John Marsh is Professor of English and Director of the Center for American Literary Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

• AcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroductionA Difficult Dilemma: On ConcisionPassive Aggressive: On the Active and Passive VoiceLights, Camera, Action Verbs!Lost Connections: Modifiers, Parallelism, Transitions, and Vague PronounsBetter Late Than Never: On ClichésThe Art of Joinery: Fragments, Run-On Sentences, and the Oxford CommaThe Long and Short of It: On Sentence Variety Pretentious Diction: On the SesquipedalianConventionsInclusionPutting It All Together: QuizzesAnswers to ExercisesAnswers to QuizzesNotes

A Way with Words frames the importance of style with effective and persuasive rationales. Not only does Marsh present these rationales, but he also follows his own advice about style throughout—most importantly by focusing on the reader-writer relationship and cultivating that connection through his own approachable writing style. He addresses common and important topics in writing style from a current perspective and offers effective and relevant advice for writers across many disciplines.

John Marsh is Professor of English and Director of the Center for American Literary Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

• AcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroductionA Difficult Dilemma: On ConcisionPassive Aggressive: On the Active and Passive VoiceLights, Camera, Action Verbs!Lost Connections: Modifiers, Parallelism, Transitions, and Vague PronounsBetter Late Than Never: On ClichésThe Art of Joinery: Fragments, Run-On Sentences, and the Oxford CommaThe Long and Short of It: On Sentence Variety Pretentious Diction: On the SesquipedalianConventionsInclusionPutting It All Together: QuizzesAnswers to ExercisesAnswers to QuizzesNotes

A Way with Words frames the importance of style with effective and persuasive rationales. Not only does Marsh present these rationales, but he also follows his own advice about style throughout—most importantly by focusing on the reader-writer relationship and cultivating that connection through his own approachable writing style. He addresses common and important topics in writing style from a current perspective and offers effective and relevant advice for writers across many disciplines.

John Marsh is Professor of English and Director of the Center for American Literary Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

• AcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroductionA Difficult Dilemma: On ConcisionPassive Aggressive: On the Active and Passive VoiceLights, Camera, Action Verbs!Lost Connections: Modifiers, Parallelism, Transitions, and Vague PronounsBetter Late Than Never: On ClichésThe Art of Joinery: Fragments, Run-On Sentences, and the Oxford CommaThe Long and Short of It: On Sentence Variety Pretentious Diction: On the SesquipedalianConventionsInclusionPutting It All Together: QuizzesAnswers to ExercisesAnswers to QuizzesNotes

A Way with Words frames the importance of style with effective and persuasive rationales. Not only does Marsh present these rationales, but he also follows his own advice about style throughout—most importantly by focusing on the reader-writer relationship and cultivating that connection through his own approachable writing style. He addresses common and important topics in writing style from a current perspective and offers effective and relevant advice for writers across many disciplines.