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{"id":13749,"date":"2011-02-10T00:06:39","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T06:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=13749"},"modified":"2011-02-08T20:07:18","modified_gmt":"2011-02-09T02:07:18","slug":"on-writing-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/02\/10\/on-writing-well\/","title":{"rendered":"On Writing Well"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s against the grain to say so, but for the life of me I can\u2019t see why there\u2019s so much gloating over Stanley Fish, How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. Fish is well known and a leading light among the literati, and such connections may be the source of the gloating. I\u2019ve enjoyed plenty of his essays and criticism. Someone must have asked him to turn his hand to writing a book about writing, he did it, and then the movers and shakers got it in their craw that this book would actually replace Strunk and White\u2019s The Elements of Style (4th Edition)<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. Early indications are that all the right places are praising the book.<\/p>\n

But before I tip my cards for you to see what I\u2019ve got, a brief summary:<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>In a nutshell, Fish argues writing is about sentences, which of course it is but yet isn\u2019t. If you want to be a good writer, he says, you have to love sentences. Which I suppose is true. I\u2019d say loving words is just as important, but I\u2019ll give him his point. Good writing is about constructing sentences.<\/p>\n

Then Fish goes about what might be called The Great Sentences Program. As Mortimer Adler and his cronies wanted to find The Great Books, Fish wants to find The Great Sentences. He doesn\u2019t tell us enough about how we find Great Sentences or what makes a Great Sentence better than a Good Sentence.<\/p>\n

Once we\u2019ve got those Great Sentences, Fish suggests, we are to break them down to see what they do and why they work so well \u2014 he does this and does this expertly. Then we are to practice using them ourselves by using them as templates. He does this himself, and the irony of it is all is that his own examples aren\u2019t that good, which makes using templates as molds an unattractive approach to writing well.<\/p>\n

Before the jump: What\u2019s your favorite book on writing? What are the top two or three elements of writing that you have learned? What do you think of using templates?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

His examples are almost all too long to be quoted here but here\u2019s one, from J.L. Austen: \u201cAnd we must at all costs avoid over-simplification, which one might be tempted to call the occupational disease of philosophers if it were not their occupation.\u201d [Begin with a mild statement \u2026 add something that heightens the mood and sharpens the tone \u2026 before threat is made more explicit. Here\u2019s his example: \u201cIt\u2019s important not to be too late, which is a black mark on the records of employees and even more so on the records of ex-employers.\u201d]<\/p>\n

Fish discusses what a sentence is (a structure of logical relationships \u2013 blech), what a good sentence is (his stuff on rhetorical impact is very good), breaks sentences into two sorts \u2014 subordinating and additive \u2014 adds a chp on the satiric style, and then has some great examples of first sentences and last sentences.<\/p>\n

Fish is a master and this is a good book, and using the template to learn to write better is a good idea. But the book isn\u2019t good enough because writing involves so much more. If a student comes to me to ask about how to write better, Fish would not appear in my top ten list. To be sure, Fish is right that the age-old #1 Strunk and White has become increasingly dated because of an older prescriptive grammar approach, but moving away from Strunk and White is not making writing better.<\/p>\n

When it comes to writing better, I still recommend \u2014 hands down \u2014 William Zinsser, On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Books on writing somehow make errors worse:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a howler 2\/3ds down p. 15: \u201cIf it is your goal is to write well-constructed sentences\u201d \u2014 ah, the irony, and on p. 25, 4th line up, \u201cto\u201d is omitted. I\u2019ve had my share of howlers and mistakes, so I empathize.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"