Writing Across the Media

I've used this book in my writing classes because it makes clear and understandable the foundations of good writing and then uses examples from the fields of public relations, advertising and journalism to illustrate the concepts. As a result, students can see applications of good writing principles from 'across the media' that are not limited to one or another profession. Most textbooks that purport to address these varying aspects of media writing do so in the silo approach: chapters on how to write for broadcast, chapters on print/online, chapters on public relations, chapters on advertising, one dutiful chapter on libel and several weak chapters that fail to unite the principles underlying good writing let alone make them understandable to the novice. Most such textbooks are classical examples of bad academic writing -- wordy, unclear and overblown -- thereby thrilling the hearts of publishers and driving to distraction those who love words and good writing. Bunton and the other authors created a book that is well written, interesting, tight, to the point and that works for students even today. I highly recommend it. If you use it to teach you will need handouts for current online writing -- that's the only dated element in the book. Jan Shaw