Includes index

The sentence : the writer's most important tool -- Who cares? Making sentences meaningful to your readers -- Conjunctions that kill : subordination -- Movable objects : understanding phrases and clauses -- Size matters : short versus long sentences -- Words gone wild : sentences that say nothing -- Words gone mild : choosing specific words over vague ones -- A frequently overstated case : the truth about adverbs -- Are your relatives essential? Relative clauses -- Antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers : prepositional phrases -- Danger danger : participles and other danglers -- The writing was ignored by the reader : passives -- You will have been conjugating : other matters of tense -- The being and the doing are the killing of your writing : nominalizations -- The the : not-so-definite definite articles -- The writer and his father lamented his ineptitude : unclear antecedents -- To know them is to hate them : faulty and funky parallels -- Taking the punk out of punctuation : the problem with semicolons and parentheses -- You don't say : descriptive quotation attributions -- Trimming the fat : expressions that weigh down your sentences -- The major overhaul : streamlining even the most problematic sentences -- On breaking the 'rules" : knowing when to can the canons

"This humorous writing book from grammar columnist June Casagrande focuses on the sentence as the unit of meaning in writing, showing writing students and professional writers alike how to craft bold, effective, reader-serving sentences"--Provided by publisher