The Art of Styling Sentences: 20 Patterns for Success

I've recently read a few books pertaining to sentence structure, styling, and punctuation; however, most of them weren't very useful. They just weren't what I wanted or needed. The twenty patterns stressed in this book have helped me tremendously. But don't stop there. Don't forget to check out the appendix at the end of the book. Many of us (myself included) have felt the need at one time or another for a useful guide on the proper codes of punctuation. The Appendix here is one of the best guides I've seen on this topic. When should you use a colon, semicolon, comma, or dash? Many of us get confused with these, esecially when writing compound sentences. Although I love to write, I am far from being perfect at it; I still have a lot to learn. Don't we all? 'The Art Of Styling Sentences' has assisted me a great deal and has been the most useful text on grammatical prose that I've read to date.

I agree entirely with the comments of the previous interviewer. This book is one of a kind! I first read it, worked its examples and exercises, and devoured it in 1994 when I decided to take my writing abmitions seriously. This non-pretentious book honed my skills and solidified my style.Five years later my first book is being published and I am working regularly as a free lance reporter and writer. The lessons learned form "The Art of Styling Sentences" carried me through the birthing of my writing career and are still with me. I just finished reading it for the second time and when I feel my powers of writing persausion slipping, I get it out and work some of the exercises. I keep it on my reference shelf next to my my dictionary, thesaurus, and "Chicago Manual of Style." For me there is no substitute. Writers young and old, published and unpublished buy a copy, read it, burn it into your brain and reap the rewards.

There are two types of books on writing: theoretical and practical. While the former is necessary -- and in many cases quite good -- the latter is what gets down to the nuts and bolts of writing. "The Art of Styling Sentences" is such a book. The book is grouped around 20 different sentence patterns: "Compound Sentence: semicolon, no conjunction" and "A variation: same word repeated in parallel structure" are but two examples. Each pattern is dissected, analyzed, and the reader is given several exercises to practice. Grammar rules are stressed (comma around an appositive, don't you know), and multiple variations on each pattern are offered. Sound dry? Maybe just a bit. But I promise your writing will improve almost immediately. I read it several years ago, and today I can't imagine what I would do without the sentence forms I learned from this book. "The Art of Styling Sentences" isn't a glamour book. It doesn't fill your head with enticing images of literary glory. But it's a simple, practical, down-to-earth guide on how to write better, cleaner, and with more impact. On my desk, I have four books that I consider indispensable to the craft of writing. "The Art of Styling Sentences" is one of them