Whole words, whole sight

If you stop by what was “Whole words, Whole Sight,” you’ll notice the site now looks quite different. I’ve decided to move the blog proper inside - you can find it via the TIPS BLOG link in the menu.

That leaves the home page free to explain more of what I do as a book doctor for nonfiction authors. I’ve also created a new Services page that expands on this theme & includes what I am gingerly calling an introductory offer for those who want to try me out. Onward, commerce! Onward, good nonfiction writing!

If you do stop by for a look, let me know what you think - you can back-channel me at or just put a comment under this post.

Writing With Power, by Peter Elbow, Oxford University Press, 1989. Useful ideas for getting unstuck and losing any fear you may have of the writing process.

The Craft of Research, Third Edition, by Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams, University of Chicago Press, 2008. Aimed more towards an academic audience, but an excellent resource for anyone who wants to improve their grasp of research and rhetoric.

Beyond the Writers’ Workshop, by Carol Bly, Anchor Books, 2001. If you’re writing what is sometimes called “creative non-fiction”—essays, memoir, or in-depth journalism—this book can keep you honest and provoke you into pushing yourself beyond clichés.

Style, Ninth Edition, by Joseph M. Williams, University of Chicago Press, 2006. Not a must-read, but useful for anyone who cares about style and who wants to understand why we have grammar and what it’s really for.

Capital Campaigns: Strategies That Work, Third Edition, by Andrea Kihlstedt; 2009, Jones & Bartlett.

The Genie in the Machine: How Computer-Automated Inventing Is Revolutionizing Law and Business, by Robert Plotkin; 2009, Stanford Law Books.

The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Investing in Stocks, by Theresa Hamacher, CFA, Carl Baldassarre, and Randy Burgess; 2006, Alpha Books.

Winning the Profit Game: Smarter Pricing, Smarter Branding, by Robert G. Docters, Michael R. Reopel, Jeanne-Mey Sun, and Stephen M. Tanny; 2003, McGraw-Hill.

Thanks again for the coaching and edits. You helped me see better on many levels - style and clarity, details and organization.

- Andrea Kihlstedt, author
of “Capital Campaigns:
Strategies That Work.”

Your constructive criticism and specific suggestions led to improvements in clarity, readability, and logic at every level, from the organization of the book’s major sections down to the wording of individual sections.

- Robert Plotkin, author of
“Genie in the Machine.”

Its clear, precise prose soars above that of most business books.

- 3/15/2004 Miami Herald review of “Winning the Profit Game”

To grow as a writer, it helps immensely to have a teacher who can encourage you, critique your efforts without stunting your ambitions, and bring passion and insight to both workshops and textual analysis. Randy Burgess is such a teacher.

- Nathan Reich, M.G.P.S., expected 2012, Lyndon B.
Johnson School of Public Affairs

I suspect that language was developed to serve the needs of observed, perceived, or recollected experience—the nonfiction motive. For example, “There are wooly, mammoth creatures at the waterhole.” Or: “Let me explain how your mate was gored by a wooly mammoth.”

- Robert L. Root Jr.,
“The Nature of Nonfiction”

Writing and thought are inextricably bound. Without clear thinking, there can be no clear writing. Writing well means thinking well.

- Donald Hall & Sven

Birkerts, “Writing Well”

Readers will accept your claim only if they understand your argument, but they won’t understand your argument if they can’t understand your sentences.

- Wayne Booth, Gregory
Colomb, & Joseph Williams,
“The Craft of Research”

Writers do the hard psychological work of trying not to be ignorant.

- Carol Bly, “Beyond
the Writers’ Workshop”