What is the theme of The Little Red Writing Book?

“Writing has four pillars—structure, style, readability, and grammar—and each pillar is like the single leg of a sturdy chair.”

Why was this book created?

The Little Red Writing Book is a wirting skills pocketbook that exists to help students and young professionals master, in the shortest possible time frame, the fundamentals of writing. The idea for this book came to me while teaching successful/effective writing courses for Kaplan Educational Centers in Hong Kong. Traditionally Kaplan has provided no course materials for such writing courses as these programs fell outside the arena of test-prep courses. Although materials from the Kaplan SAT II Writing Book provided a reasonably sufficient coverage of grammar, there were no materials covering other aspects of writing, namely structure, style, and readability. Each instructor was, however, free to supplement the course with outside materials. It was here that I chose to model my teaching around the four pillars of writing. Those handouts I designed became the basis for the present book.

What is the book’s target audience?

The primary target audience for this book is the everyday student: high school, community college, or university. A secondary audience includes laypersons and working professionals. A tertiary audience is the test preparation market and, in particular, those taking standardized exams such as the SAT, ACT, GMAT, GRE, and LSAT.

How is this book uniquely positioned?

Writing books—manuals, handbooks, and pocketbooks—indeed come in all shapes and sizes. The Little Red Writing Book distinguishes itself as a pocketbook in terms of its distillation and all-roundedness. This book addresses both macro and micro writing issues. These include how to structure ideas, how to support ideas, how to make writing look visually pleasing, and how to make writing technically correct (grammar and diction). The inclusion of short exercises, complete with proposed solutions, is an indisputable strength of this pocketbook.

Are writing skills on the decline?

A notable decline in “classic” writing skills among students, professionals, and laypersons is widely acknowledged. Classic writing skills are broadly defined as those skills required to compose documents consisting of multiple paragraphs. Paradoxically, with the advent of text messaging and emailing, the decline in classic writing skills comes at a time when people actually “write” more than ever before.

Reasons for the decline in classic writing skills include:

Emailing, text messaging. blogging, and microblogging. The explosion of these mediums with their speed, brevity, and informality has resulted in less emphasis being placed on vocabulary and editing.

Practice and exposure. Individuals today not only read less but also write less (in the classic sense). We have the same amount of time but more ways to spend that time, including intense competition in the form of audio-visual media, travel, and recreation.

Educational backgrounds. Fewer students today have liberal arts backgrounds (e.g., history, the humanities, or linguistics) in comparison to vocational backgrounds (e.g., business, computing, or engineering).

Homework. Educators give fewer written homework assignments. Teachers and instructors frequently claim that they do not have the time to adequately correct homework assignment because standards have fallen making their job more difficult.

Testing. The trend in testing favors machine-graded tests (i.e., multiple choice and fill-in-the-bubble) and short-answer responses in lieu of longer essay responses.

Parental supervision/peer support. Parents do not spend as much time supervising homework. This is just as true for parents who hold master’s degrees as it is for those who hold responsible professional positions.

Scholastic orientation (secondary-school). A movement toward “affective learning” (emotionally-based learning) and away from “cognitive learning” (intellectually-based learning) has shortchanged core academic skills. Emphasis on individual self-esteem, cooperative learning, and multicultural education (although merit worthy) have nonetheless caused disconnects between traditional teaching and learning.