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rachelbaack's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Summary: In this book, Stanley Fish instructs readers in the craft of sentence-making. It uses examples of great sentences to guide readers in their own writing.
rosemarypeek's review against another edition
2.0
I read this book because of what appeared to be some sort of kinship to How To Read A Book by Mortimer J. Adler (1940). Similarity of title is as far as the kinship goes. There are some interesting portions and, to be certain, some great sentences, but the bias toward white men was just so overt as to be an impediment to enjoing the book. There are a half dozen or so women, the usual suspects when one is forced to include women writers, and Martin Luther King, Jr as (I believe) the only non white.
Certainly, every memorable first and last line of a book from the whole world of writing could never fit into a small publication, but the ones chosen were remarkably monochromatic and, as such, disappointing.
Certainly, every memorable first and last line of a book from the whole world of writing could never fit into a small publication, but the ones chosen were remarkably monochromatic and, as such, disappointing.
anushb's review against another edition
2.0
This book was OK. I can't say I liked it or hated it. There was some interesting information, but it was mostly hidden between pages and pages of rambling. It was a cross between grammar and philosophy, leaning more towards the latter. The most interesting information I came across in this book was the different between subordinate and additive styles, although I don't think the book described it well enough for it to be of any use.
petrathepoet's review against another edition
5.0
I started this book at a library to which I did not have nor could obtain a library card, and so I skimmed through it as best I could and made a few notes for myself before I went home. Once there, I looked up several books on writing, hoping for similarly accessible odes to the art, and ended up feeling extremely betrayed by my next choice, ‘The 6.5 Practices of Moderately Successful Poets’, which turned out to be the complete opposite of this book in so many irking ways. So I found an ebook edition of this book from the library I do have a card for and started over from the beginning, and it has turned out to be the exact balm I needed against the friction burns caused by the other.
This is an author in love with language to the point where he wants to enjoy it with and make it accessible to anyone who shares that love. The analysis is clarifying, rather than frustratingly obfuscating like most discussions of grammar, which turn language into a pile of nuts and bolts instead of explaining what actually makes a machine purr. It celebrates the the best at the same time that it makes the worst of us feel we can improve, and that doing so is a worthwhile pursuit whether or not we will ever even be considered good. And the way the exercises are suggested makes them seem like fun puzzles to play with, rather than something requiring grueling discipline. Why aren’t more skills presented this way? Why aren’t there tutorials on how to make piano scales fun, or how to find joy in moving your body while training it? Why must everything be earned by torturing yourself with tedious exercises?
So, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be over here gleefully creating sentences with perfect logic but completely nonsensical meaning and turning three word sentences into 100 word monstrosities and playing with subordinating and additive styles, all while happily ignoring everything Strunk and White said and still getting better, little by little, at something I love.
Update after only one morning of playing with these exercises: Nothing has improved my writing more than this single book!
This is an author in love with language to the point where he wants to enjoy it with and make it accessible to anyone who shares that love. The analysis is clarifying, rather than frustratingly obfuscating like most discussions of grammar, which turn language into a pile of nuts and bolts instead of explaining what actually makes a machine purr. It celebrates the the best at the same time that it makes the worst of us feel we can improve, and that doing so is a worthwhile pursuit whether or not we will ever even be considered good. And the way the exercises are suggested makes them seem like fun puzzles to play with, rather than something requiring grueling discipline. Why aren’t more skills presented this way? Why aren’t there tutorials on how to make piano scales fun, or how to find joy in moving your body while training it? Why must everything be earned by torturing yourself with tedious exercises?
So, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be over here gleefully creating sentences with perfect logic but completely nonsensical meaning and turning three word sentences into 100 word monstrosities and playing with subordinating and additive styles, all while happily ignoring everything Strunk and White said and still getting better, little by little, at something I love.
Update after only one morning of playing with these exercises: Nothing has improved my writing more than this single book!
mrpatperkins's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
I liked the first part of this book, the how to write part, better than the second part, the how to read part. Fish gives some great examples of purposeful sentences to practice modeling, and these will certainly help me teach writing to my high school students. But when he starts analyzing sentences, the rhetorical analysis gets complex and unwieldy. His model sentences tend to come from older texts, Donne and Conrad, for example, and their complexity to begin with inhibit my ability to understand the analysis. Maybe that’s how my students feel when we analyze writing from that era.
llcoollucy's review against another edition
3.0
First half: useful. Latter half: meh. No wonder we were only required to read the first half (88 pages) in my class.
full_quieting's review against another edition
3.0
You don't get much close reading of prose like this. He nominally teaches some forms, and some exercises, but mainly as a way to write about this subject at all. It's short, and transcendent, maybe a little predictably so. Some of the examples here have added books to my reading list. Nice, short read.
sdblakeman's review against another edition
5.0
This primer imparts the wisdom of mastering the parts of a craft before pursuing creation art.