Are you a reader who values a writer's style as much as the meaning it conveys?

Are you a writer who seeks to refine your own style?

Would you like to improve your understanding of the techniques writers use to create beautiful sentences?

Welcome to the search for the perfect sentence!


Most readers and writers focus on the content of a piece--the ideas it conveys, the story it carries, the events it chronicles. "So many books, so little time" we readers chorus, rushing through our stories, newspapers, websites. "Is it finished?" we writers ask. "Have I written enough words? Have I gotten the content across?"

Here we'll focus on the style of writing more than its content. We'll slow down. We'll read very short passages, sometimes single sentences, and we'll savor their wordcraft. We'll examine why each word was chosen, how they were arranged into sentences, and how those sentences evoke our responses. In the process, I hope we'll become more careful, perceptive readers and more effective writers.

Beautiful writing is everywhere--on the sports page of the morning paper, in the novel that relaxes you at night, in your grandmother's love letters found in the attic. If you would like to contribute a passage for close reading, with or without your own interpretation of its techniques, please email me at jtarasovic@gmail.com.


Wednesday, January 12, 2011

John Grisham: Style and Substance

Ray Wilkerson, a student in one of my "In Search of" classes, sent this sentence from John Grisham's latest novel, The Confession:

"Sunday.  What had been probable on Thursday, even likelier on Friday, and virtually certain on Saturday became the numbing truth during the night, so that on Sunday morning the country awoke to the sensational reality that an innocent man had been executed."

Ray's comment: "Grisham is known for his simplicity in writing style and his storytelling abilities. These two sentences are vintage Grisham. The first one-word sentence, 'Sunday,' tells the reader exactly what point in time it is. There is no ambiguity. The next sentence simply, thoroughly and powerfully brings the reader all the way through the events of the past three days, from speculation to absolute.  All of the different clashes of storylines and characters have culminated and collided at this point with this result - an innocent young man was executed for a crime he had not committed."

Thanks, Ray, for such a good example of a straightforward style that delivers its content so effectively.
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1 comment:

  1. LuxembourgOctober 12, 2011 at 3:53 AM

    I just finished this book. Excellent! Makes you want to believe that it's a true story, I was totally captivated. So much so that I'm struggling trying to decide what to read next, I always feel that way after I finish a book I enjoyed.

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