If you would like to improve your writing, this is a vital book. Accessible in the extreme, with exercises that are fun to do. If you sense that Jane Smiley is a terrific writer and Mary Higgins Clark is an entertaining but just adequate writer and yet you couldn't say exactly WHY - well, this book explains the difference. Benjamin Franklin used to have a technique to improve his writing of jotting down the essence of a successful essay, then trying to write it himself, then comparing his effort to the original. Provost uses the same method with a paragraph of Truman Capote's. (who falls into the terrific writer category).