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.


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

How NOT to write a sentence

This spoof of the style of one of my least favorite political figures (go ahead, guess!) arrived on a birthday card:

"A birthday is a time, another notch in the road, another fork on the table to where you're progressing into some kind of state where a distant shore's advancin' and callin' you up higher, and mostly it's just all about staying the same while you change into even more of who you are! And cake and candles totally honor that, oh you betcha!"

For entertainment value, sometimes bad writing is the best writing!
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1 comment:

  1. Debbie Maxwell AllenFebruary 23, 2011 at 10:40 PM

    I wanted to let you know that I just finished reading your article in The Writer, In Search of the Perfect Sentence. You have such a wonderful way of explaining your points, and the examples you use are perfect. I'll be rereading the piece, as well as browsing your archives. Thank you so much!

    ~Debbie
    http://writingwhilethericeboils.blogspot.com/

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