THE OXFORD ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO WRITING

A book Review

Presented to

Rev. Dr. Subhro S. Sircar

Serampore College, Faculty of Theology

In partial fulfillment

of the requirements for

BGN01: Study Methods

By

Aibanraplang Dohling

25th August, 2025

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Pledge: I hereby confirm that I have read the entire book carefully from the first page to the last
page. I took my time to understand all the ideas and information shared in the book. I have fully
completed reading this book and have gained knowledge from it. This note is to show that I have
finished reading the book honestly and with attention.

I have read the book in its entirety, and I put my signature in good faith and for my honesty.

Aibanraplang Dohling

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Introduction

Thomas S. Kane, The Oxford Essential Guide Writing (Berkley reference Essential Resource
Library). New York:Oxford University press. Inc., 1988 Madison Avenue, New York, Berkley
edition/ July 2000, Length: 1-451, ISBN: 0425176401. Thomas S. Kane, former Professor of
English, university of Connecticut, Waterbury Campus. The Oxford essential guide to writing is
an excellent exceptionally good book and a clear authoritative guide covering every aspect of the
writing process. This book expert advice on how to think more creatively, how to conjure up
ideas from scratch, and how to express those ideas clearly and elegantly. This book speaks of
writing as a rational activity and also as a valuable activity.

Description of the purpose

Whatever you experience or expertise as a writer, you can always benefit from new technique for
fleshing out ideas, developing technique or revising work, not to mention brushing up on the
rules of punctuation, grammar and style. All of this and more covered in tremendous detail in
The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing. Author Thomas Kane, who also penned other guides
from Oxford, explains the premise for this guide: “Obviously, there are limits: one cannot learn
to write like Shakespeare or Charles Dickens.You can’t become a genius by reading a book.
Kane’s not claiming he can create a genius, but as he says in his introduction“you don’t have to
be a genius to write clear, effective English.” You just have to understand what writing involves

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and to know how to handle words and sentence and paragraphs that you can learn. If you do, you
can communicate in words other people can understands. This book help by showing what good
writers do.

The Essential Guide to writing is divided into several parts which address a variety of issues.
These includes the writing process, the essay, the expository paragraphs, the sentence, diction
description and narration. In each chapters the chapter feature practical exercises at the last page
for work shopping-an excellent way to understand and apply what we’ve just read. This book
offered some solid techniques and advice on refining work. It gains comprehensive instruction in
the art of writing, including technique for encouraging creativity, organizing thoughts and clear
writing. Thomas S. Kane emphasis his ideas more on to make a simple, short and precise
sentences that are easy to read and understand. Staying away from the excessive stuffing of
words. Avoiding the use of jargon while paying attention to grammar, punctuation and spellings.
Not to use repetitive sentences as it may confuse the reader. The author also assumes instead of
using passive form, always use active voice of the verb. Not delaying in writing instead to
getting it now. Reviewing our previous work and examine how we’ve grown up skills till now.
Accepting imperfections and not linger over small problems. The author also emphasis on
brushing up on the basic principles of writing skills by starting writing anything roughly. To take
our time to analyze what all we’ve read. Developing our skills and abilities by reading more and
more and do good research on the topic we need to write and to practice of writing daily.

This book also deals with style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words. Facts,
ideas and beliefs are also emphasis in this book. It also explains, analyze, define, compare and
illustrate. Impressionistic (subjective) and objective description are also the major idea that
author support this book. This book also provides how to use journals to store ideas and explores
potential topics. It also advice on using outlines to shape our material- and drafts and revision to
refine them. Selecting the proper words to convey both information and point of view and a
useful appendix on punctuation, ranging from commas to underlining and capitalization.

The writing that Kane refers to here is expository and persuasive in nature-writing most likely to
be required in day-to-day life. In great detail Kane explores the building of an essay, the
development of paragraphs, the styling of sentences, the use of diction, and finally, issues of
punctuation. It is unlikely that very many writers have scrutinized the building blocks of

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language the way Kane has, but it’s never too late. Rare is the sourcebook that can offer so much
both to beginners and expects alike. And anyone who loves words will thrill to encounter if he or
she hasn’t done so already- the freight-train sentence, parataxis, the triadic sentence,
polysyndeton, collocation.

Evaluation of the book:

Writing skills are an important part of communication. Good writing skills allow you to
communicate your message with clarity and ease to a far large audience than through face-to-
face conversations. Correct grammar, punctuation and spelling are key in written
communications. The reader will form an opinion for you, the author, based on both the content
and presentation, and errors are likely to lead them form a negative impression. Writing skills
allow you to communicate clearly with others and create useful resources. It includes all
knowledge and abilities related to expressing ideas through written words. Writing skills are also
important because they allow people to get a point across without being physically present.

Effective writing skills are to a writer what petrol is to a car. Like the petrol and car
relationships, without solid skills writer cannot move ahead. Whether you are composing a
letter, writing a school thesis, or starting a novel, this resource offers experts advice on how to
think more creatively, how to conjure up ideas from scratch, and how to express those ideas
clearly and elegantly. No matter where you we find yourself in the writing process-from the
daunting look as a blank page, to the rough draft that needs shaping, to the small but important
questions of punctuation you’ll find what you need in this one handy all-inclusive volume. The
Oxford Essential Guide to Writing covers a wide range of topics: grammar, structure, dictation,
punctuation, and the writing process. There are lot of information packed in this book, and its
worth to read if you are a writer or editor. Interesting part in this book is Sentence Formation.
The author even discusses mimetic rhythm. Grammar books might not seem like a lot to fun to
read, even for writers, howeverthe author has made his work to find reading this book to be
enjoyable. It is full of great quotes and gives valuable insight to writing. If you want to improve
your skills, you will enjoy reading this book. In this book the author has used many well-known
authors and I discovered the author G.K. Chesterton while reading this bookand find it very
interesting of his writing skills, style and technique. There are also historical master of witty/fun
prose in this book. Paragraphs, sentences, clauses. You may benefit more from this is you have at

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least a partial understanding of grammar but I found it fascinating-it might come across as a bit
old-fashioned and certainly not the sparkiest of tomes for the copy-writer but it’s solid and
methodical and has all the right information for the writers who wants to express their
ideas/opinion/facts in the best possible way.

This book theOxford Essential Guide to Writing is very useful book, to develop skills in writing.
The author has put his impression on us to found out this book very instructive, how to link more
than one paragraph, using deliberate means. The author purpose was to help all writers to
organize, shape and complete their works while expressing their ideas creatively and clearly.
Rules of style and technique are covered, with examples of expert prose from the masters. An
appendix covers punctuation and grammar. The prose used is quickly understood, flows well and
progresses in a logical fashion. It’s not a basic book, yet doesn’t make the difficult at all.
Covering punctuation, sentence structure and style, grammar and all the other basic; it also goes
onto paragraphs, essays and others forms of writing. Each chapter is self-contained enabling a
dip at need approach to be used. I would also say that this is a starting point for anyone who is
learning to write. The only others book that fits into the same space, in terms of ease and
coverage is Roy Peter Clark’s writing tools.

For all intents and purpose, The Oxford Essential Guide to writing is a reference book that is
meant to be read. The book main purpose is obviously to inform the reader, not to entertain. That
being said, there is a significant effort to lighten the tone and move away from the drudgery of
constant grammar and styles tips. What it all boils down to be that this book is somehow fairly
boring book. In every book there are certain weaknesses like procrastination and weak
downshifting. The Oxford Essential Guide to writing however has some certain limitations that
disinterest the reader which are – confusing or awkward sentence structure in some chapters,
imprecise and incorrect word choice, lack of or weak transitions, redundancy and wordiness, run-
on sentences and sentences fragments, vague, general statements and fluff. This book is written
in an authoritative but disarming manner, scattered with poignant quotes from some of the
masters of the craft, which make it accessible to scribes of all levels.

The tips contained in the book are good if you are in need of ideas to help improve your prose,
but sometimes the advice seems as specific as to be useless in any practical sense. As with many

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non-fiction books of this length, the author pays so much attention to the knitty-gritty details that
he almost seems to lose sight of the big question of “how can I improve the clarity and power of
my writing?”

Writing is ongoing learning process; you may be surprised at how your style may evolve after
reading this handbook. Let the ‘Oxford Guide’ be your mentor. This book is an extremely useful
book, the only information that is lacking concerns the internet as a research tool since the
“Oxford Guide” was published in the days before the World Wide Web.

Conclusion

The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing by Thomas S. Kane teaches us that writing is a skill
anyone can learn by following the right steps. It is not about being a genius but about
understanding how to organize thoughts, use clear words, and write effectively so others can
understand easily. Writing is useful not only in school but also in real life and many jobs.
Through writing, we express ourselves and connect with others. This book guides us patiently,
showing how to think creatively, plan our work, and improve our sentences, making our writing
clear and lively. It reminds us that writing is both a thoughtful and valuable activity, helping us
grow as individuals. In simple terms, if we use this guide well, we can become a confident writer
who shares ideas with clarity and purpose, no matter what our background or profession is.
Writing opens doors and makes communication better.

Bibliography

Kane, Thomas S. The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing (Berkley reference essentail resource

library). New York: Oxford University press. Inc., 198 Madison avenue, 2000.

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