Writing English prose is like writing music: it requires a trained ear. You can’t begin to compose music until you’ve developed an ear for it. Likewise, you can’t begin to compose English prose until you’ve developed an ear for that. And just as it takes years of listening to make a composer, it takes years of reading to make a writer. Trouble is, many auditors, like many people, don’t read or don’t read anything beyond the sports page or the latest pulp fiction. That’s fine for most people, but auditors are not most people: they’re professional writers—it’s what they do for a living

The journalist and author E.B. White once wrote a column about his English teacher William Strunk and the “little white book” that Strunk gave to all of his students. After the column was published, many people wrote and asked how they could get a copy of Strunk’s book. Of course, it was many years out of print. Colleagues suggested to White that he update the book and publish it as a collaborative effort. That became Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style.

White later wrote that updating Strunk’s book was one of the toughest things he ever had to do. Once he started reading the old manual, White realized that he had long ago forgotten what was in it. He didn’t know the rules of grammar, style, and usage. White, like so many other professional writers, wrote by ear.

If it’s the trained ear that makes the writer, how do we help staff auditors develop that ear? We lead by example. We become inveterate readers ourselves, and we make an enthusiastic sales pitch for authors whose works are entertaining, enlightening, and well written. Here are just a few.

Barzun was a professor of history at Columbia University for many years. He was best known for his courses on Western Civilization and “The Great Books,” that collection of works that all educated people are supposed to have read.

In addition to being an expert on Western Civilization, Barzun was also a world-renown expert on writing. He even published a book on the subject, Simple and Direct, that’s still available in bookstores.So when you read his books, you’re absorbing excellent style and craftsmanship.

I was introduced to Barzun when a friend gave me a copy of The House of Intellect, first published in 1959.Among other things, the book is about the nightmares of grading undergraduate term papers. Barzun talks about how appalling the writing was, and how his students couldn’t understand why he was so bent out of shape about it. After all, English isn’t supposed to count in history courses.

Barzun’s most recent book, From Dawn to Decadence, is a history of Western Civilization from Martin Luther to the early 20 th Century. This is not the cold, lifeless stuff you were fed in high school and college, but a series of entertaining, human-interest stories. It’s also funny.

Barzun tells a story about Blaise Pascal, the mathematician and philosopher. Pascal’s father was a tax accountant, and he employed a large staff. Pascal saw all of the tedious number crunching, and he thought, “Wow, wouldn’t it be great if we could reduce the tedium and speed up the work?” So he invented the first mechanical calculator. He took the thing down to his father’s office and demonstrated it for the staff. He told them how this machine would make their lives easier. They looked at the machine; they looked at each other, and said, “Naaaaaah!” Accountants are accountants: nothing ever changes. If you are old enough to remember the advent of PCs, you know what I’m talking about.

Barzun is also one of the world’s foremost experts on the composer Hector Berlioz. His two-volume biography Berlioz and the Romantic Era is a classic. So if you’re interested in orchestral music and want to imbibe some top-notch writing, try this masterful biography.

Whittaker Chambers is best known as the man who outed Alger Hiss, the defendant in the famous spy trial that is still being debated today. Up until the O.J. Simpson case, the Hiss case was called “The Trial of the Century.”

Chambers joined the Communist party in 1925, and began writing for The Daily Worker and The New Masses. This was how he broke into journalism.

He joined the Communist underground in 1932, and he worked in Washington D.C. as an organizer and courier of classified government documents. One of the people he allegedly obtained documents from was Alger Hiss. He left the party in 1938 and went to work for TimeMagazine as a proofreader. His writing talent was quickly recognized, and he eventually rose to the job of senior editor.

Witness is Chambers’ autobiography. After reading it, I gave my copy to a friend who is an active reader and book collector. He told me it was one of the most beautiful pieces of English prose he had ever read.

Ghosts on the Roof is a collection of Chambers’ columns for The New Masses, Time Magazine, and National Review. It includes a column on the contralto Marian Anderson that William F. Buckley praised as one of the finest pieces of journalism ever produced.

Sylvia Nasar is an economist who hit a grand slam with A Beautiful Mind, the life of the Nobel laureate John Nash. If you liked the movie, you’ll love the book.

Nash was born in Bluefield, West Virginia, the son of an engineer. He attended Carnegie Mellon University where he unsuccessfully attempted majors in chemical engineering and then chemistry. Some of his professors suggested that he try math because he seemed to have a flair for that. Math was his fallback position.

Nash did so well at math that he was invited to do graduate work at Princeton, the math mecca of the U.S.

The characters that Nasar introduces are what make the book so interesting. There was John von Neumann, the polymath and expert on game theory, and Albert Einstein who, after meeting with Nash to discuss a physics problem, essentially told Nash he didn’t know a thing about physics.

The figure who furnished much of the background information on Nash was a Professor Donald Newman. Newman stressed to Nasar that he was not one of Nash’s friends. Nash, an arrogant, self-absorbed, and abrasive man, had few friends.

Nash wrote the paper for which he was awarded the Nobel prize while he was a graduate student at Princeton. Nasar maintains this is not as unusual as it sounds. Most of the great mathematicians, she claims, did their most important work before age 30. Apparently “older folks” just can’t maintain the required level of concentration.

Nash’s prize-winning paper was on game theory, and he was very much interested in discussing it with the game-theory guru John von Neumann, then in residence at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. Von Neumann blew him off. Luckily, another professor encouraged Nash to have the paper published.

Nash’s decent into Hell started while he was teaching at MIT. His behavior became more and more bizarre. He was institutionalized several times and had shock therapy. Nothing seemed to work. He deserted his family and wandered Europe and the U.S. He finally returned to Princeton, where he spent his days wandering the campus.

Over the years his condition has improved. He is currently functional without drugs, something his doctors are unable to explain.

The funny thing about the movie version of Nash’s life is that it shows him quite functional at the time he was informed about the Nobel prize. The truth is he was so sick that it was unclear whether he would be able to stand on stage and accept the award.

The most tragic part of Nash’s story is that his son, also a math Ph.D., is sicker than his father ever was. Nash senior spends most of his time looking after his son.

Auditors are professional writers and, as such, require a level of writing skill well above average. Developing that skill means developing the writer’s ear, a finely-tuned instrument honed by years of careful and selective reading.

If we are genuinely interested in improving the writing skills of our staff members, we must encourage them to read by our example. Get thee to a library, or a Border’s, or a Barnes and Nobel. Discuss your reading with your staff, and stress with them that serious reading is essential for people who make their living by writing—people like auditors. If we make the effort, we may find that we’re doing less rewrite work, and that we have more time for planning, troubleshooting, and developing new ideas.