Writing Tools

Tools not rules, says Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, the esteemed school for journalists and teachers of journalists. Clark believes that everyone can write well with the help of a handful of useful tools that he has developed over decades of writing and teaching. If you search for "Roy Peter Clark, Writing Tools," you'll find an astonishing 1.25 million results. That's because journalists everywhere rely on his tips to help them write well every day; in fact, he receives emails from around the world from grateful writers.

Writing Tools covers everything from the basics (Tool 5: Watch those adverbs) to the more complex (Tool 34: Turn your notebook into a camera) and uses more than 300 examples from literature and journalism to illustrate the concepts. For students, aspiring novelists, and writers of memos, emails, PowerPoint presentations, and love letters, here are 50 indispensable, memorable, and usable tools.