First You Write a Sentence.: The Elements of Reading, Writing … and Life.

A style guide by stealth - how anyone can write well (and can enjoy good writing) 'Moran is a past master at producing fine, accessible non-fiction.' - Helen Davies, Sunday Times 'Joe Moran has a genius for turning the prosaic poetic' - Peter Hennessy Advanced maths has no practical use, and is understood by few. A symphony can be widely appreciated, but created only by a genius. Good writing, however, can be written (and read) by anyone if we give it the gift of our time. And a sentence might be as near as many of us will get to orchestrating beauty. Enter universally praised historian Professor Joe Moran. Using minimal technical terms, First You Write a Sentence. is his unpedantic explanation of how the most ordinary words can be turned into verbal constellations of extraordinary grace. With examples from the Bible and Shakespeare to Orwell and Diana Athill, and with support from scientific studies of what most fires people's minds, he shows how we can all write in a way that is vivid, clear and engaging. With chapters from tools of the trade (from typewriters to texting and the impact this has on the craft); and writing and the senses (how to make the world visible and touchable); to how to find the ideal word, build a sentence, and construct a paragraph, First You Write a Sentence. informs by light example. It's an elegant gem in praise of the English sentence.

Joe Moran is Professor of English and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University and is the author of six books, including Queuing for Beginners: The Story of Daily Life from Breakfast to Bedtime, Armchair Nation: An Intimate History of Britain in Front of the TV and Shrinking Violets: A Field Guide to Shyness.

Joe Moran is Professor of English and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University and is the author of six books, including Queuing for Beginners: The Story of Daily Life from Breakfast to Bedtime, Armchair Nation: An Intimate History of Britain in Front of the TV and Shrinking Violets: A Field Guide to Shyness.