Helen Sword earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and taught in the English Department at Indiana University before moving to New Zealand, where she now works as a senior lecturer in the Centre for Academic Development at the University of Auckland. Her publications include two books on modernist literature, Engendering Inspiration (1995) and Ghostwriting Modernism (2002). The Writer's Diet draws on her extensive experience as a writer, editor and teacher of academic writing.

Acknowledgements; Preface The Writer's Diet; Introduction The Wasteline Test; Chapter 1 Verbal verve; Chapter 2 Noun density; Chapter 3 Prepositional podge; Chapter 4 Ad-dictions; Chapter 5 Waste words; Afterword Healthy writing; Appendix; References; Index