Painless Writing but Painful Reading

Anticipation consumes your body. Your heart beats rapidly. A chilling bead of sweat falls down your forehead. You can feel every hair on your body standing on end. You knew what was coming but there was no way to prepare for it. You don’t need to hear them out loud to know the long foreseen words. There’s no escape. It is fight or flight time. You want to come out victorious but your tools seem insufficient. You wield the only weapon you have against the double-headed dragon: your pencil. Many students understand these emotions when it comes to writing essays. The mere thought of the assignment sends shudders down their spines. Like a monster that seems impossible to tame, an essay can feel impossible to write. As a result, many students feel victimized by their own inability to write efficiently and effectively. Not knowing how to overcome this issue is a problem for many people. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Writing can be a grand adventure of communicating one’s innermost thoughts to the world instead of an abusive relationship of you versus yourself. Learning to work with one’s creativity effectively will have long lasting benefits. Painless Writing, by Jeffrey Strausser, claims to conquer that inner conflict. So, does this book actually make writing “painless”?

A well-organized, easy-to-read, step-by-step book, Painless Writing gives factual advice for combating essays. Each chapter focuses on techniques that build on one another throughout the book. Painless Writing mainly focuses on grammar, but also offers some practical advice and overall ideas. Each chapter commences with a quick, casual introduction that states the writing issue. Then, Strausser explains the terms he mentions and gives examples for clarification. Afterwards, he illustrates poor writing by overusing the previous problem stated. He then explains how to fix them by taking the issues step-by-step and providing more examples. These examples materialize in the form of lists, charts, sentences, and paragraphs that enhance the reader’s understanding. The book offers simple, focused tips that are broken down into different formats. Instead of continuous paragraphs, Painless Writing contains pictures and boxes with simple and direct points summarizing the chapter. Additionally, every chapter includes “brain ticklers” (8). These are practice sentences that contain grammatical issues and are answered in the back of the book. Also, each chapter incorporates internet links that offer further practice or information on the grammar rules. At the end of the chapter, Strausser recounts the central ideas and challenges the reader to apply these techniques. He also presents the reader with constructive ways to utilize the newly learned skills. Finally, Strausser states “practice makes permanent” to encourage consistent practicing in order to commit the methods to memory (32). Lastly, he closes with thoughts that lead into the next chapter. Overall, Painless Writing focuses on how to make one’s writing clear and concise while still maintaining one’s diction.

The cover’s confident title, profound claims, and distressed feline definitely seized my attention. Despite my God-given gift for writing, it has been an ongoing battle within me. My slow process and struggle to focus has contributed to my overwhelmed feelings. My anxiety is by no means directed at writing itself. However, the source of my frustrations comes from my struggle to develop ideas efficiently. In addition, the fear of failing has inhibited me from achieving my full potential. Ultimately essays caused me more pain than gain and exhausted me at the thought of them. Nonetheless, with the right self-coaxing and new-found appreciation, I have realized my love for writing. As a result, Painless Writing was the answer to my prayers. The claims spoke deeply to my healing pain. However, it was not exactly what I anticipated.

Enticing but deceptive, Painless Writing’s claims gave me the impression that it was a self-help book. The use of the personal pronoun “you” fed into the deceit. For example, “Did you ever notice how great athletes and musicians make what they are doing look natural?” (vii). This direct questioning insinuates that the book was meant for individuals. However, the book translated more closely to a textbook meant for a group. Repetitive and laborious, the chapters seemed to blend into one another. I skimmed over a lot of the examples since the tips were pretty straightforward on their own. Unfortunately, the book focused more on grammar rules rather than global techniques. It felt like an information overload that was hard to digest. The book felt like it was supposed to be taken in chunks rather than read straight through. Also, some tips seemed irrelevant because they already came natural to me as a writer. For a textbook it was pretty interesting, but for a book it was quite dull.

To its credit, the book had some positive points. The words evoked a conversational tone that contrasts the standard grammar textbook’s robotic commands. I also learned some things about grammar and some of the non-grammar tips were helpful such as, saving multiple drafts in order to see progress in the paper. I also liked the fact that the book focused on how to apply the tips to essays rather than regurgitating general grammar rules, which made the book more tangible and applicable. Although the book concentrates on grammar, I gained some concrete advice. One of my favorite tips is, “Try not to start every editing session with the first section; skip around so that each section receives equal treatment whenever you are fresh” (206). In addition, I liked how the chapters were organized, which makes it easy to refer back to particular topics. The internet links also made it unique for a grammar textbook.

After I researched the author, I found out the publishing company designed this to be textbook. Although the book was disappointing, it was not a painful read. I would recommend this book for fifth through tenth grade teachers who want to instruct grammar while focusing on essays. It was not a book meant to be read as much as an individual as a group. I would have enjoyed using this book as a textbook in my earlier years in school because it was more straightforward and easier to understand than other grammar books. It also provided a lot of practice and advice that left me thinking about how I could apply the tips to my writing. Additionally, the author has other textbooks in his painless series like, Painless American Government, Painless English for Speakers of Other Languages, Painless Junior: English for Speakers of Other Languages, as well as other informational books. The books are fairly cheap and lightweight but sturdy. The books are also available online to look at the pages. I believe the books are a great investment for teachers.

Overall, this book was painful to read but I can see how it would be painless to use as a class textbook. The book was mostly factual with little to no opinion. However, I did find it useful, learned some things, and gained some tips to take away with me. I do not dismiss the book because of its textbook qualities and suggest anyone with grammar or writing issues should take a glance. Those who need help with grammar or hate writing will benefit by using the techniques described in this book. Although the deceptive title and synopses felt manipulative, I did not dislike this book or regret reading it. Although reading straight through Painless Writing was painful, I appreciate the directness and familiarity of this easy-to-read textbook.

Works Cited

 Jeffrey Strausser. Mark Rodman, 2013-2015. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.

Strausser, Jeffrey. Painless Writing. 2nd ed. Hauppauge: Barron's Educational Series, 2009. Print. Barron's Painless Ser.