Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences: A Guide to Avoiding the Most Common Errors in Grammar and Punctuation - Hardcover

Bell, Janis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393067718 ISBN 13: 9780393067712

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

Synopsis

Long overdue: a clear, good-humored discussion targeting only the most common errors in American sentences―nothing more.

This is a focused, respectful, entertaining guide to getting our sentences into good shape. After thirty-five years of teaching writing, Janis Bell knows which sentences those are and precisely what ails them. She describes grammar and usage problems in ways that make immediate sense. She explains precisely what our punctuation marks do and won't do. She also answers the very questions that readers are likely to have. Besides being extremely readable and relevant, each chapter offers a challenging quiz followed by answers that leave no doubt. This small, engaging book is for people who know what they want to write and who know English―all they need to hear is what Bell has to say about the gaffes that have crept into their sentences. Equally useful to a ninth-grader and a senior-level manager, Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences is a sweet and timely find.

About this title

About the Author

Janis Bell, English professor and writing consultant in San Francisco, California, created this guide after teaching writing for more than three decades. She knows, by heart, the questions that students and businesspeople are inclined to ask. And she answers, from the heart, in ways that delight.

Review

Janis Bell is the warm, smart English teacher you wish you’d had, and [this] is the grammar book you’ve been waiting for. — Samantha Berry (Marin Magazine)

This gem provides answers to everyday questions facing writers rather than an exhausting list of rules we seldom remember or need. — Mike Nobles (Oklahoma Observer)

I am not a fan of grammar and usage books that try to be too cute...[Bell’s] book is not dry or boring, but [she] doesn’t waste a reader’s time with her own cleverness. Her explanations are straightforward and practical. (She writes ‘clean, well-lighted sentences.’) — Pam Nelson (News & Observer)

This will sit on my shelf alongside the dictionary and will undoubtedly develop worn pages from frequent use. — Melanie Sperling, Associate Professor of Education, University of California, Riverside

This book has made me a better writer and communicator and is a must-read for college students, future teachers and others who must continue to rely on written forms of communication. — Mark Clark, Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire

What a gem this book is! Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences can be your handbook (open to the page you need—everything’s easy to find), your tutor (open it at random every day, or create your own program of grammar points to learn or review), and probably your last-minute savior when a paper is due tomorrow. I’m keeping my copy close at hand. — Les Gottesman, chair, Department of English and Communications, Golden Gate University

Ms. Bell and her book will bring plenty of smiles to your face as you read and learn...Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences is a perfect book for people who need to write in the course of their occupation or avocation and want to be better understood. Very few of us can remember all of these rules and we have need for just such a book. Thank you, Janis Bell. — Dennis Bianchi, San Francisco Police Officers Association, POA Journal?

You will find reading Janis Bell is a pleasure...This is a book that gives you an immense training ground without being dry or mechanically overloaded as such books too often are. — Michael Krasny, host of Forum on KQED-FM, San Francisco, and professor of English, San Francisco State University

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0393067718
• ISBN 13: 9780393067712
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176