Stunning Sentences

by Bruce Ross-Larson

Book Overview

Offers more than 100 model sentence types in a catalog format, giving writers many interesting and provocative ways to say what they mean. Writers looking for a more striking way to open a sentence will find these options: the announcement, the editorial opening, the opening appositive, the opening absolute, and the conjunction opening, among others. Examples of each sentence type ensure the reader's understanding of the concepts.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393317951
• ISBN13: 9780393317954
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Go beyond clarity

This book is ideal for a writer who already understands how to make his writing clear but wants to learn how to make his sentences sparkle.

Modeled sentence variety

This book provides many examples of sentence structures that will provide writers with new ideas for making more effective reports, essays, and letters.The vocabulary is created for the book. Terms such as simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex are mentioned in the introduction, but the author creates new terms to help writers think of sentences in a new way. For example, the author explains "recast" and "conditioned" sentences as variations that can be used to spice things up. The lack of the standard terms does not make this book more difficult.I would recommend this book to students and writers. The author explains each structure and gives examples. Rather than being read once and putting it away, this book should be kept as a reference. Your writing will improve!

Fantastic taxonomy of sentence structure

This slim and inexpensive volume reviews many effective but under-utilized sentence structures, pointing out the situations in which each is most suitable. You will begin to notice the techniques in everything you read. It's the best guide I've seen for writing-in-the-small.

Superb writing guide

I found the book invaluable, almost inspirational in its zeal to encourage good writing on the "micro" rather than the "macro" level. The explanatory material is succinct and the examples informative. My one complaint would be that too many examples of "stunning sentences" are culled from The Economist, certainly not the only available model for first-rate prose.