The Well-Crafted Sentence A Writer's Guide to Style

by Bacon, Nora

• ISBN13: 9780312471552
• ISBN10: 0312471556
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-12-24
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

Grounded in the art of writing,The Well-Crafted Sentencezeroes in on the sentence, offering a range of revision strategies that lead students to write fuller, more well-developed prose. In a friendly, conversational style, Nora Bacon makes clear how and why sentences work to focus, balance, develop, and qualify writers' ideas.Because students are more likely to try out new sentence structures if they've seen them in writing they admire, examples throughout the text are drawn from readings by accomplished stylists whose full pieces are also included in a chapter at the end of the book. Integrated exercises and editing practice help students apply concepts to their own writing.Affordable and brief,The Well-Crafted Sentenceworks as a core classroom text or as a supplement.

Author Biography

Nora Bacon is an associate professor of English and writing program administrator at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her research, begun at UC Berkeley in the 1990s, has examined service-learning pedagogy, the development of "writing agility," and the relationship between texts and the contexts in which they are written and read. Nora’s current research focuses on the stylistic choices preferred in different disciplines, uniting her interest in variation and her abiding fascination with sentences.

Table of Contents

Preface for Instructors

Introduction for Students

The Sentence’s Working Parts Clause Structure Transformations within the Clause Adding to the Clause Modifiers Linking Independent Clauses Dependent Clauses Adverb Clauses Adjective Clauses Noun Clauses

Well-Focused Sentences: The Subject-Verb Pair Populated Prose Active Voice and Passive Voice Variation in Sentence Focus Sharpening the Focus Double-check Sentences with Abstract Subjects Double-check Sentences with "There" in the Subject Position Keep Subject Phrases Short Uncover Subjects Buried in Introductory Phrases Transform Nouns to Verbs

Well-Balanced Sentences: Coordination and Parallel Structure Coordination Parallel Structure Correlative Conjunctions Variation in Coordinate Series Length Repetition

Well-Developed Sentences: Modification Early Modifiers and the Pleasures of the Periodic Sentence End Modifiers and the Pleasures of the Cumulative Sentence

Modifiers Following the Noun: Adjective Clauses and Adjective Phrases The Structure of Adjective Clauses Choices in Crafting Adjective Clauses WhoorWhom? Should an Adjective Clause Be Set Off with Punctuation? WhichorThat– or Not? Reducing Adjective Clauses Adjective Phrases

Modifiers Built from Verbs: Verbal Phrases Functions of Verbal Phrases Managing Emphasis with Verbal Phrases Reducing Clauses to Create Verbal Phrases Dangling Modifiers

Noun Phrases Working as Modifiers: Appositives and Absolutes Noun Phrases in Apposition Identifying People Defining Terms Filling in Examples or Explanations Renaming with a Twist Other Structures in Apposition Absolute Phrases

Special Effects: Expectations and Exceptions Focus on the Subject Completeness and Explicitness Sentence Variety Model TextsLouise Erdrich

Gates,The Two Nations of Black America

On the Rainy RiverArund

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