HELEN SWORD is professor and director of the Centre for Learning and Research in Higher Education at the University of Auckland. Her books include Engendering Inspiration, Ghostwriting Modernism, Pacific Rim Modernisms, and Stylish Academic Writing. She also manages the website www.writersdiet.com.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

© Helen Sword, 2007, 2016

All rights reserved. Published 2016.

Printed in the United States of America

First published by Auckland University Press, 2007

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

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ISBN-13: 978-0-226-35198-8 (PAPER)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-35203-9 (E-BOOK)

DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226352039.001.0001

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Sword, Helen, author.

The writer’s diet : a guide to fit prose / Helen Sword.

pages cm — (Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing)

“First published by Auckland University Press, 2007.”—Title page verso.

ISBN 978-0-226-35198-8 (paperback : alkaline paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-35203-9 (e-book) 1. English language—Rhetoric. 2. English language—Written English. 3. English language—Style. 4. English language—Style—Problems, exercises, etc. I. Title. II. Series: Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing.

PE1408.S79 2016

808'.042—dc23

2015031813

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

The Writer’s Diet

A Guide to Fit Prose

Helen Sword

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Chicago and London

Writing for Social Scientists

HOWARD S. BECKER

The Craft of Research

WAYNE C. BOOTH, GREGORY G. COLOMB, AND JOSEPH M. WILLIAMS

From Dissertation to Book

WILLIAM GERMANO

Getting It Published

WILLIAM GERMANO

Writing Science in Plain English

ANNE E. GREENE

Cite Right

CHARLES LIPSON

How to Write a BA Thesis

CHARLES LIPSON

The Subversive Copy Editor

CAROL FISHER SALLER

A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations

KATE L. TURABIAN

Student’s Guide for Writing College Papers

KATE L. TURABIAN

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Writer’s Diet

1. Verbal verve

2. Noun density

3. Prepositional podge

4. Ad-dictions

5. Waste words

Afterword: Healthy writing

Appendix: The WritersDiet Test

References

Index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We expect a diet guru to be svelte, a personal trainer to sport strong muscles and the author of a book called The Writer’s Diet to produce flawless prose. In anticipation of robust critique from literary stylists, linguists and grammarians, I invited a number of people to read early drafts of this book and to cast stones both large and small. I thank these generous friends and colleagues by name in the first edition, and I renew my gratitude here.

My writing remains a glass house, of course; but I no longer fear shattered windows. Since its first publication in 2007, readers have embraced The Writer’s Diet. Some, predictably, have attacked the diet/edit analogy and questioned my fitness algorithms. ...