Want to learn more? All of the open access books below are available freely on the web.
The materials used to create the popular course Good with Words: Writing and Editing are now available for free online. There is also a print version and a Kindle version.
To succeed in law, business, education, government, health care, and many other fields, it is becoming increasingly important to distinguish yourself as a savvy communicator. Social media has only accelerated the ways in which we all must learn to use our words to connect, compete, and create. Yet there are features of the English language that many of us haven’t taken full advantage of yet. Notes on Nuance is designed to help change that.
Drawing on a diverse collection of authors—from novelists to physicists, from ancient Greek historians to modern-day CEOs—it reveals the hidden mechanics that skilled writers use to add style and sophistication to their sentences and slogans. It’s the perfect resource for people who are looking to do more with their written words.
This book is available for free online or may be purchased at the same link.
The Syntax of Sports is that course you wish you took in college—even if you aren’t a sports fan. It’s interesting. It’s practical. It’s inspiring. And best of all, it teaches you a skill that is at once highly marketable and potentially transforming: how to become a better thinker and writer.
The beginning of a multi-volume series, this initial book recreates the first day of class as it was taught to undergraduates at the University of Michigan. The examples are compelling. The dialogue is fast moving. The stories are ones you’ll want to return to and retell over and over again.
Available for free online.
What can we learn from baseball great Ted Williams about how to improve our writing? What can we learn we from the iconic ESPN show SportsCenter about how to manage information? And are you sure you really know what the word “peruse” means?
Explore these and other questions in the second volume of The Syntax of Sports, a series designed to recreate a popular course at the University of Michigan.
Available for free online.
[Important note: Good Sentences does not endorse any of the opinions contained in the sentences in the collection. The only thing we endorse is the elegantly effective way these sentences were constructed.]