On a post below Rathnakar has a link to an excellent article by Kurt Vonnegut on writing personal essays. I read it and thought it worth getting out in the open more so you don't miss it.
Plus, I think that Kurt Vonnegut is one of the best, especially his early stuff. "Slaughterhouse Five" is always on my list of my 10 most favorite books.
Not sure if this one is worth bringing out from hiding, but Lorraine suggested I share it with the class since she claims it has saved her hours of research. The question was: What's the style when you want to credit a YouTube video in a presentation, etc.
I didn't know and in trying to find the answer I found some good web sites with information on what is copyrighted on YouTube, what laws apply and, finally, what a citation should look like. Here's what I told Lorraine:
This one is from the University of Maine and is one of the best I have seen. It also includes a section on "Citation styles," although none appear to refer specifically to video:
Andrew Krueger referred to the visit from Kristi Heim and Kathleen Triesch Saul as an "insightful dialogue," which I thought it was and I hope the rest of you agree. We covered a lot of ground that night on reporting, writing, editing and many things related. Hope you found it valuable.
And thanks, of course, to Kristi and Kathy (if you're looking in on us) for taking the time to prepare and to visit us.
Mary mentioned another article that appeared in the Pacific Northwest magazine recently about knife sharpening, and on the way home that night, Kathy said, "You know, that's an informed personal essay as well."
So I went back and looked at the article by Matthew Amster-Burton and found it an excellent example of how personal experience and research can blend together to entertain and inform. I learned something about knives, how to sharpen them, how much it costs to have someone sharpen them for me, a good shop for knife sharpening and a web forum where I can learn more -- all wrapped into Matthew's sometimes bloody experience with honing an edge.
The piece is 957 words -- not much longer than your 700-word assignment.
"Writing is learned by imitation," says Zinsser in Chapter 6. This would not be a bad piece to imitate.
Something really needs to be said about the importance of the first sentence in any piece of writing -- and that's what I was going to go on about tonight. Until a friend on Facebook posted this blog entry.
Ever had writer's block? Here's a look at what good can come of it and how to get through it.
And take another look at Chapter Nine in "On Writing Well" -- that's the chapter on the beginning and the end.
I was reading Susan's profile of Leesa and I thought to myself: This is just like out of the book -- kickoff paragraphs to introduce portions of the story, material that seems to follow an interior outline and supports the kickoff graf, etc. Of course, then my weary old mind could not remember the book, and I had to waste a half hour digging through book shelves trying to find those references.
I finally did. It's in "The Journalist's Craft: A Guide to Writing Better Stories" in an article by Carl Sessions Stepp entitled "Managing the Murky Middle." It's online and it's worth reading. Have a look.
And I wanted to cite some huge blunder by Susan here to keep her from getting a big head . . . I will as soon as I find one.
Tuesday night you will let the class know what you are thinking about doing for your 800-word final project in this class. Don't charge into selecting your project without taking some time to review Chapter 6 in "On Writing Well."
Let me start my highlighting of that chapter by turning to the back of it where we find this not-to-be-ignored advice:
"Every writing project must be reduced before you start to write.
"Therefore think small. Decide what corner of your subject you're going to bite off, and be content to cover it well and stop. . .
"As for what point you want to make, every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn't have before."
Remember the information I passed along in the first class from Jim Simon, the Metro editor at The Seattle Times:
"Find a story, not an issue. Use small, personal stories to illustrate a big problem or issue."
Don't try to explain the world's present financial situation in 800 words. You might tell your readers what has happened to one investor who had money tied up in overseas markets and what effect that has had on his life.
Don't take on the pros and/or cons of big agribusiness vs. local food sources in 800 words. Find a local grower who is farming next to a corporate farm and tell what's alike and what's different between the operations.
Look at the questions Zinsser says to ask yourself before you start:
"In what capacity am I going to address the reader? (Reporter? Provider of information? Average man or woman?) What pronoun and tense am I going to use? What style (Impersonal reportorial? Personal but formal? Personal and casual?) What attitude am I going to take toward the material? (Involved? Detached? Judgmental? Ironic? Amused?) How much do I want to cover? What one point do I want to make?"
Remember what I said: Less is more. Build a piece of writing that doesn't wander, that has a beginning, a middle and an end, and above all has a discernible point.
I once worked with a copy editor who changed a word after consulting Roget's Thesaurus, and a city council went from "warning" citizens to "admonishing" them.
If that copy editor had looked up those words in a dictionary, we might not have received the phone complaints the next day from council members.
"to warn: to tell of a danger, coming evil, misfortune, etc.; to put on guard against a person or thing."
"to admonish: 1. to warn; caution against specific faults. 2. to reprove with mildness."
It's that second meaning of admonish that caused the trouble as it had the council scolding citizens instead of directing them away from some danger. There's a shade of meaning there that you can't get from using a thesaurus alone.
Zinsser's warning to never use a thesaurus without a follow-up visit to the dictionary is worth heeding. And I like his statement at the beginning of Chapter 6:
"You'll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive."
You won't develop that respect through quick visits to a thesaurus. Get a good dictionary and look up words. Or use the excellent and easy-to-use dictionaries online.
You also need to read, read, read and listen to great writers. As Zinsser says, "Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters. Writing is learned by imitation." I just started "The Forever War" by Dexter Filkins, New York Times correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Alexandre Dumas is lined up on the reading shelf right behind him. A mix of new and old, non-fiction and fiction.
I write this not to appear as some erudite egotist but to get a discussion going. What are you reading, or what were you reading before I loaded you down with assignments for the class? Give us your recommendations.
In writing, style is not extraneous ornamentation, and the rule to be obeyed when it appears in your writing is this: "Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing . . . delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."
Orwell and Tuchman have their versions of this, and I especially like Tuchman's (thanks again, Andy): "The historian is continually being beguiled down fascinating byways and sidetracks. But the art of writing – the test of the artist – is to resist beguilement and cleave to the subject.”
My wife, the magazine editor, put it this way (in a handout you'll be getting this quarter):
Kill your babies: Reporters work hard gathering information, and often this spawns paragraphs in stories that reporters find too fascinating to leave out. But practice birth control: If the stuff seems extraneous, wanders from the main topic, makes you want to move on to something else, kill it.
Later in his book, Zinsser gives a good rule of thumb on this: Make sure that everything in your writing is doing work. If it's not, get rid of it.
When Andy brought up Barbara Tuchman (at right) in his comment on the George Orwell essay, it reminded me of my favorite observation by Tuchman.
I have used it in presentations to the public, who often complain that journalists focus only on the bad news. That's a danger in all that is recorded, Tuchman says, whether it be in the indispensable documents used by historians or in present-day newspapers. "The fact of being on the record," Tuchman says, "makes (disaster) appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic . . ."
Want proof of that? Take a look at our own times, Tuchman says:
"After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power failures, broken water mains, stalled trains, school shutdowns, muggers, drug addicts, neo-Nazis, and rapists. The fact is that one can come home in the evening -- on a lucky day -- without having encountered more than one or two of there phenomena."
Not sure that ever convinced the public, but at least it showed that the problem wasn't unique to my paper.
Be sure to read Andy's comments -- and add any of your own.
George Orwell is one of my favorite authors and I think his essay "Politics and the English Language" is a highlight of his work. I'm not sure how I overlooked giving it as a reading assignment for this class.
Finding the mention of it in "On Writing Well" confirmed my favorable opinion of Zinsser.
If you don't read the Orwell essay, let me call to your attention to these words of advice from it:
"(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
"(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
"(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
"(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
"(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
"(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous."
I'm out of town until Monday night when I will have my highlighter out again.
I said in class on Tuesday that I believed that "less is more." That's rooted in my journalism background, but what it means is that I think the strongest writing is clear, pared down to the essentials, that every word, phrase and sentence in a piece of non-fiction writing is "doing work," as Zinsser puts it.
That doesn't mean that I can't appreciate writing with more words, more complex sentences, vocabulary and phrasing. But I mostly like that in fiction. I read non-fiction because I want to learn about something, and I don't want the writing to get in the way of the subject I am trying to learn.
In fiction, I'm more likely to take enjoyment in the complexity of language, the nuances and the hoops the author has me jump through.
So is there no room for any of this in non-fiction? There's room, there's creativity, there are hoops to take the reader through -- but it all has to be done with the purpose of helping the reader understand the subject at hand. In my opinion.
And that's why I highlighted this in the first part of "On Writing Well:"
". . . the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components."
"Open Walden to any page and you will find a man saying in a plain and orderly way what is on his mind."
"Clear thinking becomes clear writing."
"If the reader is lost, it's usually because the writer hasn't been careful enough . . . Perhaps Sentence B is not a logical sequel to Sentence A; the writer, in whose head the connection is clear, hasn't bothered to provide the missing link."
THAT LAST one -- about logical sequencing -- is a huge stumbling block for many writers. It's easy to supply the word, link, explanation in your own head and think you've done the same down there on the computer screen. Read your writing for continuity.
Back to Zinsser and some words on finding your focus:
"Writers must therefore constantly ask: what am I trying to say? Surprisingly often they don't know. Then they must look at what they have written and ask: have I said it? Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time? If it's not, some fuzz has worked its way into the machinery. The clear writer is someone clearheaded enough to see this stuff for what it is: fuzz."
There is a link to a very good PowerPoint presentation on clarity in writing in the post to this blog on Nov. 24, 2008. I highly recommend it to your attention.
Agree with what I found worth highlighting in Zinsser's book? You don't have to. Leave a comment or let us know what you highlighted.
I'll be doing this throughout the quarter, noting what I have highlighted as I read some of the assignments for the class. This is not from an assigned reading, but I thought you might like to have what I read to you last night from "The Craft of Interviewing" by John Brady (1976, Vantage Books, New York).
So here goes:
"Interviewing is the modest, immediate science of gaining trust, then gaining information. . .
"Above all: ask. Pursue the blind alleys; voice your human -- as well as professional -- curiosities. Ask intriguing, innumerable questions, with enthusiam and only civil restraint. In the end, interviewing is less a technique than an instinct. An interview is simply a lively and thoughtful conversation. The more life and thought you invest in your questions, the more answers you will get."
". . . a good interview is sensibly structured. It begins with easy, rather mechanical questions; shifts to knottier, more thoughtful questions; moves back out with mechanical questions (favorite writers, future projects) and closes with a query that offers a ring of finality (one effective question: how would you like to be remembered?). If the interview has logical structure -- a sense of beginning, middle and end -- it will have emotional structure as well.
"The interview outline need not be dictatorial, or detailed, or even committed to paper. It can be a single, tacit purpose. In fact, the simpler it is, the better. It is only a device to give the interviewer confidence, and his questions, momentum. It gives the interviewer the reins of the interview."
And I hope I stressed enough that you need to do as much research as possible before the interview on the person you are interviewing. Don't be like this reporter:
". . . When Vivien Leigh arrived in Atlanta for the premiere of the reissue of Gone With the Wind, a reporter asked her what part she had played in the film. Scarlett informed the writer that she did not care to be interviewed by such an ignoramus."
Beyond the required books I have listed in the syllabus, I will be teaching from these books. You are not required to have them, but I have found them to be helpful on different aspects of writing and reporting.
The final arbiter in any disputes that might arise on grammar in this class will be:
Garner's Modern American Usage, Bryan A. Garner, 2003, Oxford University Press, New York
The stylebook I will use is:
Associated Press Stylebook 2007, Norm Goldstein, editor, 2007, The Associated Press, New York
Advice on interviewing comes from this book:
The Craft of Inverviewing, John Brady, 1976, Vintage Books, New York
Much of what I have to say about journalism (beyond my own experience) will come from these books:
The Journalist's Craft: A Guide to Writing Better Stories, Dennis Jackson and John Sweeney, editors, 2002, Allworth Press, New York
Inside Reporting : A Practical Guide to the Craft of Journalism, Tim Harrower, 2007, McGraw Hill, Boston
On style, diction, rhythm and just plain wise words on writing in general, I go to:
The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White, 1972, Macmillan Publishing, New York
The New Oxford Guide to Writing, Thomas S. Kane, 1988, Oxford University Press, New York
Economical Writing, Deirdre N. McCloskey, 2009, Waveland Press, Long Grove, Ill.
Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide, Mark Kramer and Wendy Call, editors, 2007, Penguin Group, New York
My quick reference books on grammar are:
Plain English Handbook: A Complete Guide to Good English, J. Martin Walsh and Anna Kathleen Walsh, 1959, McCormick-Mathers Publishing, Wichita, Kan.
Working with Words: A Handbook for Media Writers and Editors, Brian S. Brooks, James L/ Pinson and Jean Gaddy Wilson, 2006, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston
For questions on punctuation, I turn to the section in the back of the AP Stylebook, but a more entertaining book on punctuation is:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, Lynne Truss, 2003, Gotham Books, New York
And last but not least, this is where I go for help on questions about math:
Math Tools for Journalists,Kathleen Woodruff Kickham, 2003, Marion Street Press, Oak Park, Ill.
Jim Molnar teaches the condensed version of this non-fiction writing course and has compiled an amazingly complete list of books about writing. Here it is:
Writing for Story:Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction, by Jon Franklin; Plume Reprint Edition, 1994, paperback.ISBN: 0-45227-295-5
The Studs Terkel Reader: My American Century, by Studs Terkel, with Calvin Trillin (Forward) and Robert Coles (Introduction); New Press, 2007, paperback. ISBN: 1595581774
Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present, by Lex Williford and Michael Martone (eds.); Touchstone, 2007, paperback. ISBN: 1416531742.
The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing, by Alice LaPlante; W.W. Norton & Company, 2007, hardcover. ISBN: 0393061647.
Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, by Roy Peter Clark; Little, Brown and Company, 2008, paperback. ISBN: 0316014990
Recommended Texts:
Books on Craft
1.On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, by William K. Zinsser; Collins, 2006, paperback.ISBN: 0-06089-154-8
2.Tell it Slant:Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction, by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola; McGraw-Hill Humanities, 2003, paperback.ISBN:0-07251-278-4
3.Writing True:The Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction, by Sondra Perl and Mimi Schwartz; Houghton Mifflin, 2006, paperback. ISBN: 0-618-37075-7
4.The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers of/on Creative Nonfiction, by Robert L. Root, Jr., and Michael Steinberg; fourth edition, 2007, paperback. ISBN: 0-321-43484-6
5.Writing Creative Nonfiction:Instruction and Insights from Teachers of The Associated Writing Programs, by Carolyn Forche and Phillip Gerard (eds.); Writers Digest Books, 2001, paperback.ISBN:1-88491-050-5
6.The Art of Creative Nonfiction: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality, by Lee Gutkind; John Wiley & Sons, 1997, paperback. ISBN: 0-471-11356-5
7.The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction, by Dinty W. Moore; Pearson Longman, 2007, paperback. ISBN:0-32127-761-9
8.Writing With Style:Conversations on the Art of Writing, 2ndedition, by John R. Trimble;Prentice Hall, 2000, paperback.ISBN: 0130257133
9.The Passionate, Accurate Story: Making Your Heart’s Truth into Literature, by Carol Bly; Milkweed Editions, paperback. 1990.ISBN: 0-91594-353-1
10.The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present, by Phillip Lopate; Anchor, 1997, paperback. ISBN: 0-38542-339-X
11.The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative, by Vivian Gornick; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001, paperback. ISBN: 0-37452-858-6
12.Intimate Journalism: The Art and Craft of Reporting Everyday Life, by Walt Harrington; Sage Publications Inc., 1997, paperback. ISBN: 0761905871
13.Keep It Real:Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction, by Lee Gutkind (ed.); W.W. Norton & Company, 2009, paperback.ISBN: 0393330982
14.Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir, by William Zinsser (ed.); Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin, 1998, paperback. ISBN: 0-39590-150-2
15.Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies, by Sol Stein; St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000, paperback. ISBN: 0-31225-421-0
16.Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing, by Claire Kehrwald Cook; Houghton Mifflin, Modern Language Association series, 1985, paperback. ISBN: 0-395-39391-4
17.A Writer’s Workbook: Daily Exercises for the Writer’s Life, by Caroline Sharp; St. Martin’s Griffin 2002, paperback. ISBN:0-31228-621-X
18.A Manual of Writer’s Tricks, by David L. Carroll; Marlowe & Company, 1995, paperback. ISBN: 1-56924-877-X
19.The First Five Pages:A Writer’s Guide to Staying off the Rejection Pile, by Noah Lukeman; Fireside, 2000, paperback.ISBN: 0-68485-743-X
20.The Anatomy of a Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, by John Truby; Faber & Faber, 2008, paperback. ISBN: 0865479933
21.Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, by Bret Anthony Johnston (ed.);Random House, 2008, paperback.ISBN: 0812975480
22.Now Write:Fiction Writing Exercises From Today’s Best Writers & Teachers, by Sherry Ellis (ed.); Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2006, paperback. ISBN: 1585425222
23.The Writer’s Idea Book:How to Develop Great Ideas for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Screenplays, by Jack Heffron; Writers Digest Books, 2000, paperback.ISBN: 158297179X
24.How to Write Funny:Add Humor to Every Kind of Writing, by John B. Kachuba (ed.), Writers Digest Books, 2001, paperback.ISBN: 1582970548
25.The Craft of Research, Third Edition, by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams; University of Chicago Press, 2008, paperback.ISBN: 0226065669
Books on Practice
26.Fingerpainting on the Moon:Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom, by Peter Levitt; Harmony, 2003, hardcover.ISBN:0-60961-048-1
27.A Writer’s Time: Making the Time to Write, by Kenneth Atchity; W.W. Norton & Company, Revised and Expanded Edition, 1995, paperback.ISBN: 0-39331-263-1
28.The Triggering Town:Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing, by Richard Hugo; W.W. Norton & Company, Reissue Edition, 1992, paperback.ISBN: 0-39330-933-9
29.You Must Revise Your Life, by William Stafford; University of Michigan Press, 1987, paperback. ISBN: 0-47206-371-5
30.Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them, by Francine Prose; Harper Collins, 2006, hardback. ISBN: 0-06077-704-4
31.The Unquiet Grave: A Word Circle by Palinurus, by Cyril Connolly; Persea Books, Reprint Edition, 2005, paperback. ISBN: 0-89255-058-9
32.Turning the Wheel: Essays on Buddhism and Writing, by Charles Johnson; Scribner, 2003, hardback. ISBN: 0-74324-324-7
33.The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain, by Alice W. Flaherty; Houghton Mifflin, 2004, paperback. ISBN: 0-61823-065-3
34.Writing for Your Life: A Guide and Companion to the Inner Worlds, by Deena Metzger; Harper San Francisco, 1992, paperback. ISBN: 0-06250-612-9
35.The Eleventh Draft: Craft and the Writing Life from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, by Frank Conroy (ed.); Harper Collins, 1999, hardback. ISBN: 0-06273-639-6
36.The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers, by Betsy Lerner; Riverhead Books, 2000, paperback. ISBN: 1-57322-152-X
37.Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer, by Bruce Holland Rogers; Invisible Cities Press, 2002, paperback. ISBN: 1-91322-917-1
38.Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity, by Ray Bradbury;Joshua Odell Editions, expanded edition, 1993, paperback. ISBN: 1-87774-109-4
39.On Writing, by Stephen King; Pocket, 2002, paperback. ISBN: 0-74345-596-7
40.Conversations with Robert Gaves, by Frank L. Kersnowski (ed.); University Press of Mississippi, Literary Conversations Series, 1989, paperback. ISBN: 0-87805-413-8
41.The Art of Writing: Lu Chi’s Wen Fu, by Sam Hamill (trans.); Milkweed Editions, 2000, paperback. ISBN: 1-57131-412-1
42.Rules of Thumb: 73 Authors Reveal Their Fiction Writing Fixations, by Michael Martone and Susan Neville (eds.);Writers Digest Books, 2006, hardcover.ISBN: 1582973911
Books on Grammar, Syntax, and Style
43.The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition, by Willam Strunk Jr. and E.B. White; Longman, 1999, paperback. ISBN: 0-20530-902-X
44.The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, Fully Revised and Updated, by Norm Goldstein; Perseus Books Group, 2006, paperback.USBN: 0-46500-489-X
45.Writing Handbook, Second Edition, by Bernard J. Streicher, S.J.; Michael P. Kammer, S.J.; and Charles W. Mulligan, S.J.; Loyola Press, 1996, hardcover. ISBN: 0829409106
46.Sin and Syntax:How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose, by Constance Hale; Broadway Books, 2001, paperback;. ISBN: 0-76790-309-9
47.Common Errors in English Usage, 2nd edition, by Paul Brians; William, James & Co., 2009, paperback.ISBN: 1590282078
48.Words on Words: The Columbia Dictionary for Writers, by John B. Bremner; MJF Books, 1998,hardcover. ISBN: 1-56731-282-9
49.The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon; Pantheon Books, 1993, hardcover. ISBN: 0-67941-860-1
50.The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon,; Houghton Mifflin, reprint edition, 2003, paperback. ISBN: 0-61838-201-1
51.Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English, by Patricia T. O’Connor; Riverhead Books, 2004, paperback. ISBN: 1-59448-006-0
52.Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer’s Guide to Getting It Right, by Bill Bryson; Broadway, 2004, paperback. ISBN: 0767910435
53.Style, an Anti-Textbook, Second Edition, Revised, by Richard A Lanham; Paul Dry Books, 2007, paperback. ISBN: 1589880323
54.Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia Tufte; Graphics Press, 2006, paperback.ISBN: 0961392185
Anthologies, Collections, and Essays
55.In Fact:The Best of Creative Nonfiction, by Lee Gutkind (ed.); W.W. Norton and Company, 2004, paperback.ISBN: 0-39332-665-9
56.The Best Creative Nonfiction, by Lee Gutkind (ed.), two volumes, paperback; W,W. Norton & Company. Vol. 1, 2007; ISBN: 0393330036. Vol. 2, 2008: ISBN: 0393330249
57.The Norton Book of Personal Essays, by Joseph Epstein (ed.); W.W. Norton & Company, 1997, hardcover.ISBN; 0-39303-654-5
58.Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, by Studs Terkel; New Press, 1997, paperback. ISBN: 1565843428
59.Hard Times:An Oral History of the Great Depression, by Studs Terkel; W.W. Norton & Company, 2000, paperback. ISBN: 1565846567
60.Voices of Our Time:Five Decades of Studs Terkel Interviews, by Studs Terkel; Highbridge Audio, Unabridged Edition, 2005, audio cd set. ISBN: 156511969X
61.John McPhee Reader, by John McPhee, William L. Howarth (ed.); Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982, paperback. ISBN: 0-37451-719-3
62.The Second John McPhee Reader, by John McPhee, Patricia Strachan, David Remnick; Farrar Straus Giroux, 1996, paperback.ISBN:0-37452-463-7
63.The Braindead Megaphone: Essays, by George Saunders; Rverhead Trade, 2007, paperback. ISBN: 159448256X
64.Life Stories:Profiles from The New Yorker, by David Remnick; Modern Library, 2001, paperback.ISBN: 0-37575-751-1
65.The Next American Essay, by John D’Agata (ed.);Graywolf Press, 2003, paperback.ISBN: 1555973752
66.The Best American Essays of the Century, by Joyce Carol Oates and Robert Atwan (eds.); Houghton Mifflin reprint edition, 2001, paperback. ISBN: 0-618-15587-2
67.The Best American … Series published by Houghton Mifflin.See especially Essays (2007) and Magazine Writing (2006 and 2007) and Science and Nature Writing and Travel Writing.
68.In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction, by Judith Kitchen and Mary Paumier Jones (eds.); W.W. Norton & Co., 1996, paperback. ISBN: 0-39303-960-9
69.The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber, by Nicholson Baker; Vintage Books, 1997, paperback. ISBN: 0-67977-624-9
70.Best Newspaper Writing, byAly Colon (ed.); The Poynter Institute, 2006-2007 edition (and subsequent), paperback. ISBN:0-87289-296-4. (Also other years and editions.)
71.Principal Products of Portugal: Prose Pieces, by Donald Hall; Beacon Press, 1996, paperback.ISBN: 0-0706-203-6
72.Having Everything Right: Essays of Place, by Kim R. Stafford, Sasquatch Books, 1997, paperback. ISBN: 1-57061-097-5
73.Crossing Open Ground, by Barry Lopez;Vintage, reprint edition, 1989, paperback. ISBN: 0-67972-183-5
74.About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory, by Barry Lopez; The Harvill Press, 1999, paperback. ISBN: 1-86046-565-X
75.The Enthusiasms of Robertson Davies, by Robertson Davies and Judith Skelton Grant (ed.); Penguin, reprint edition, 1991, paperback. ISBN: 0-14012-659-7
76.When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris; Back Bay Books, 2009, paperback.ISBN: 0316154687
77.The Disappointment Artist:Essays, by Jonathan Lethem; Vintage, 2006, paperback.ISBN: 1400076811
78.Only Love Can Break Your Heart, by David Samuels; New Press, 2008, hardcover. ISBN: 1595581871
79.The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel, by James Wood; Picador, 2005, paperback.ISBN: 0312424604
80.A Walk in the Woods:Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson; Anchor, 2nd ed., 2006, paperback.ISBN: 0307279464
81.The Insanity Defense:The Complete Prose, by Woody Allen; Random House, 2007, paperback.ISBN: 0812978110
82.Don’t Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems, by David Rakoff; Broadway Books, 2005, paperback. ISBN: 0767916034
83.Fraud:Essays, by David Rakoff; Anchor, 2002, paperback.ISBN: 0767906314
84.The Areas pf My Expertise, by John Hodgman;Eiverhead Trade, 2006, paperback. ISBN: 1594482225
85.A Collection of Essays, by George Orwell; Mariner Books, 1970, paperback. ISBN: 0156186004
86.Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays, by George Orwell (George Packer, ed.);Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008, paperback.ISBN: 0151013616
87.The Orwell Reader:Fiction, Essays, and Reportage, by George Orwell; Mariner Books, 1961, paperback.ISBN: 0156701766
On a post below Rathnakar has a link to an excellent article by Kurt Vonnegut on writing personal essays. I read it and thought it worth getting out in the open more so you don't miss it.
