Sin And Syntax
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Sin And Syntax
''Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose'' (1999), by Constance Hale, is an American English guide to stylish prose. The term is often used as a method of teaching writing in an innovative method that combines the academy and the street. The book approaches prose through words, sentences, and music (which includes voice, lyricism, melody and rhythm). It then breaks down each of these ideas into separate chapters that are themselves broken into "bones" (grammar lesson), "flesh" (writing lesson), "cardinal sins" (the don'ts) and "carnal pleasures" (the do's). Reviews *''Sin and Syntax'' is “an open-minded, exuberant approach to style that is intelligent and refreshing,” says '' The San Diego Union Tribune''. “Hale questions authority and celebrates the vernacular while reminding us that "discretion, sensitivity, and masterful metaphor still matter." *'' The Dallas Morning News'' says, “Nonwriters who just want advice that won’t put them to sleep will find se ...
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Constance Hale
Constance Hale is an American writer and critic based in San Francisco. Her journalism has appeared in metropolitan newspapers and national magazines, but she is best known for her books on language: '' Sin and Syntax''; '' Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch''; and ''Wired Style''. She teaches writing and editing at Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley. Personal life Constance Hale was born and grew up on the North Shore of Oahu, where she spoke English at home and Hawaiian creole (or “Pidgin English”) at school and with friends. She attributes her initial fascination with language to this “bilingual upbringing.” She left the islands to pursue a bachelor's degree in English literature from Princeton University and a master’s in Journalism from the University of California at Berkeley. She is married to Bruce Lowell Bigelow. Hale retains close ties to Hawaii both personally and professionally. Career After graduating from Princeton, Hale spent a number ...
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American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances is the de facto common language used in government, education and commerce. Since the 20th century, American English has become the most influential form of English worldwide. American English varieties include many patterns of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and particularly spelling that are unified nationwide but distinct from other English dialects around the world. Any North American English, American or Canadian accent (sociolinguistics), accent perceived as lacking noticeably local, ethnic or cultural markedness, markers is popularly called General American, "General" or "Standard" American, a fairly uniform dialect continuum, accent continuum native to certain regions of the U ...
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The San Diego Union Tribune
''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and the ''San Diego Evening Tribune''. The name changed to ''U-T San Diego'' in 2012 but was changed again to ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' in 2015. In 2015, it was acquired by Tribune Publishing. In February 2018 it was announced to be sold, along with the ''Los Angeles Times'', to Patrick Soon-Shiong's investment firm Nant Capital LLC for $500 million plus $90 million in pension liabilities. The sale was completed on June 18, 2018. History Predecessors The predecessor newspapers of the ''Union-Tribune'' were: * ''San Diego Herald'', founded 1851 and closed April 7, 1860; John Judson Ames was its first editor and proprietor. * ''San Diego Sun'', founded 1861 and merged with the ''Evening Tribune'' in 1939. * ''San Diego Union'', foun ...
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The Dallas Morning News
''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galveston Daily News'', of Galveston, Texas. Historically, and to the present day, it is the most prominent newspaper in Dallas. Today it has one of the 20 largest paid circulations in the United States. Throughout the 1990s and as recently as 2010, the paper has won nine Pulitzer Prizes for reporting and photography, George Polk Awards for education reporting and regional reporting, and an Overseas Press Club award for photography. The company has its headquarters in downtown Dallas. History ''The Dallas Morning News'' was founded in 1885 as a spin-off of the ''Galveston Daily News'' by Alfred Horatio Belo. In 1926, the Belo family sold a majority interest in the paper to its longtime publisher, George Dealey. By the 1920s, the Dallas Morning ...
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The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'' is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell. It is distributed for sale in all 75 of Arkansas' counties. By virtue of one of its predecessors, the ''Arkansas Gazette'' (founded in 1819), it claims to be the oldest continuously published newspaper west of the Mississippi River. The original print shop of the ''Gazette'' is preserved at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock. History Early years The history of the ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'' goes back to the earliest days of territorial Arkansas. William E. Woodruff arrived at the territorial capital at Arkansas Post in late 1819 on a dugout canoe with a second-hand wooden press. He cranked out the first edition of the ''Arkansas Gazette'' on November 20, 1819, 17 years before Arkansas became a state. Early in its history the ''Gazette'' scrupulously avoided political involvement or endorsement. In 18 ...
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The Elements Of Style
''The Elements of Style'' is an American English writing style guide in numerous editions. The original was written by William Strunk Jr. in 1918, and published by Harcourt in 1920, comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of 49 "words and expressions commonly misused", and a list of 57 "words often misspelled". E. B. White greatly enlarged and revised the book for publication by Macmillan in 1959. That was the first edition of the so-called Strunk & White, which ''Time'' named in 2011 as one of the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923. History Cornell University English professor William Strunk Jr. wrote ''The Elements of Style'' in 1918 and privately published it in 1919, for use at the university. (Harcourt republished it in 52-page format in 1920.) He and editor Edward A. Tenney later revised it for publication as ''The Elements and Practice of Composition'' (1935). ...
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Roger Angell
Roger Angell (September 19, 1920 – May 20, 2022) was an American essayist known for his writing on sports, especially baseball. The only writer ever elected into both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Baseball Writers' Association of America, he was a regular contributor to ''The New Yorker'' and was its chief fiction editor for many years. He wrote numerous works of fiction, non-fiction, and criticism, and for many years wrote an annual Christmas poem for ''The New Yorker''. Early life and education Born on September 19, 1920, in Manhattan, New York, Angell was the son of Katharine Sergeant Angell White, ''The New Yorker''s first fiction editor, and the stepson of renowned essayist E. B. White, but he was raised for the most part by his father, Ernest Angell, an attorney who became head of the American Civil Liberties Union. After graduating in 1938 from the Pomfret School, he attended Harvard University. He served in the United States Army Air Forces ...
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The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. Although its reviews and events listings often focus on the Culture of New York City, cultural life of New York City, ''The New Yorker'' has a wide audience outside New York and is read internationally. It is well known for its illustrated and often topical covers, its commentaries on popular culture and eccentric American culture, its attention to modern fiction by the inclusion of Short story, short stories and literary reviews, its rigorous Fact-checking, fact checking and copy editing, its journalism on politics and social issues, and its single-panel cartoons sprinkled throughout each issue. Overview and history ''The New Yorker'' was founded by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a ''The New York Times, N ...
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George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism. Orwell produced literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is known for the allegorical novella ''Animal Farm'' (1945) and the dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (1949). His non-fiction works, including ''The Road to Wigan Pier'' (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and ''Homage to Catalonia'' (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture. Blair was born in India, and raised and educated in England. After school he became an Imperial policeman in Burma, ...
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Politics And The English Language
"Politics and the English Language" (1946) is an essay by George Orwell that criticised the "ugly and inaccurate" written English of his time and examined the connection between political orthodoxies and the debasement of language. The essay focused on political language, which, according to Orwell, "is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind". Orwell believed that the language used was necessarily vague or meaningless because it was intended to hide the truth rather than express it. This unclear prose was a "contagion" which had spread to those who did not intend to hide the truth, and it concealed a writer's thoughts from himself and others. Orwell encourages concreteness and clarity instead of vagueness, and individuality over political conformity. Summary Orwell relates what he believes to be a close association between bad prose and oppressive ideology: One of Orwell's points is: The insincerit ...
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