Write on Track: A Concise Guide to Better Writing

Elizabeth St Jacques is the author of Echoes All Strung Out and
Survivors: The Great Depression, 1929-1939.

The author, a teacher and lecturer in professional writing and a
recipient of numerous scholarships and awards in English, informs us
that this book evolved from “guide sheets on grammar and on
composition directed to students at Erindale College in the University
of Toronto.”

Be prepared: this author rarely strays from formality. But then,
Dimitroff stresses, “[b]e formal rather than informal!” Clearly,
this is not meant for accomplished creative writers.

Among the more interesting points are how to plan and develop an essay
or thesis, how to avoid sexist language, and plagiarism. Yet copyright
infringement, such as photocopying published work (without permission),
is not mentioned—an important detail too often overlooked by those in
educational institutions.

The bulk of these often-too-wordy pages focus on grammar (the correct
use of verbs, articles, pronouns, prepositions, punctuation), and on
sentence and paragraph structure.

All in all, the information here is readily available in numerous other
books on the same subject.