It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences: A Writer's Guide to Crafting Killer Sentences

Caroline Fremont Jones revels in her return to San Francisco, where a new city rises from the ruins of the 1906 earthquake. Even more rewarding is her business partnership and rekindled love with ex-spymaster Michael Archer Kossoff. But their private investigation agency is barely off the ground when Fremont's new friend, lovely but quirky Frances McFadden, becomes their first client--and it's a most troubling case.

The adventurous but skeptical Fremont, lured by Frances to a seance, sees her companion fall into a disturbing trance. Despite the opposition of her powerful, controlling husband, Frances is determined to develop her budding psychic ability. Soon she confides to Fremont that a restless spirit from San Francisco's legendary past has entrusted her with a mission.

But when one of the city's female mediums is murdered, and then another, Fremont's reservations turn to dread. Who has killed these women who wield their own power in the metaphysical world, and why? As Fremont's investigation takes her into the murky depths of spiritualism, she places not only herself, but also her dearest friends in mortal danger.

From the Paperback edition.

"This humorous writing book from grammar columnist June Casagrande focuses on the sentence as the unit of meaning in writing, showing writing students and professional writers alike how to craft bold, effective, reader-serving sentences"--Provided by publisher.

Great writing isn’t born, it’s built—sentence by sentence. But too many writers—and writing guides—overlook this most important unit. The result? Manuscripts that will never be published and writing careers that will never begin.

In this wickedly humorous manual, language columnist June Casagrande uses grammar and syntax to show exactly what makes some sentences great—and other sentences suck.

With chapters on “Conjunctions That Kill” and “Words Gone Wild,” this lighthearted guide is perfect for anyone who’s dead serious about writing, from aspiring novelists to nonfiction writers, conscientious students to cheeky literati. So roll up your sleeves and prepare to craft one bold, effective sentence after another. Your readers will thank you.

June Casagrande is a journalist and editor who writes the weekly syndicated grammar column “A Word, Please.” The author of Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies and Mortal Syntax, June lives in Pasadena, California.

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction The Sentence: The Writer’s Most Important Tool 1

Chapter 1 Who Cares? Making Sentences Meaningful to Your Reader 7

Chapter 2 Conjunctions That Kill: Subordination 15

Chapter 3 Movable Objects: Understanding Phrases and Clauses 29

Chapter 4 Size Matters: Short versus Long Sentences 36

Chapter 5 Words Gone Wild: Sentences That Say Nothing—or Worse 53

Chapter 6 Words Gone Mild: Choosing Specific Words Over Vague Ones 61

Chapter 7 A Frequently Overstated Case: The Truth About Adverbs 65

Chapter 8 Are Your Relatives Essential? Relative Clauses 72

Chapter 9 Antique Desk Suitable for Lady with Thick Legs and Large Drawers: Prepositional Phrases 80

Chapter 10 Dangler Danger: Participles and Other Danglers 85

Chapter 11 The Writing Was Ignored by the Reader: Passives 90

Chapter 12 You Will Have Been Conjugating: Other Matters of Tense 98

Chapter 13 The Being and the Doing Are the Killing of Your Writing: Nominalizations 107

Chapter 14 The The: Not-So-Definite Definite Articles 112

Chapter 15 The Writer and His Father Lamented His Ineptitude: Unclear Antecedents 116

Chapter 16 To Know Them Is to Hating Them: Faulty and Funky Parallels 122

Chapter 17 Taking the Punk Out of Punctuation: The Problem with Semicolons and Parentheses 125

Chapter 18 You Don’t Say: Descriptive Quotation Attributions 131

Chapter 19 Trimming the Fat: Expressions That Weigh Down Your Sentences 134

Chapter 20 The Major Overhaul: Streamlining Even the Most Problematic Sentences 149

Chapter 21 On Breaking the “Rules”: Knowing When to Can the Canons 164

Appendix 1 Grammar for Writers 167

Appendix 2 Punctuation Basics for Writers 191

Appendix 3 The Deadliest Catches: The Most Incriminating Errors and How to Avoid Them 204

About the Author 208

Index 209