Riddle: Why is a telescope like a bad excuse? Answer:Because anyone can see through it. The authors of this book would like to help anyone - butparticularly students of English - to "see through" language,whether as the instrument of perception or as the evasive code.They write about texts, and the making of texts, and how texts aremade to carry various kinds of meaning; and the topics they chooseto write about range from the lexicon of car maintenance manuals tothe role of grammatical modality in literary criticism. Their aimis to help students who may have little experience of linguisticstudies to develop the articulate awareness of language that maysubsequently be of service to them. The book has something to say about aesthetics, but it is notaddressed to aesthetes; and much to say about the functions oflanguage. One of its aims is to be of value to students andteachers of English by providing close and extensive readings ofnon-literary as well as literary texts. It is thus a demonstrationof techniques and themes in stylistics, but it also has claims as amanual of self-defence for citizens beset by the salesmanship ofwords. Above all, it is concerned with creativeness, particularlyas developed through the complementary processes of textualanalysis and textual composition. The programme of exercises withwhich the book concludes is designed to enhance not only thestudent's understanding of various types of text, but also theability to turn perception into productivity through the process ofwriting.