Writing is a craft you can learn, says Roy Peter Clark. You need tools, not rules. His book distills decades of experience into 50 tools that will help any writer become more fluent and effective.

WRITING TOOLS covers everything from the most basic (Tool 5: Watch those adverbs) to the more complex (Tool 34: Turn your notebook into a camera) and provides more than 200 examples from literature and journalism to illustrate the concepts. For students, aspiring novelists, and writers of memos, e-mails, PowerPoint presentations, and love letters, here are 50 indispensable, memorable, and usable tools.

Pull out a favorite novel or short story, and read it with the guidance of Clark's ideas. . . . Readers will find new worlds in familiar places. And writers will be inspired to pick up their pens. -Boston Globe

For all the aspiring writers out there-whether you're writing a novel or a technical report-a respected scholar pulls back the curtain on the art. -Atlanta Journal-Constitution

This is a useful tool for writers at all levels of experience, and it's entertainingly written, with plenty of helpful examples. -Booklist