How many numismatic writers followed Stephen Ambrose's advice on writing?

[shirohniichan]

I listened to one of Stephen Ambrose's books (no, not Band of Brothers ) in which he gave advice on how to be a good writer of history. His first piece of advice was to marry an English major.

 

It's too late for me to do that now, but has anyone else followed this helpful advice?

[James_OldeTowne]

I listened to one of Stephen Ambrose's books (no, not Band of Brothers ) in which he gave advice on how to be a good writer of history. His first piece of advice was to marry an English major.

 

It's too late for me to do that now, but has anyone else followed this helpful advice?

Well... their uniforms are pretty neat...

 

 

 

[RWB]

What were his suggestions?

[shirohniichan]

1. Marry an English major.

2. Write with a time and location clause at the beginning of the sentence.

3. Avoid adjectives and adverbs as much as possible.

4. Keep the reader guessing as to the outcome. Because history plays itself out chronologically, write so that events unfold as the subjects experience them. Don't give away the ending.

5... I forget the rest.

[RWB]

Now I understand….

1. I married a Bitc*h major

2. Does “Once upon a time…” count?

3. I avoided nouns and verbs.

4. I keep them guessing with footnotes

5. …there’s more?

 

[DWLange]

I don't believe any of that applies, unless one is writing historical drama. There's enough drama in real life that we don't need it in numismatics, too. That's what the message boards are for.

[RWB]

Once upon a time....there were three bears. Their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter. They lived in Mr. McGregor's garden but wanted to escape so they could catch rabbits and eat berries with their porridge every morning. Mr. McGregor was a painful vegetarian and the three bears were tired of eating carrots and snoozcabbage every day.

 

One day, just before sunrise, as Mr. McGregor was watering the stinkweed patch, Cottontail jumped him and bit off his head…..(to be continued, more or less).

 

[shirohniichan]

The last piece of advice was to find a good editor and stick with him/her no matter how much he/she angers you. Once you've found a good editor write with him/her in mind.

[e1cnr]

RWB, I thought the third bears name was Cottontail and Peter

[RWB]

No, there were only three bears by their count, but four by everyone else's count. (All the bears stood in a circle and counted the other bears. They always came up with "three.")

[Jeffrey Cardona]

Since investigations have found cases of plagiarism involving passages in at least six of his books, I would think twice about following his advice.