Customer Reviews

Analyzing Prose (Scribner English Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I taught college writing classes for 17 years and have been an editor for a computer software company for nine. So far, Lanham's "Analyzing Prose" is the only completely reliable book about writing and language I have come across. It's not an easy book. As Lanham says, "We are simply not trained to look at the words on the page." And to read this book, you have to look at the words on the page. If you're up for the challenge, get this book. It won't be easy to find. It won't be cheap once you've found it. It won't be easy to read once you buy it. But as you realize how rewarding looking at words can be, really looking at them and not just through them, you will thank me over and over again for writing this review. And you will thank Richard Lanham over and over again for writing this splendid book.

Unless your are a professional teacher of technical prose analysis, I'd stay clear of this book. I got it because I loved and still use regularly, Revising Prose. I thought rather than get the more recent edition of the Revising Prose, I'd try this more scholarly Analyzing Prose. Half a mistake; I regifted the book to my sister-in-law who works in the profession, for whom this is probably a good book to have around or at least it justifies having it. But for the (even professional) more general writer/editor, stick to Revising Prose.

This is a tremendous book that attempts to revive a now lost method for being deliberate about consuming and producing prose.

The couple of two-star reviews are missing the virtues of Analyzing Prose. This is not a rehash of Revising Prose at all. Revising Prose outlines the Paramedic Method, which is really major first aid for bloated dead-fish prose. He calls it the Paramedic Method for a reason.

Analyzing Prose is a practical extension of the arguments that Lanham develops in Style: An Anti-Textbook, which is also an amazing book. Analyzing Prose walks through various ways of classifying prose styles and as a result gives writers something to emulate and practice. Both of these books make the passionate plea to start to take real joy in words and language again, to reject the utilitarian and drab argument that says all prose must be clear, simple, and functional.

If you ever read a line of Shakespeare and marveled at his gorgeous and clever parallel constructions, and inversions; if you love the first few sentences of Lolita; if you noticed Abraham Lincoln's repetition at Gettysburg--"we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow..."--then you will certainly appreciate this book, and appreciate all those others even more.

Again, this guy has the right idea, but no one pays attention and he is having seemingly zero affect on the verbose language which is academia.

A must have for any college level english course; great guide for effective close readings.