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    Write It Right A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults
    Write It Right A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults
    Write It Right A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults
    Ebook76 pages56 minutes

    Write It Right A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults

    By Ambrose Bierce

    3.5/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 1909
    Write It Right A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults
    Author

    Ambrose Bierce

    Ambrose Bierce was an American writer, critic and war veteran. Bierce fought for the Union Army during the American Civil War, eventually rising to the rank of brevet major before resigning from the Army following an 1866 expedition across the Great Plains. Bierce’s harrowing experiences during the Civil War, particularly those at the Battle of Shiloh, shaped a writing career that included editorials, novels, short stories and poetry. Among his most famous works are “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” “The Boarded Window,” “Chickamauga,” and What I Saw of Shiloh. While on a tour of Civil-War battlefields in 1913, Bierce is believed to have joined Pancho Villa’s army before disappearing in the chaos of the Mexican Revolution.

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    Reviews for Write It Right A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults

    3.5/5

    36 ratings12 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I had high hopes for this book, how could one not love Bierce? - "Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." Plus as a seventy year-old man he wandered down to Mexico for the revolution and ... disappeared. I was floundering about halfway through, and realized that I was struggling with the 21st Century language maven's takes. She would write two or three paragraphs arguing against Bierce's pithy seven words, over and over. Brevity is the soul of wit. I finished the book just reading Bierce's 'rules' and enjoyed it greatly. Donate pile.
    • 2/5
      This book was really hard to get into, even harder to get through.
    • 1/5
      Write it Right is a good reference book that details common errors in written language.This is a pretty dry book, probably best used as a reference when specific writing questions arise.In the classroom, this book would be a good reference tool for consultation during writer's workshop. It may also provide ideas for mini-lessons to caution young writers about common errors and practice avoiding them.
    • 3/5
      Bierce was a crabby old malcontent, which is one reason I'm a fan. The fun to be had from many of his black-humored stories, such as "The Bottomless Grave" proves his disdain for things like familial love. But, as he was also a journalist, his peevish ways extended to words and the way they were misused, or in many ways, the ways in which they irritated just him. Reading this book made me think that Bierce had written it with the dear hope of being called on to correct the wrongs of the English language across America. This book is not a pleasurable read, no matter how much one likes Bierce. It is a book to correct the reader of their mistaken usage of many words. The problem is that many of the words and terms aren't in use these days and so much of the time I found myself saying, "Well, nobody says that now." I wouldn't recommend it, for that reason, to someone looking for help in this area.Instead, I would recommend it to someone who said, "I really wish there was someone to harangue for my misuse of the word 'to'." Bierce is the man for that job.
    • 4/5
      What an entertaining take on a style and usage book! It's a fun book to pick up and peruse, but I also felt compelled to read the whole thing--partly because I think Bierce himself was a pretty fascinating guy and partly because of Freeman's engaging commentary on Bierce's rules. What I found most interesting was Bierce's insistence that each word or phrase in the English language should have only one meaning, and that for each intended meaning there is one word that says it best. I enjoyed this book!
    • 4/5
      It is a little intimidating writing a review for a book about proper grammer and writing! I loved this book and I did read it cover to cover! I thought it was very entertaining as well as informative. Never having studied Latin I was unaware of many of the root words covered in this book! I loved Bierce's perspickity nature as well as Jan Freemans responses to many of Beirce's decrees and rules. I would definately recommend this book to anyone who loves words or writing.
    • 4/5
      Write It Right is a great book to peruse casually. It is not something I would want to sit and read cover to cover, anymore than I would want to read a dictionary or encyclopedia cover to cover.However, it is entertaining and I found Freeman's explanations interesting and helpful. All in all a fun book.
    • 4/5
      The Americans say "peek-a-boo" and the British say "peep-bo." Who knew? Certainly, I didn't. I had never heard of "peep-bo" excepting in Giblert & Sullivan's "Mikado," where Peep-bo was a character.Jan Freeman's commentary on Ambrose Bierce's pronouncements in "Write It Right" is replete with such interesting illustrations of English language usage. I keep her book by my bedside, and I read a bit from it before going to sleep. I frequently find myself laughing out loud, which may irritate (or is it "aggravate?) my upstairs neighbors; but I don't mind if it does. It's "get even" time.Anyway, I'm sleeping much more soundly since I put Jan's book at my bedside.I sometimes find myself agreeing with Ambrose Bierce, and disagreeing with Jan Freeman's annotations: such as concerning the Proper usage of the verbs "Will or Shall". I think Bierce got it exactly right, and the Bierce way is the way I was taught and the way I use the words to this day. Jan Freeman says that Wilson Follett's 20 page excursus on the subject.... seems to have killed Americans' enthusiasm for the distinction once and for all. Well, I'm taking Bierce over Follett, and laying 2-1 odds if there are any takers. The entry itself, under "Will and Shall" in Jan's book, is an absolute howler! I'm sure I woke my neighbors up with my laughter.Jan also gives a wonderful introduction to the book, introducing Ambrose Bierce to a readership which may not be familiar with Bierce's, "The Devil's Dictionary" and his Civil War writings. He was always a favorite of mine, and I have been misquoting him forever. Bierce was occasionally wrong. For instance, he was viciously wrong about Oscar Wilde, but he was right about most things.Jan mentions that Ambrose Bierce disappeared into Mexico around 1913, but I don't think she mentions that Carlos Fuentes wrote a novel called "The Old Gringo," purportedly about Ambrose Bierce's Mexican experience. B. Traven (author of The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, and many excellent novels, especially "The Bridge in The Jungle" one of the most "unappreciated" great novels of all time,) also vanished in Mexico, but we know a bit more about Traven in Mexico than we know about Bierce's time there.. Bierce and Traven are both excellent studies in literature and in the nature of man and they should be better known and admired.Finally, there is a wonderful bibliography which directs the reader to such fine books of English usage as "Miss Thistlebottom's Hobgoblins."I give Jan Freeman's book a strong 4 star rating, and highly recommend it for your pleasure and entertainment.
    • 3/5
      If you are really interested in the proper use of words as a writer then you may need to check out this annotated edition of Ambrose Bierce's Write It Right by Jan Freeman. There are words and phrases that I was not familiar with but quite a few that I am familiar with and found that this was a nice refresher. It was interesting to have some explanation as to why some words are not used any more or why some are better suited than others.
    • 4/5
      This book is funny and interesting and I learned a lot. I'm a writer and I plan to keep it on hand for reference. I love how user friendly it is--it's very easy to find words and listings and the explanations are intelligent without being dry and overly academic. There's a great wit present in both Bierce's and Freeman's writing style. I recommend it!
    • 5/5
      In his typical, straight forward, often caustic manner, Bierce lists writing faults & their corrections. An excellent book for anyone that has to string sentences together, whether they're a 'real' writer or just someone who communicates via email.
    • 3/5
      3.0 out of 5 stars Witty, Useful, and Pedantic, August 29, 2008Bierce has composed a useful guide for writers, and it it remains a good resource.However, you need to take a good deal of this with a grain of salt. Many of the decisions Bierce makes about certain words are rather questionable. The book is old, and Bierce was very much a traditionalist and a pedantic. He was resisting many trends in English that now have become defacto standards. He makes a lot of good points, but sometimes we need to go with the flow, even if certain word choices, as Bierce points out, are quite silly.This review itself is probably evidence that I haven't assimilated all of the lessons from Bierce, but I hope it causes me to think more about the words I use in the future and maybe integrate some of his advice.

    Book preview

    Write It Right A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults - Ambrose Bierce

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of Write It Right, by Ambrose Bierce

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

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    Title: Write It Right

    A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults

    Author: Ambrose Bierce

    Release Date: May 29, 2004 [EBook #12474]

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WRITE IT RIGHT ***

    Produced by Clare Boothby, Ben Harris and PG Distributed Proofreaders

    WRITE IT RIGHT

    A LITTLE BLACKLIST OF LITERARY FAULTS

    BY AMBROSE BIERCE

    1909

    AIMS AND THE PLAN

    The author's main purpose in this book is to teach precision in writing; and of good writing (which, essentially, is clear thinking made visible) precision is the point of capital concern. It is attained by choice of the word that accurately and adequately expresses what the writer has in mind, and by exclusion of that which either denotes or connotes something else. As Quintilian puts it, the writer should so write that his reader not only may, but must, understand.

    Few words have more than one literal and serviceable meaning, however many metaphorical, derivative, related, or even unrelated, meanings lexicographers may think it worth while to gather from all sorts and conditions of men, with which to bloat their absurd and misleading dictionaries. This actual and serviceable meaning—not always determined by derivation, and seldom by popular usage—is the one affirmed, according to his light, by the author of this little manual of solecisms. Narrow etymons of the mere scholar and loose locutions of the ignorant are alike denied a standing.

    The plan of the book is more illustrative than expository, the aim being to use the terms of etymology and syntax as little as is compatible with clarity, familiar example being more easily apprehended than technical precept. When both are employed the precept is commonly given after the example has prepared the student to apply it, not only to the matter in mind, but to similar matters not mentioned. Everything in quotation marks is to be understood as disapproved.

    Not all locutions blacklisted herein are always to be reprobated as universal outlaws. Excepting in the case of capital offenders—expressions ancestrally vulgar or irreclaimably degenerate—absolute proscription is possible as to serious composition only; in other forms the writer must rely on his sense of values and the fitness of things. While it is true that some colloquialisms and, with less of license, even some slang, may be sparingly employed in light literature, for point, piquancy or any of the purposes of the skilled writer sensible to the necessity and charm of keeping at least one foot on the ground, to others the virtue of restraint may be commended as distinctly superior to the joy of indulgence.

    Precision is much, but not all; some words and phrases are disallowed on the ground of taste. As there are neither standards nor arbiters of taste, the book can do little more than reflect that of its author, who is far indeed from professing impeccability. In neither taste nor precision is any man's practice a court of last appeal, for writers all, both great and small, are habitual sinners against the light; and their accuser is cheerfully aware that his own work will supply (as in making this book it has supplied) many awful examples—his later work less abundantly, he hopes, than his earlier. He nevertheless believes that this does not disqualify him for showing by other instances than his own how not to write. The infallible teacher is still in the forest primeval, throwing seeds to the white blackbirds.

    A.B.

    THE BLACKLIST

    A for An. A hotel. A heroic man. Before an unaccented aspirate use an. The contrary usage in this country comes of too strongly stressing our aspirates.

    Action for Act. In wrestling, a blow is a reprehensible action. A blow is not an action but an act. An action may consist of many acts.

    Admission for Admittance. The price of admission is one dollar.

    Admit for Confess. To admit is to concede something affirmed. An unaccused offender cannot admit his guilt.

    Adopt. He adopted a disguise. One may adopt a child, or an opinion, but a disguise is assumed.

    Advisedly for Advertently, Intentionally. It was done advisedly should mean that it was done after advice.

    Afford. It is not well to say the fact affords a reasonable presumption; the house afforded ample accommodation. The fact supplies a reasonable presumption. The house offered, or gave, ample accommodation.

    Afraid. Do not say, I am afraid it will rain. Say,

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