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.


Monday, March 28, 2011

The power of three, not to mention the bdelygmia

I've been meaning to look closely at the language of Barack Obama's speeches. Richard Nordquist beat me to it in his ever-fascinating About.com column on all things linguistic. In his analysis of Obama's rhetoric, he focuses on the President's use of tricolons--series of three items.

Don't visit Nordquist's site unless you have hours to take delight in his collection of rhetorical devices (unpronounceable Greek names like bdelygmia offered at no charge), examples of great writing from the classical to the contemporary (the metaphors of Dr. Gregory House, for example), practical advice, and humor.
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