Fit to Print: The Canadian Student's Guide to Essay Writing

Robert Seiler was Assistant Professor of General Studies at the University of Calgary.

The teaching of writing at colleges and universities has undergone a remarkable shift over the last 20 years. At one time students were encouraged to think of writing as a finished “product,” as an essay, say, correct in grammar and syntax and correct in style of documentation. Today, students are encouraged to think of writing as a “process,” a procedure for shaping and reshaping their thoughts. Authorities like William Zinsser, author of the much-acclaimed On Writing Well (1976), argue that, if the process is sound, the product will take care of itself. This is the guiding principle of most textbooks that appear these days, including Fit to Print. Joanne Buckley (b. 1953), an English Usage Specialist in the Department of English / Effective Writing at the University of Western Ontario, promises that students will find Fit to Print a comprehensive guide for effective writing in all disciplines.

Notwithstanding its “flashy” cover, Fit to Print attempts to be a versatile approach to composition, one that may be used by an instructor in a classroom or by a student seeking a self-help guide. Buckley offers some practical advice on the problems of essay writing, including designing, drafting, and writing an essay, and cites examples taken from students’ work in the humanities and in the social sciences. Buckley offers this advice: “You can’t fail as long as what you write is a sincere attempt to come to terms with a particular subject. The finished essay succeeds insofar as it is an honest attempt to elucidate some aspect of your topic” (p. ix).

The first 11 chapters discuss particular skills in organizing and crafting ideas and in integrating quotations. In chapter 11, Writing the Essay, Buckley modifies the general principles of essay writing according to the different purposes of different types of essay. She advises the writer of the Literary Essay, for example, to think of herself as an analyst: “The literary essay requires you to read, to analyze, and to come to terms with the meaning of a piece of literature. Whether it demands secondary sources or simply focuses on the literary work itself, the literary essay demands that you show your understanding of how and why the work is put together the way it is” (pp. 72-73). Buckley is good at taking the reader through the requisite steps, from formulating a thesis about the work to revising the final draft.

In chapters 12 to 16 Buckley concentrates on grammar and vocabulary. In these chapters she advises the reader to choose language that suits the purpose at hand as well as the audience, that conforms to convention, and that makes the message clear. Chapter 16 illustrates very briefly the MLA and the APA styles of documentation. The advice she offers here includes (a) Be consistent and (b) Give your reader all the information needed to find a reference (pp. 132-39).

In the last section of the book Buckley encourages the reader to cultivate such important habits as proof-reading and self-criticism. Not surprisingly, the guide ends with some fundamental reference tools, including a glossary of usage which lists such misused words as affect / effect.

Buckley makes every effort to ensure that Fit to Print is not perceived as just “another stuffy, prescriptive composition and grammar text.” She offers advice on a wide range of problems. She stocks the book with many passages from students’ work, and she makes informative comments on many of the passages. Unfortunately, I get the impression that I have been through this material before, many times. I am driven to the conclusion that, in trying to make Fit to Print accessible to a very wide range of students, Buckley has resorted to compressing her discussion (on average a chapter is four pages long) and presenting her ideas in a rather colloquial prose style. For example, in the chapter on quotations, Buckley writes: “When you quote, you must remain on the scene, controlling the situation, rather than giving the floor to someone else. Remember, at all times, that the essay is your work” (p. 42). The “chatty” approach tends to trivialize the enterprise. Unfortunately, I know of only one truly innovative guide to writing, Functional Writing (1977), which was developed by AD. Van Nostrand et al. under the auspices of The Center for Research in Writing at Providence, Rhode Island. Fit to Print, while useful in many ways, does not belong in the same category as that fine work.