Brooks Landon. Building Great Sentences - Exploring the Writer's Craft

The Teaching Company. 2008
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 32 Kbps
Whether two words ("Jesus wept.") or 1,287 words (a sentence in William Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom!), sentences have the power to captivate, entertain, motivate, educate, and, most importantly, delight.
Understanding the variety of ways to construct sentences, from the smallest clause to the longest sentence, is important to enhancing your appreciation of great writing and potentially improving your own.
Why do some lengthy sentences flow effortlessly while others stumble along?
Why are you captivated by the writing of particular authors but not others?
How can you craft sentences that reflect your own unique outlook on the world?
Get the answers to these and other questions about writing and style in Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft, a lively 24-lecture course taught by Professor Brooks Landon from the University of Iowaâ€one of the nation's top writing schools. You explore the myriad ways in which we think about, talk about, and write sentences. You discover insights into what makes for pleasurable reading. You also learn how you can apply these methods to your own writing.
Lectures
minutes / lecture
A Sequence of Words
Grammar and Rhetoric
Propositions and Meaning
How Sentences Grow
Adjectival Steps
The Rhythm of Cumulative Syntax
Direction of Modification
Coordinate, Subordinate, and Mixed Patterns
Coordinate Cumulative Sentences
Subordinate and Mixed Cumulatives
Prompts of Comparison
Prompts of Explanation
The Riddle of Prose Rhythm
Cumulative Syntax to Create Suspense
Degrees of Suspensiveness
The Mechanics of Delay
Prefab Patterns for Suspense
Balanced Sentences and Balanced Forms
The Rhythm of Twos
The Rhythm of Threes
Balanced Series and Serial Balances
Master Sentences
Sentences in Sequence
Sentences and Prose Style