From the experience of a translator and editor. The author of the book - editor, translator of Dickens, Dreiser and London, Aldington, Bradbury and St. Exupery - shares his many years of experience working on the word. Using vivid examples, it shows the difficulties that each writer faces, typical mistakes that penetrate prose and journalism, in print and on the radio. Analyzes good luck and finds, subtleties of skill. The first edition of the book is highly regarded by readers and the press. This book is primarily about love for the Russian language. It is addressed not only to editors and translators, to novice writers. It can help a student, a teacher, for anyone whose work is somehow connected with the Word.