"This wise and entertaining guide by one of the great editors of our time offers timeless tools for making meaning clear. Refresh your writing. Unravel convoluted sales talk written to deceive. See through political campaigns erected on a tower of falsehoods. Fake news is but one of the pimples of a literate civilization under siege. Slovenly English! Billions of words come at us every day with unimaginable velocity and shriveled meaning, in social media posts, bloated marketing, incomprehensible contracts, and political language 'designed to make lies sound truthful.' Orwell, of course. The digital era he never glimpsed has had unfortunate effects on understanding. Ugly words and phrases are picked up by the unwary and passed on like a virus. Cryptic assertion supplants explanation and reasoned argument. Muddle and contradiction suffocate meaning. You will write better--and have fun--with the original approaches of an editor experienced in ridding prose of corrupting predators: learn to recognize the infiltrators, the flesh-eaters. and the zombies. But watch, too, as Harry Evans identifies the magic potions mixed by the best of prose writers. He has spent his life clarifying complexities, from the tragic poisoning of thalidomide babies to the urgent files from battlefield reporters and his political histories. Make yourself clear with a trustworthy editor at your side."--Jacket.

I: Tools of the trade. A noble thing ; Use and abuse of writing formulas ; The sentence clinic ; Ten shortcuts to making yourself clear ; Please don't feed the zombies, flesh-eaters, and pleonasms -- Interlude: Give the Bard a break -- II: Finishing the job. Every word counts ; Care for meanings ; Storytelling : the long and short of it -- III: Consequences. Steps were taken : explaining the Underwear Bomber ; Money and words ; Buried treasure : it's yours, but words get in the way ; Home runs for writers.