Want your writing to sell, shock, or just sing? The acclaimed author of Wired Style presents a hip, real-world guide to the rules of grammar--and when to break them. Today's writers need more spunk than Strunk. Whether crafted for the Great American Novel, Madison Avenue advertising, or Grammy Award-winning rap lyrics, memorable writing must jump off the page. Now, from copy veteran Constance Hale comes a fun, informative, indispensable guide to taking your writing from ordinary to extraordinary. Sin and Syntax is more than just a style manual with examinations of sentence structure and parts of speech. In addition to spelling out the basic rules, Constance Hale teaches you when--and how--to effectively break them. Chock full of examples from traditional and nontraditional prose--from advertising jingles to song lyrics to literary classics--Sin and Syntax shows you why learning to "sin" will make you a better writer. Discover how to: Distinguish between words that are "pearls" and words that are "potatoes" Innovate with adjectives to avoid clichés Avoid "couch potato thinking" and "com-mitment phobia" when choosing verbs Use literary devices such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, and metaphor PLUS--You'll learn: How Rich Little boosted his comedy career with the perfected use of one particular interjection Why Muhammad Ali's syntactically surprising speech worked as well as his jabs Which famous opening line from American literature contains no subject whatsoever A perfect display of Hale's own literary principles, Sin and Syntax, with its clear, crisp, modern approach to style, will be an essential guide for all those who want to improve their command of the English language.
You gotta love a grammar guide that calls verbs "moody little suckers" and adverbs "promiscuous." Constance Hale (Wired Style) relishes prose that is deliberate, beautiful, and bold. Go ahead and break the rules, she says; just know the rules first, and know why you are breaking them. In Sin & Syntax, Hale examines the elements of grammar from four angles: the "bones" (the grammar lesson), the "flesh" (the writing lesson), "cardinal sins" (what she calls "true transgressions"), and "carnal pleasures" (the beauty that results from either "hew[ing] exquisitely to the underlying codes of language," or not).
For illustration, Hale hails Walt Whitman and Roger Angell, and rails upon Alexander Haig and the Gump's catalogue. She hauls in Joan Didion to make a case for writing in the first person, Mark Twain to promote the killing of adjectives, C.S. Lewis to advocate showing rather than telling, and Loudon Wainwright III to lament the abuse of the word like. But Hale has no problem making her own points. "Euphemisms," she says, "are for wimps." She dismisses a particularly heinous example of scholarly prose as "a bunch of big words thrown into an Osterizer." Even other grammarians don't escape her derision: "Get a grip," Hale says. "Hopefully as a sentence adverb is here to stay." But what distinguishes Sin and Syntax most is its enthusiasm for prose that takes risks. "Even if you have to check with a lawyer," says Hale, "isn't a kick-ass piece of writing worth the effort?" --Jane Steinberg
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
The bones, flesh, sins, and pleasures of prose:
Dangling modifiers. Loose pronouns. Mixed metaphors. Sentence fragments . . . aw crap. Whatever your sin, Sin and Syntax is an all-purpose grammar guide that helps not only to improve your grammar but also to polish your prose. Constance Hale divides her book into three sections: words, sentences, and music. In words, she defines the fundamental building blocks of grammar (nouns, verbs, prepositions, etc.). In sentences, she teaches sentence mechanics and variation. In music, she explains how to... more info
I've bought 5 copies of this book over the last 5 years:
My sister stole my first copy, my other sister stole my second copy, I gave my third copy to a friend (but only because I knew she would love it as much as I do). My fourth copy doesn't have the dog-eared pages and underlining that my first copy had (I fall into the category of people who think tattered edges and scribbly notes add character to books). And I gave a fifth copy to another friend who was frustrated drafting an admissions essay for grad school. One of the best books on writing (generally) on... more info
Excellent book, poor quality control:
This is a fine book about the mechanics of writing. Here's the rub. Appendix 1 and 2 were replaced by duplicates of chapters 14 and 15 in the book I read. Otherwise this book is worth 5 stars.
a wickedly effective book:
wow. this book is a must for any writer, experienced or novice. not only is it a useful tool, but it is a fabulous read with witty references and comments throughout.
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