Like fine food, good writing is something we approach with pleasure and enjoy from the first taste to the last. And good writers, good cooks, do not suddenly appear full-blown. Quite the contrary, just as the cook has to undergo an intensive training, mastering the skills of his trade, the writer must sit at his desk and devote long hours to achieving a style in his writing, whatever its purpose-schoolwork, matters of business, or purely social communication. You may be sure that the more painstaking the effort, the more effective the writing, and the more rewarding. There are still some remote places in the world where you might find a public scribe to do your business or social writing for you, for a fee. There are a few managers who are lucky enough to have the service of that rate kind of secretary who can take care of all sorts of letter writing with no more than a quick note to work from. But for most of us, if there is any writing to be done, we have to do it ourselves. We have to write school papers, business papers or home papers. We are constantly called on to put words to paper. It would be difficult to count the number of such words, messages, letters, and reports put into the mails or delivered by hand, but the daily figure must be enormous. What is more, everyone who writes expects, or at least hopes. We want whatever we write to be read, from first word to last, not just thrown into some “letters-to-be-read” file ( 档案 ) or into a wastepaper basket. This is the reason we bend our efforts toward learning and practicing the skill of interesting, effective writing.