25 great sentences and how they got that way / Geraldine Woods.
"25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way is for word lovers, readers interested in encountering new authors or revisiting favorite works, and aspiring writers. The author, a master English teacher at Horace Mann for several decades, leads readers on a delightful tour of sentences by authors in the canon, using deft analysis and humor to "look under the hood" and allow us to see what makes a sentence great"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781324004851
- ISBN: 1324004851
- Physical Description: xix, 311 pages ; 25 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York, NY : W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., [2020]
- Copyright: ©2020
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Formatted Contents Note: | Part 1: Structure. Pocket: Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway -- Crossed sentence: John F. Kennedy, Inaugural address -- Parallelism: Li-Young Lee, "from Blossoms" -- Reversed sentences: Yoda, Star Wars -- Surprise: Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey -- Questions: Judy Blume, Are Your There God? It's Me, Margaret -- Part II: Diction. Valuable verbs: Red Smith, "Dizzy Dean's Day" -- Tone: Shirley Jackson: "The Lottery" -- Word shifts: James Joyce, Ulysses -- Coinage: Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings -- Part III: Sound. Onomatopoeia: Watty Piper, The Little Engine That Could -- Matching Sounds: Marting Espada, "Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100" -- Repetition: Jack Kerouac, On the Road -- Part IV: Connection/Comparison. First person: J.D.Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye -- Second person: Lorrie Moore, "A Kid's Guide to Divorce" -- Contrast: Neil Armstrong, First Words on the Moon -- Negativity: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me -- Creative descriptions: Barbara Kingsolver, "Where it Begins" -- Synesthesia: Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays" -- Part V: Extremes. Marathon sentences: Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from a Birmingham jail" -- Simplicity: Ann Beattie, "Learning to Fall" -- Contradiction: Margaret Atwood, "Orphan Stories" -- Time: Karen Salyer McElmurray, "Consider the Houses" -- Impossibility: Toni Morrison, Beloved -- Visual Presentation: Nicky Enright, What on Earth (have you done)? |
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Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Homer Public Library | 808.042 WOO (Text) | 000159133 | Nonfiction | Available | - |
25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way
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Summary
25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way
We all know the basic structure of a sentence: a subject/verb pair expressing a complete thought and ending with proper punctuation. But that classroom definition doesn't begin to describe the ways in which these elements can combine to resonate with us as we read, to make us stop and think, laugh or cry. In 25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way, master teacher Geraldine Woods unpacks powerful examples of what she instead prefers to define as "the smallest element differentiating one writer's style from another's, a literary universe in a grain of sand." And that universe is very large: the hundreds of memorable sentences gathered here come from sources as wide-ranging as Edith Wharton and Yogi Berra, Toni Morrison and Yoda, T. S. Eliot and Groucho Marx. Culled from fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry, song lyrics, speeches, and even ads, these exemplary sentences are celebrated for the distinctive features--whether of structure, diction, connection/comparison, sound, or extremes--that underlie their beauty, resonance, and creativity. With dry humor and an infectious enjoyment that makes her own sentences a pleasure to read, Woods shows us the craft that goes into the construction of a memorable sentence. Each chapter finishes with an enticing array of exercises for those who want to test their skill at a particular one of the featured twenty-five techniques, such as onomatopoeia (in the Sound section) or parallelism (in the Structure section). This is a book that will be treasured by word nerds and language enthusiasts, writers who want to hone their craft, literature lovers, and readers of everything from song lyrics and speeches to novels and poetry.