The Suspended Sentence: A Guide for Writers

Born's book is a treasure, beautifully written and lucidly expounded. Each chapter deals with a differentfault, amusingly related: "The Suspended Sentence,"which rails against those sentences which the author,as Born puts it, slices open in order to shovel in extraneous facts; "The That/Which Matter"--and it does matter,Born adds immediately, saying that correct usage in thiscase can make the difference between relaxing afterwork and getting your stomach pumped. Another chaptercontains the most beautiful explanation of the differencebetween "who" and "whom" that I've ever seen. And so on. The book is filled with examples, accompanied by lucid commentary, and though Born is a journalistand all his examples come from newspapers, the adviceis sound and applicable to all writing.

Whether you're a novice or an expert, Born's book will teach you how to write better. After applying his useful tips to my own writing, the next article I submitted became the lead news story. (It made the FRONT PAGE!)