Do I Make Myself Clear?: A Practical Guide to Writing Well in the Modern Age

by Harold Evans

Overview

A wise and entertaining guide to writing English the proper way by one of the greatest newspaper editors of our time.

Harry Evans has edited everything from the urgent files of battlefield reporters to the complex thought processes of Henry Kissinger. He's even been knighted for his services to journalism. In Do I Make Myself Clear?, he brings his indispensable insight to us all in his definite guide to writing well.

The right words are oxygen to our ideas, but the digital era, with all of its TTYL, LMK, and WTF, has been cutting off that oxygen flow. The compulsion to be precise has vanished from our culture, and in writing of every kind we see a trend towards more — more speed and more information but far less clarity.

Evans provides practical examples of how editing and rewriting can make for better communication, even in the digital age. Do I Make Myself Clear? is an essential text, and one that will provide every writer an editor at his shoulder.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316509190
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	466,104
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Harold Evans (1928-2020) was a British-born journalist and writer who was editor of the Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981. A graduate of Durham University, he wrote a number of bestselling histories. He followed the late Alistair Cooke in commentaries on America for the BBC. An American citizen after 1993, he held positions as editor-in-chief of the Atlantic Monthly Press, founding editor of the prize-winning Condé Nast Traveler; editorial director of the Atlantic and US News and the New York Daily News; and president and publisher of Random House.

He held the British Press Awards' Gold Award for Lifetime Achievement of Journalists. In 2001 British journalists voted him the all-time greatest British newspaper editor, and in 2004 he was knighted. 

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

I Tools of the Trade 7

1 A Noble Thing 9

2 Use and Abuse of Writing Formulas 32

3 The Sentence Clinic 50

4 Ten Shortcuts to Making Yourself Clear 84

5 Please Don't Feed the Zombies, Flesh-Eaters, and Pleonasms 148

Interlude: Give the Bard a Break 185

II Finishing the Job 187

6 Every Word Counts 189

7 Care for Meanings 200

8 Storytelling: The Long and Short of It 231

III Consequences 257

9 Steps Were Taken: Explaining the Underwear Bomber 259

10 Money and Words 272

11 Buried Treasure: It's Yours, but Words Get in the Way 298

12 Home Runs for Writers 325

Afterthought 351

Acknowledgments 357

Answers to "Man or Machine?" 363

Analysts: The Bomber-How 2,567 Words Became 1,030 365

Bibliography 399

Index 415

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Clarity and wit have something in common, and it's Harry Evans. He clears a path through the thorny underbrush that stands between us and meaning, and he does it with cutting humor and graceful charm. He certainly does make himself clear, and us, too.” -Alan Alda, Actor and Writer

“The great French writer Émile Zola said that his prose style was "forged on the terrible anvil of daily deadlines," but the anvil of journalism is no use without the hammer of a great editor. Few if any wordsmiths hit harder than Sir Harold Evans. From the foggy corridors of Fleet Street to the lofty heights of Manhattan publishing, he has dedicated his life to hammering sloppy verbiage into plain English. Witty, wonderfully well written, but above all wise, Do I Make Myself Clear? should be required reading for all who scribble, type, or otherwise 'word process.' " -Niall Ferguson, Senior Fellow, the Hoover Institution, Stanford

“Harold (Harry) Evans is a writer and thinker of deep and celebrated accomplishment and marked independence, and his new book on how our government hides behind a word it's never even heard of- prolixity - is acutely on target.” -Peggy Noonan author of The Time of Our Lives

“Read this book before you write another word. As original as it is entertaining, Harold Evans' guided tour of every nuance of our language amounts to a masterly reappraisal of English usage for our times by a consummate editor turned writer.” -Anthony Holden editor of Poems that Make Grown Men Cry

Harry Evans is one of the great -- indeed legendary -- editors of our time. Over the course of his career, he has edited newspapers, books and magazines, which surely qualifies as a publishing trifecta. All his talents -- and irresistible charm -- are on display in Do I Make Myself Clear? It's much more than a guide to English usage -- it's a companion: informative, delightful and indispensable. Do not hit INT or SEND without it! -Christopher Buckley author of Thank You For Smoking

Editorial Reviews

"Sir Harold Evans' memoir-cum-craft manual in which he rollicks - with all the joy and adventurousness of a rock 'n' roll tell-all...Of the truly silly number of hours I've spent with my nose in the binding of books on the craft of writing, those I spent with Do I Make Myself Clear? were the only I spent smiling, in search of someone I could read aloud to."—NPR

"Mr. Evans's skills are on display on nearly every page of "Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters." Writing a book about writing well can be hazardous for the author-reviewing one is risky, too-but in this case at least the author and his readers have nothing to fear."—Edward Kosner, Wall Street Journal

"Have you heard of Harold Evans Sir Harold Evans? Of course you have. He is one of the greatest and most garlanded editors alive....As a master editor and distinguished author, Evans is well qualified to instruct us on how to write well. But can he delight us in the process After reading this book, I can affirm the answer is yes."—Jim Holt, New York Times Book Review

"A writing manual so smart and incisive that it could surely benefit anyone-journalist, student, business executive, legislator-who has ever tried to craft an English sentence and fallen short."—Malcolm Jones, Daily Beast

"Going well beyond the typical style guide's proscriptions against the passive voice, cliché, and so on, this polemic on writing takes the view that "the oppressive opaqueness" of much contemporary prose "is a moral issue."—New Yorker

"Evans's book offers plenty of practical advice for those seeking to improve their writing skills, with a 10-point checklist to encourage a clear approach."—Financial Times

"In the tradition of George Orwell, who said that political language is designed to make lies sound truthful, Harry Evans reminds us how important it is to write clearly. Then he shows how. Those of us who have been edited by Harry marvel at his dexterity in unclogging dense prose, and in this book he reveals his secrets."—Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

"A timely reminder that precision of language is the writer's greatest weapon. Harry Evans' methodical research and wry eye provide an entertaining lesson in intent, measured and exacting. At a time when public debate is shrill and filled by the overly assertive, Evans gives us a treat of a book that, through the use of practical examples, allows us to bathe in a language of clarity. Do I Make Myself Clear? shows that writing remains the gift of the ultimate explorer. Make more time for the journey."—David Walmsley, Editor-in-Chief, The Globe and Mail

Harry Evans is one of the great — indeed legendary — editors of our time. Over the course of his career, he has edited newspapers, books and magazines, which surely qualifies as a publishing trifecta. All his talents — and irresistible charm — are on display in Do I Make Myself Clear? It's much more than a guide to English usage — it's a companion: informative, delightful and indispensable. Do not hit INT or SEND without it!—Christopher Buckley author of Thank You For Smoking

"Read this book before you write another word. As original as it is entertaining, Harold Evans' guided tour of every nuance of our language amounts to a masterly reappraisal of English usage for our times by a consummate editor turned writer."—Anthony Holden editor of Poems that Make Grown Men Cry



"Harold (Harry) Evans is a writer and thinker of deep and celebrated accomplishment and marked independence, and his new book on how our government hides behind a word it's never even heard of- prolixity - is acutely on target."—Peggy Noonan author of The Time of Our Lives

"The great French writer Émile Zola said that his prose style was "forged on the terrible anvil of daily deadlines," but the anvil of journalism is no use without the hammer of a great editor. Few if any wordsmiths hit harder than Sir Harold Evans. From the foggy corridors of Fleet Street to the lofty heights of Manhattan publishing, he has dedicated his life to hammering sloppy verbiage into plain English. Witty, wonderfully well written, but above all wise, Do I Make Myself Clear? should be required reading for all who scribble, type, or otherwise 'word process.' "—Niall Ferguson, Senior Fellow, the Hoover Institution, Stanford

"Clarity and wit have something in common, and it's Harry Evans. He clears a path through the thorny underbrush that stands between us and meaning, and he does it with cutting humor and graceful charm. He certainly does make himself clear, and us, too."—Alan Alda, Actor and Writer

From the Publisher

As a master editor and distinguished author, Evans is well qualified to instruct us on how to write well. But can he delight us in the process? After reading this book, I can affirm that the answer is yes…the precepts Evans offers are both edifying and entertaining…Writing is hard…and there is no better way of cultivating [your] inner editor than following Evans as he plies his craft…I wish I had the editorial chops to produce such an authoritative guide myself.

The New York Times Book Review - Jim Holt

05/15/2017
Every writer needs an editor, and British-born best-selling author Evans (My Paper Chase) has filled that role for numerous journalists and other nonfiction writers. Evans's prolific career spans British and American publications such as the Sunday Times (editor, 1967–81), Atlantic Monthly, and U.S. News & World Report. His investigative work is also the subject of the documentary Attacking the Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime. Mixing straightforward, sentence-level revision strategies with higher-level analyses of complex texts, this latest work balances critique with celebration. Some of the advice covers familiar topics (e.g., the passive voice, nominalizations); other subjects include language choices, which are contextualized in relation to historical, political, and social movements and events. In addition to examples from various media outlets, White House reports and legislative texts come under scrutiny. The idea of "clear" writing guides the suggestions, analysis, and revisions of exemplary and less-effective prose. VERDICT A fascinating look into the processes that made Evans one of the most respected journalists of the past century.—Meagan Storey, Virginia Beach

Library Journal

2017-01-18
Although this is yet another how-to, self-help text for would-be writers—with some of the usual hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing about the abuses of English today—this one merits more attention because it comes from the keyboard of a celebrated journalist and editor.Reuters editor at large Evans (My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times, 2009), who has been an editor of the Times and the Sunday Times, chronicles the many aspects of writing and language that annoy him. Some of his principal targets include obfuscation, misused and/or abused words, long introductory phrases or clauses, overlong sentences, clichés, and grammatical stumbles (dangling participles, superfluous adverbs, and their foul kin. The author is mellower about ending sentences with prepositions (noting this was a nonsensical proscription from the beginning) and sentence fragments. A sentence "expresses a complete thought," he reminds us, and complete thoughts do not always feature a subject and verb. Evans begins with a fine chapter that could stand alone: an overview of what he's doing and why. He moves along to some sections about the abuses of those in the business, legal, political, and educational worlds. In the penultimate section, the author offers examples of writers in the right, Roger Angell, and Barbara Demick among them. In between is a mixture of portions of published texts that Evans re-edits for our edification; lists (sometimes too long) of clichés, phrases that writers can easily shorten, and words that writers misuse/confuse—e.g., "appraise and "apprise, "insidious" and "invidious." Readers may take some smug delight in the authors' own use of the passive voice and his pluralizing of Humpty (as in Dumpty) with "Humpties" (does Billy become Billies?). But who's perfect? Thoughtful ruminations about current language mixed with praise for clarity and disdain for murkiness.

Kirkus Reviews