In this wickedly humorous manual, language columnist June Casagrande uses grammar and syntax to show exactly what makes some sentences great--and other sentences suck. Great writing isn't born, it's built--sentence by sentence. But too many writers--and writing guides--overlook this most important unit. The result? Manuscripts that will never be published and writing careers that will never begin. With chapters on "Conjunctions That Kill" and "Words Gone Wild," this lighthearted guide is perfect for anyone who's dead serious about writing, from aspiring novelists to nonfiction writers, conscientious students to cheeky literati. So roll up your sleeves and prepare to craft one bold, effective sentence after another. Your readers will thank you.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction The Sentence: The Writer's Most Important Tool 1 Chapter 1 Who Cares? Making Sentences Meaningful to Your Reader 7 Chapter 2 Conjunctions That Kill: Subordination 15 Chapter 3 Movable Objects: Understanding Phrases and Clauses 29
Chapter 4 Size Matters: Short versus Long Sentences 36
Chapter 5 Words Gone Wild: Sentences That Say Nothing--or Worse 53 Chapter 6 Words Gone Mild: Choosing Specific Words Over Vague Ones 61
Chapter 7 A Frequently Overstated Case: The Truth About Adverbs 65
Chapter 8 Are Your Relatives Essential? Relative Clauses 72 Chapter 9 Antique Desk Suitable for Lady with Thick Legs and Large Drawers: Prepositional Phrases 80
Chapter 10 Dangler Danger: Participles and Other Danglers 85 Chapter 11 The Writing Was Ignored by the Reader: Passives 90
Chapter 12 You Will Have Been Conjugating: Other Matters of Tense 98
Chapter 13 The Being and the Doing Are the Killing of Your Writing: Nominalizations 107 Chapter 14 The The Not-So-Definite Definite Articles 112 Chapter 15 The Writer and His Father Lamented His Ineptitude: Unclear Antecedents 116 Chapter 16 To Know Them Is to Hating Them: Faulty and Funky Parallels 122
Chapter 17 Taking the Punk Out of Punctuation: The Problem with Semicolons and Parentheses 125 Chapter 18 You Don't Say: Descriptive Quotation Attributions 131 Chapter 19 Trimming the Fat: Expressions That Weigh Down Your Sentences 134 Chapter 20 The Major Overhaul: Streamlining Even the Most Problematic Sentences 149
Chapter 21 On Breaking the "Rules" Knowing When to Can the Canons 164 Appendix 1 Grammar for Writers 167 Appendix 2 Punctuation Basics for Writers 191 Appendix 3 The Deadliest Catches: The Most Incriminating Errors and How to Avoid Them 204 About the Author 208 Index 209
