Bruce Fleming won an O. Henry Award for his first published story, "The Autobiography of Gertrude Stein" (1989) and in 2005, the Antioch Review Award for Distinguished Prose, a career award. His experimental novel Twilley (1997) was compared by critics to works by Henry James, T.S. Eliot, Proust, Thoreau, and David Lynch. He has published a book of dance essays, Sex, Art and Audience (2000), many scholarly and theoretical books, and articles and essays in literary quarterlies and publications such as the Village Voice, The Washington Post, and The Nation. His most recent books include Annapolis Autumn: Life, Death and Literature at the U.S. Naval Academy (2005), Why Liberals and Conservatives Clash (2006) and The New Tractatus (2007). He is an English professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, where he has taught literature and writing for more than twenty years.

Many otherwise competent adults are wobbly writers, whether they're college students or already thriving in a job. They probably exhibit a 'go get 'em' attitude for most of their lives, but find themselves stumped by a blank computer screen or a piece of paper. What, they wonder, do I do now? What's my next word, next sentence? But their problems aren't solved by somebody telling them what to do, only by someone helping them figure things out themselves. As the adage says: give a person a fish and s/he eats that day; teach a person to fish and s/he eats for life. They need a little help from Bill the Goat.

Part 1 Preface Chapter 2 Begin Here Chapter 3 Follow These Principles Chapter 4 Your Own Private Grammar Friday Chapter 5 Correcting Your Own Course Chapter 6 How to Read Part 7 Index Part 8 About the Author