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. 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 some more writers that you may find valuable.
David McCullough
David McCullough is arguably the most popular historian in America, a fact that rankles those individuals who sport degrees in history. (McCullough’s degree is in English literature.) But with his impressive list of bestselling books and two Pulitzer prizes, the distain of the academic community must cause him many sleepless nights.
The Johnstown Flood was McCullough’s first book. It was later turned into a PBS special with McCullough as narrator. To help the reader understand how the great flood took place, McCullough begins with an overview of 19th Century Pennsylvania history.
The South Fork Dam was built by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the mid-19th Century to provide water for the canal system transporting cargo from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Six months after the dam was finished, a railroad engineer figured out how to get trains over the Allegheny mountains, thus rendering the canal system, and the dam, obsolete.
The dam, reservoir, and surrounding land passed through several hands before being sold to a group of Pittsburgh fat cats, who turned the property into the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club. They continued the established tradition of ignoring dam maintenance.
On May 31, 1889, during a heavy rainstorm, the damn broke sending a 40-foot wall of water rolling 14 miles down the valley towards Johnstown. The floodwaters leveled Johnstown, and the debris they carried caught fire when it was trapped by a railroad bridge at the far end of town. Many of the folks who survived the flood burned to death in the ensuing conflagration. Most shockingly, none of the aristocrats from the hunting and fishing club ever paid a dime in damages.
Truman is one of books for which McCullough was awarded the Pulitzer prize. (John Adams is the other.) Truman is the story of a simple Midwestern man who rose from dogcatcher to leader of the Free World in eleven years, through a startling series of events. McCullough paints the picture of an ordinary guy with extraordinary drive and ambition.
Truman’s folksy manner and personality are an endless source of anecdotes. There’s the one about his mother-in-law who insisted that her daughter had married down, even after Harry was occupying the White House. Then there’s the one about Truman getting pulled over for speeding while driving himself and Bess to the Kennedy inauguration. (How else would an ex-president get there?)
Truman is a gripping and fascinating tale of the guy next door who succeeds beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.
Published in 1977, The Path Between the Seas chronicles the building of the Panama Canal. McCullough tells how the French project collapsed after only seven years, the victim of an overabundance of dirt, disease, and delusion. The French, particularly the project’s organizer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, believed that what had been accomplished at Suez could be repeated at Panama.
The U.S. took over the project in 1904, after fomenting a revolution in Panama and backing the rebels against the government of Columbia. This enabled the U.S. to acquire the Canal Zone at a bargain-basement price.
The Path Between the Seas is a story of political determination, medical relentlessness (the conquering of yellow fever and malaria), and engineering genius that allowed the U.S. to complete what was the Manhattan Project of its day.
William Manchester
As a young marine, William Manchester participated in the Pacific campaigns of World War II. He was severely wounded at Guadalcanal, and was decorated multiple times. After graduating from college, he worked under the tutelage of H.L. Mencken at the Baltimore Sun. He is best known for his 1967 book The Death of a President.
The Last Lion is a biography of Winston Churchill, the charismatic British prime minister. Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was the grandson of the 7th duke of Marlborough. Because his father, Lord Randolf, was not the duke’s eldest son, he could not pass on a title; thus, his own son grew up Mr. Winston Churchill.
Lord Randolph was inattentive, to say the least. There’s a story that, while Winston was at boarding school, his father visited the town where the boy’s school was located. He wouldn’t even walk across the street to see his son. His mother, an American, Jennie Jerome, left the child-rearing to nannies.
Though brilliant, Churchill was not much of a student. Convinced Winston was not university material, his parents sent him to Sandhurst, the British West Point. Graduates of Sandhurst had a number of careers open to them. The best went into the corps of engineers; the worst went into the cavalry. Churchill was commissioned subaltern of horse.
After graduating from Sandhurst, Winston was deployed to India where, during his spare time, he began to educate himself through reading – particularly history. He saw action in India and Africa, participating in the last cavalry charge of the British Army at the battle of Omdurman.
Churchill covered the Boer War as a correspondent. He was captured, but managed to escape. The escape made him an international celebrity, which led to a seat in Parliament.
Churchill is well known for his aggressive stance toward Germany during the 1930s, a stance that is understandable, given his military background. He is also well known for his brilliant public speaking, a talent developed through years of reading. The House of Commons would fill up whenever he rose to speak.
Despite his courageous leadership during the darkest days in British history, he was turned out of office right after Germany surrendered. He did not stay in office long enough to see the defeat of Japan. On domestic issues he was an archconservative, and Britain was moving toward socialism. The British people considered him strictly a wartime prime minister; during peacetime they wanted nothing to do with him. The Last Lion is a compelling account of one of the 20th Century’s most dynamic leaders.
American Caesar is a biography of General Douglas McArthur. Manchester traces MacArthur’s life through his army-brat upbringing, his remarkable years at West Point (he graduated first in his class), his distinguished service in World War I, his peacetime service as superintendent of West Point and army chief of staff, his inspiring leadership during World War II, his historic term as military dictator of Japan, his return to wartime service in Korea, and his triumphant return to the U.S. after being fired by President Truman.
American Caesar is the tale of a man many times larger than life.
SUMMARY
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.
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