Write for Your Life: A Guide to Clear and Purposeful Writing (and Presentations)

“Whatever you do, good writing will help,” advises journalist Wheelan (Naked Economics) in this muddled guide. Learning to write, Wheelan posits, is fundamental to all areas of life, and clear communication can smooth out everyday exchanges. In chapters that cover “Getting Started,” “Making It Better,” and “Buffing and Polishing,” Wheelan offers writing rules that, for the most part, rely on the familiar: cut superfluous language, create an outline, and use descriptive language, or, as he puts it, “show, don’t tell.” He goes beyond the page in a middling chapter on speech delivery: “practice,” he suggests, and “decide if you want to take questions, and if so, how you’ll take them.” Along the way, Wheelan references Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as a showcase for the power of communication, and the movie The Hangover as an example of deciding on a “narrative structure.” Throughout, asides on topics such as sports, Chicago politics, and criticisms of his past students appear, though they tend to mostly clutter things up. With so many writing guides out there, this one doesn’t do enough to separate itself from the pack. (May)