Rhetoric williams biography

Joseph M. Williams (18 August in Cleveland, Ohio – 22 February in South Haven, Michigan) was a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago where he promoted clarity in writing for many years. He authored several books on language and writing.

Biography

Williams began as a researcher of English language. In Origins of the English Language: A Social & Linguistic History he traces the history of the English language from the evolution of man through to Modern English. His interest in studying close connection between grammar and rhetoric was reflected in another earlier book The New English: Structure, Form, Style and culminated in Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, his noteworthy textbook on writing style.

In Style, based on "The Little Red Schoolhouse" course he taught at Chicago for many years,^[1] Williams established and vehemently defended two basic principles that "it is good to