Style & Grammar

Through it all, she remains grounded in a life informed by two constants: the practices of writing and of Zen. With humor and insight, Natalie encircles around the essential questions these paths compel her toward: Where does this life lead? Who are we?

This is a book to be relished one awakening at a time. Each story is a reminder that no matter how hard the situation or desolate you may feel, spring will come again, breaking through a cold winter, bringing early yellow forsythia flowers. And the Great Spring of enlightenment--that sudden rush of acceptance, pain cracking open, obstructions shattering--will also burst forth.

"Read everything that is good for the good of your soul. Then learn to read as a writer, to search out that hidden machinery, which it is the business of art to conceal and the business of the apprentice to comprehend."

In The Hidden Machinery, critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling author Margot Livesey offers a masterclass for those who love reading literature and for those who aspire to write it. Through close readings, arguments about craft, and personal essay, Livesey delves into the inner workings of fiction and considers how our stories and novels benefit from paying close attention to both great works of literature and to our own individual experiences. Her essays range in subject matter from navigating the shoals of research to creating characters that walk off the page, from how Flaubert came to write his first novel to how Jane Austen subverted romance in her last one. As much at home on your nightstand as it is in the classroom, The Hidden Machinery will become a book readers and writers return to over and over again.

New York Times Bestseller

"Both deeper and more democratic than The Elements of Style" --Adam Haslett, Financial Times

"A guided tour through some of the most beautiful, arresting sentences in the English language." --Slate

In this entertaining and erudite gem, world-class professor and New York Times columnist Stanley Fish offers both sentence craft and sentence pleasure, skills invaluable to any writer (or reader).

Like a seasoned sportscaster, Fish marvels at the adeptness of finely crafted sentences and breaks them down into digestible morsels, giving readers an instant play-by-play. Drawing on a wide range of great writers, from Philip Roth to Antonin Scalia to Jane Austen, How to Write a Sentence is much more than a writing manual--it is a spirited love letter to the written word, and a key to understanding how great writing works. It is a book that will stand the test of time.

The most comprehensive collection of perspectives on translation to date, this anthology features essays by some of the world's most skillful writers and translators, including Haruki Murakami, Alice Kaplan, Peter Cole, Eliot Weinberger, Forrest Gander, Clare Cavanagh, David Bellos, and José Manuel Prieto. Discussing the process and possibilities of their art, they cast translation as a fine balance between scholarly and creative expression. The volume provides students and professionals with much-needed guidance on technique and style, while affirming for all readers the cultural, political, and aesthetic relevance of translation.

These essays focus on a diverse group of languages, including Japanese, Turkish, Arabic, and Hindi, as well as frequently encountered European languages, such as French, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish, and Russian. Contributors speak on craft, aesthetic choices, theoretical approaches, and the politics of global cultural exchange, touching on the concerns and challenges that currently affect translators working in an era of globalization. Responding to the growing popularity of translation programs, literature in translation, and the increasing need to cultivate versatile practitioners, this anthology serves as a definitive resource for those seeking a modern understanding of the craft.

When it comes to grammar, it seems like everyone--even die-hard word nerds--feel they "missed something" in school. The Joy of Syntax picks up where sixth grade left off, providing a fresh foundation in English syntax served up by someone with an impressive record of making this otherwise inaccessible subject a true joy. With simple, pithy information on everything from basic parts of speech and sentence structure to usage and grammar pitfalls, this guide provides everything you need to approach grammar with confidence.

The Manual retains its familiar three-part structure, beginning with an overview of the steps in the research and writing process, including formulating questions, reading critically, building arguments, and revising drafts. Part II provides an overview of citation practices with detailed information on the two main scholarly citation styles (notes-bibliography and author-date), an array of source types with contemporary examples, and detailed guidance on citing online resources.

The final section treats all matters of editorial style, with advice on punctuation, capitalization, spelling, abbreviations, table formatting, and the use of quotations. Style and citation recommendations have been revised throughout to reflect the sixteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. With an appendix on paper format and submission that has been vetted by dissertation officials from across the country and a bibliography with the most up-to-date listing of critical resources available, A Manual for Writers remains the essential resource for students and their teachers.

In May I Quote You on That? Stephen Spector offers a new approach to learning Standard English grammar and usage. The product of Spector's forty years of teaching courses on the English language, this book makes the conventions of formal writing and speech easier and more enjoyable to learn than traditional approaches usually do. Each lesson begins with humorous, interesting, or instructive illustrative quotations from writers, celebrities, and historical figures. Mark Twain appears alongside Winston Churchill, Yogi Berra, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld, Stephen Colbert, Oprah, Lady Gaga, and many others. These quotations allow readers to infer the rules and word meanings from context. And if they stick in readers' memory, they can serve as models for the rules they exemplify. The lessons then offer short essays, written in a conversational style, on the history of the rules or the words being discussed. But because English is constantly changing, the essays offer not only the traditional rules of Standard English, but also the current opinions of usage panelists, stylists, and language specialists. When rules are controversial, Spector offers advice about stylistic choices. A companion website features a workbook with practice drills.

This book will appeal to anyone who wants to write well. It's aimed at those who are applying to college, taking the SAT, or writing a job application, an essay, or anything else that requires clear and effective communication.

In this wise and irresistibly quotable book, one of the most intelligent writers now working in English addresses the riddle of her art: why people pursue it, how they view their calling, and what bargains they make with their audiences, both real and imagined. To these fascinating issues Margaret Atwood brings a candid appraisal of her own experience as well as a breadth of reading that encompasses everything from Dante to Elmore Leonard. An ambitious artistic inquiry conducted with unpretentious charm, Negotiating with the Dead is an invaluable insider's view of the writer's universe.

A master class in the art of writing by one of its most distinguished and innovative practitioners

Delve into the labyrinth of Jorge Luis Borges's thoughts on the theory and practice of literature, and learn from one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century not only what a writer does but also what a writer is. For the first time ever, here is a volume that brings together Borges's wide-ranging reflections on writers, on the canon, on the craft of fiction and poetry, and on translation--an ars poetica of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers.

Featuring many pieces appearing in English for the first time--including his groundbreaking early essay on magical realism, "Stories from Turkestan"--On Writing provides a map of both the changes and continuities in Borges's aesthetic over the course of his life. It is an indispensable handbook for anyone hoping to master their own style or to witness Borges's evolution as a writer.

Through this droll and spellbinding narrative, with its royal riffraff, brigands, nefarious beasts, cutthroat capitalists, cross-dressing cowboys, and come-hither heroines, and with the help of such eccentric language authorities as Startling Glower, Gordon clarifies the mysteries of language usage, focusing on the meanings of words that look alike or that aren't as interchangeable as we assume them to be. A thrilling companion lexicon of unusual words continues the tales and inspire anyone's vocabulary. All the while war, power, and celebrity cults are treated with satirical wit and insight.

With Out of the Loud Hound of Darkness, Karen Elizabeth Gordon once again lures her readers into the intricacies and pleasures of language through a brooding, hilarious fabric of fiction.

This second edition is written and edited by Professor Bas Aarts of University College London, writer of the acclaimed Oxford Modern English Grammar. It has been fully revised and updated, with particular attention paid to refreshing the sample sentences included within the text. There are over 150 new entries that cover current terminology which has arisen since the publication of the first edition, and there are new entries on the most important English grammars published since the start of the 20th century. Hundreds of new cross-references enhance the user-friendly nature of the text, and the list of works cited has been thoroughly updated to reflect the current state of the field. A short appendix of web links has been added.