Comments on: Short Sentence, Artful Sentences http://ryantrauman.com/blog/2009/11/10/short-sentence-artful-sentences/ Trauman's Blog: Writing. Reading. Technology. Book History. Book Future. Digital Scholarship. Blogging. Teaching. Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:26:13 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Derek http://ryantrauman.com/blog/2009/11/10/short-sentence-artful-sentences/comment-page-1/#comment-8282 Derek Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:33:41 +0000 http://ryantrauman.com/blog/?p=773#comment-8282 Glad to see your entry on Tufte. Working with the chapter in class, I would say students focused on the four short sentence types (the first half of the chapter) more than on the compound effects within paragraphs. Perhaps students grew impatient with the great number of examples. Engaging each example on its own terms requires a higher degree of reading exertion than some of the other texts we're taking up with this semester. I appreciate that Tufte resists approaching prose style with the usual declarative (or even didactic) imperative. She doesn't spout simplified rules or try to explain what writers should do. No textbookish commonplaces here. I read this as more of an archeology of sentences, a thoughtful going over of syntax as flexible structure (more cartilage than bone). And I also find her chapter on short sentences provides a generative contrast to Lanham's Paramedic Method, in that she examines the logic of equative verb forms and also allows for left-branching sentences (Lanham acknowledges "is" verbs but clearly prefers right-branching patterns). I'll probably ask students to read this chapter again in ENGL328: Writing, Style, and Technology (the class I'm teaching now). The said it made them more keenly aware of the simple components they understood tacitly but would have a hard time explaining to someone else. I can't say yet whether (or in what class) I would deal much more extensively with Tufte's book, but I continue to think about her work, and find something of lasting value in the build-up of examples alongside the build-down (or stripping away) of syntactic complexity. Glad to see your entry on Tufte. Working with the chapter in class, I would say students focused on the four short sentence types (the first half of the chapter) more than on the compound effects within paragraphs. Perhaps students grew impatient with the great number of examples. Engaging each example on its own terms requires a higher degree of reading exertion than some of the other texts we’re taking up with this semester.

I appreciate that Tufte resists approaching prose style with the usual declarative (or even didactic) imperative. She doesn’t spout simplified rules or try to explain what writers should do. No textbookish commonplaces here. I read this as more of an archeology of sentences, a thoughtful going over of syntax as flexible structure (more cartilage than bone). And I also find her chapter on short sentences provides a generative contrast to Lanham’s Paramedic Method, in that she examines the logic of equative verb forms and also allows for left-branching sentences (Lanham acknowledges “is” verbs but clearly prefers right-branching patterns).

I’ll probably ask students to read this chapter again in ENGL328: Writing, Style, and Technology (the class I’m teaching now). The said it made them more keenly aware of the simple components they understood tacitly but would have a hard time explaining to someone else. I can’t say yet whether (or in what class) I would deal much more extensively with Tufte’s book, but I continue to think about her work, and find something of lasting value in the build-up of examples alongside the build-down (or stripping away) of syntactic complexity.

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