 Gerry Weinberg has a PhD in communications and has written around 60 books on various topics, mostly having to do with computer programming. As a glorified computer programmer and an aspiring writer, this Weinberg book on his methodology for writing seems appealing. His basic take runs through writing from the heart. He uses the analogy for nineteen of twenty chapters in this book of craftsperson building a wall with…