Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style [Paperback]

Virginia Tufte (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Virginia Tufte's guide to writing style focusing on logical and definitive analysis of rules and utilization of syntax and sentence structure, and what it is about it that turns writing into an art. Highly recommended for linguists, English literature students and aspiring authors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Graphics Pr (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0961392185
• ISBN-13: 978-0961392185
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #17,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #69 in

  Books > Reference > Words & Language > Grammar

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book for All Writers, June 16, 2006

By	Bruce Henricksen (Duluth, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style (Paperback)

If you care about language, and especially if you write, this is a book to have on hand. Virginia Tufte's project in Artful Sentences is not simply to explain the rules of English sentence structure, although the book is certainly useful in that regard. But Tufte seeks also to demonstrate what it is that turns syntax, in the hands of our greatest writers, into art. She shows how syntax can fuse with feeling and how, ultimately, it can become symbolic. This book will help the reader to appreciate verbal art, and it will help the writer to approach it.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable collection of over 1000 sentences demonstrating the utilization of syntax to create a distinctive writing style, June 3, 2006

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style (Paperback)

Artful Sentences: Syntax As Style by Virginia Tufte (Distinguished Emeritas Professor of English at the University of Southern California) is a remarkable collection of over one-thousand sentences demonstrating the utilization of syntax to create a distinctive writing style, and which were selectively compiled by Professor Tufte from the works of authors published in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Exemplifying the use of syntax to create a uniquely recognizable writing style, Artful Sentences features sentences showcasing every imaginable style as an writer, speechmaker, essayist, storyteller, and novelist, ranging from the example of Frank Lloyd Wright to David Gelernter. With a logical and definitive analysis of the actual root sentence structure, Artful Sentences is very strongly recommended for linguistics, literature, and English students, as well as aspiring authors seeking to distinguish their work in the highly competitive publishing marketplace.

42 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Vote for Artful Sentences, October 29, 2006

By	Eunice D. Howe (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style (Paperback)

I've given this book to friends who have given it to theirs. It's a book that sits on my library table instead of my bookshelf. I like to pick it up, and flip through the pages until I settle on an appealing passage. To characterize Artful Sentences as a book on grammar, or as a book written expressly for the classroom, is to miss the point (although I would surely assign it to students in a writing class, for my own pleasure as much as for pedagogical reasons). Tufte's prose is spare and elegant, complementing the nuanced quotes that she has selected to reinforce her points. Altogether this is a stimulating, delightful and substantive book.