Books in the Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing series

Business of Being a Writer offers the business education writers need but so rarely receive. It is meant for early career writers looking to develop a realistic set of expectations about making money from their work or for working writers who want a better understanding of the industry.

"The definitive guide for writers who want their prose to be both memorable and correct"--

Tells what every senior researcher knows: that research is not a mechanical, linear process, but a thoughtful and adventurous journey through a nonlinear world. The author breaks library research into seven basic and simultaneous tasks: design, search, scanning/browsing, reading, analyzing, filing, and writing.

Bad writing is bad for science. The problem is so significant that clear writing has become a legal requirement for federal agencies, thanks to the Plain Writing Act of 2010, which requires that writing be accessible, consistent, written in plain language, and easy to understand. This book shows how to produce such clear, concise scientific prose.

The ability to communicate in print and person is essential to the life of a successful scientist. This title teaches science students and scientists how to improve the clarity, cogency, and communicative power of their words and images. It analyzes the examples of how the best scientists communicate.

Explores the unconventional ways we communicate what we know about society to others. This book explores the many ways knowledge about society can be shared and interpreted through different forms of telling such as fiction, films, photographs, maps, mathematical models - many of which remain outside the boundaries of conventional social science.

Editing is a tricky business. It requires analytical flair and creative panache, the patience of a saint and the vision of a writer. This book provides an approach to developmental editing. It deals with the core tasks of shaping the proposal, finding the hook, building the narrative or argument, executing the plan, and establishing a style.

This guide to research methods covers four areas of social science: the creation of "imagery" to guide research; methods of "sampling" to generate maximum variety in the data; the development of "concepts" to organize findings; and "logical" methods of exploring the implications of the findings.

"Wow. No one ever told me this!" Wendy Laura Belcher has heard this countless times throughout her years of teaching and advising academics on how to write journal articles. Scholars know they must publish, but few have been told how to do so. So Belcher made it her mission to demystify the writing process. The result was Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks, which takes this overwhelming task and breaks it into small, manageable steps. For the past decade, this guide has been the go-to source for those creating articles for peer-reviewed journals. It has enabled thousands to overcome their anxieties and produce the publications that are essential to succeeding in their fields. With this new edition, Belcher expands her advice to reach beginning scholars in even more disciplines. She builds on feedback from professors and graduate students who have successfully used the workbook to complete their articles. A new chapter addresses scholars who are writing from scratch. This edition also includes more targeted exercises and checklists, as well as the latest research on productivity and scholarly writing. Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks is the only reference to combine expert guidance with a step-by-step workbook. Each week, readers learn a feature of strong articles and work on revising theirs accordingly. Every day is mapped out, taking the guesswork and worry out of writing. There are tasks, templates, and reminders. At the end of twelve weeks, graduate students, recent PhDs, postdoctoral fellows, adjunct instructors, junior faculty, and international faculty will feel confident they know that the rules of academic publishing and have the tools they need to succeed.

Comprehensively covers when and how to cite sources in a variety of citation styles

Economics is not a field that is known for good writing. Charts, yes. Sparkling prose, no.   Except, that is, when it comes to Deirdre Nansen McCloskey. Her conversational and witty yet always clear style is a hallmark of her classic works of economic history, enlivening the dismal science and engaging readers well beyond the discipline. And now she's here to share the secrets of how it's done.  Economical Writing is itself economical: a collection of thirty-five pithy rules for making your writing clear, concise, and effective. Proceeding from big-picture ideas to concrete strategies for improvement at the level of the paragraph, sentence, or word, McCloskey shows us that good writing, after all, is not just a matter of taste--it's a product of adept intuition and a rigorous revision process. Debunking stale rules, warning us that "footnotes are nests for pedants," and offering an arsenal of readily applicable tools and methods, she shows writers of all levels of experience how to rethink the way they approach their work, and gives them the knowledge to turn mediocre prose into magic.   At once efficient and digestible, hilarious and provocative, Economical Writing lives up to its promise. With McCloskey as our guide, it's impossible not to see how any piece of writing--on economics or otherwise--can, and perhaps should be, a pleasure to read.

The publication of The Dramatic Writer's Companion in 2009 cemented Will Dunne's reputation as a master teacher of playwrights, screenwriters, and anyone working on dramatic scripts. Divided into three major sections on character, scene, and story, the book consists of more than 60 exercises to help writers zero in on and solve specific problems in their scripts. The success of that book has led Dunne to write a sequel, with new workshop-tested exercises that address additional issues in script development. This new edition of The Dramatic Writer's Companion is fully linked to the sequel and allows readers to find related exercises of interest in the new volume, though it can also still be used as a stand-alone resource.

Earning praise from scientists, journalists, faculty, and students, this book helps writers to communicate data clearly. It draws on a decade of additional experience and research, expanding author's advice on reaching everyday audiences and further integrating non-print formats.

Suitable for those who needs to communicate complex research results, this title includes four new chapters that cover writing about interactions, writing about event history analysis, writing about multilevel models, and the "Goldilocks principle" for choosing the right size contrast for interpreting results for different variables.

Encourages legal writers to challenge conventions and offers valuable insights into the writing process that will appeal to other professionals: how to organize ideas, create and refine prose, and improve editing skills. This title includes case examples from past decade and addresses the widespread use of legal documents in electronic formats.