{"id":3977,"date":"2018-11-16T05:00:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/artful-sentence\/"},"modified":"2018-11-10T13:21:13","modified_gmt":"2018-11-10T20:21:13","slug":"artful-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/artful-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"Artful Sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Artful Sentences<\/em> has increased my understanding as to how syntax creates and conveys meaning. Virginia Tufte guides the reader through more than a thousand sentences she&#8217;s culled from some of the best writing of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her commentaries highlight the (easily overlooked) contribution of syntax to the expressive success of a well-crafted sentence.<\/p>\n<p>This book is unlike any other on writing I&#8217;ve seen. It is not about basic rules. It is not a standardized style guide to be used as a reference manual. <em>Artful Sentences<\/em> is divided up into 14 chapters; each chapter covers a different concept related to syntax. Tufte provides her analysis first and then follows with an example. Sometimes she quotes an entire paragraph to demonstrate the impact the chosen sentence has within its original context.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t let dry chapter titles such as &#8220;Short Sentences,&#8221;  &#8220;Noun Phrases,&#8221; &#8220;Prepositions,&#8221; etc., deter you; the content is highly academic and at times dense, but it&#8217;s a pleasurable read in proper doses. I prefer to explore <em>Artful Sentences<\/em> in short spurts. The sample sentences often catch my attention first and then I dig in to see what Tufte says about them. (You can also use the index to choose a favorite author and then search out his\/her quotes.) I process what I&#8217;ve read and return to the book at a later time &#8212; opening it up to any one of its 14 chapters and starting again. Reading Tufte&#8217;s book gives me the immediate pleasure of saying, &#8220;Damn, that&#8217;s a good sentence!&#8221; often followed by, &#8220;Now how do I create one of my own?&#8221; The experience is similar to learning about visual art or playing music.<\/p>\n<div class='ctx-module-container ctx_default_placement ctx-clearfix'><\/div><span class=\"ctx-article-root\"><!-- --><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Samples of great writing, examined<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32557,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977\/revisions\/32557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}