Praise for The Elements of Expression

“In The Elements of Expression Arthur Plotnik covers it all: word choice, style, usage, syntax, and the differences between them. What’s more, he does it in a way that is funny and fundamentally helpful. To plunge into the pages of this book is to cast away doubt. Trade your hemming and hawing for a surefooted sense of how to write with power and authenticity. If you, too, suffer from ‘language anxiety,’ help is on the way. Plotnik delivers a dose of easy-to-digest information that will help you put your thoughts into shimmering words. He takes opaque ideas about writing and rhetoric and puts them in plain English you can understand—and use. I’d love this book even if I didn’t love this stuff. Let The Elements of Expression turn you into a more confident writer, and turn you on to the joy (and relief) of getting what’s inside outside.”

—Constance Hale,
author of Sin and Syntax and
Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch

 

“I just love this book. Arthur Plotnik is great fun to read, and in The Elements of Expression he’s given me hope that the horrible, fruitless fumbling for ‘the right words’ that torments so many writers needn’t be the death knell of nimble, beautiful expression.”

—June Casagrande,
author of It Was the Best of Sentences,
It Was the Worst of Sentences

 

“With sincerity, humor, and the occasional precision-lobbed ‘grenade,’ Arthur Plotnik teaches by example in The Elements of Expression. In urging us to shun generic writing and optimize value in our word choices, Plotnik joyfully demonstrates dozens of ways we can ‘abuse’ English to add interest and tension to dozy prose—all without forsaking authenticity and restraint.”

—Carol Fisher Saller,
author of The Subversive Copy Editor
and Eddie’s War

 

“This is a perfect book for lovers of language or for anyone who has ever struggled to find the right word to express the nuances of human experience. Plotnik’s The Elements of Expression is smart and funny and rich with the history of language. This book will help freshen any reader’s speech and purge it of the well-worn clichéd patterns of our time and stale mainstays such as awesome and amazing.”

—Kate Hopper,
author of Use Your Words:
A Writing Guide for Mothers