Press Release: It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences by June Casagrande
Publication Date: August 2010
It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences
A Writer’s Guide to Crafting Killer Sentences
By June Casagrande
Author of Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies
Everybody knows one: an aspiring novelist or wannabe freelancer whose writing just isn’t up to snuff. Until now, struggling writers have had nowhere to turn for help in understanding what, exactly, makes some prose so terrible.
June Cassagrande’s It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences is the first book ever to target bad writing at its very root: the sentence. Combining her grammar and editing expertise with a keen eye for quality writing, Casagrande has created a resource guaranteed to transform some frustrated writers into bona fide success stories.
Finger-wagging grammar-snobs beware: Casagrande kicks life into the fine art of writing. This smart guide to crafting a perfect sentence is not the typical “all rules” road to righteous prose. Witty and well-written, it is captivating in a way that will have a new generation of writers listening.
June Casagrande is an unlikely voice in a world that dots its i’s and crosses its t’s, but this rebel of the grammar world is making her mark. A high school dropout who began college with an eighth-grade education and then graduated with honors, Casagrande writes a syndicated grammar column, has two well-loved books under her belt, and now has a third that will redefine the way writers see sentences.
It Was the Best of Sentences goes beyond questions of commas and grammatical correctness to focus on the fundamental elements of great writing. A glance at the table of contents reveals Casagrande’s entertaining style, with chapters such as:
- Size Matters: Short versus Long Sentences
- Words Gone Wild: Sentences that say nothing—or worse
- Taking the Punk out of Punctuation: The problem with semicolons and parentheses
Whether you dabble or do it by trade, good writing is at hand. It Was the Best of Sentences is an effective resource that can forever change the way you write.
JUNE CASAGRANDE is a veteran journalist and syndicated columnist. She is the author of Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies and Mortal Syntax (Penguin). She is a former Los Angeles Times Community News staff reporter, and her “A Word, Please” grammar column currently appears in several community news sections. She has also studied improvisational comedy with renowned troupes the Groundlings and ComedySportz. June lives in Pasadena, California, and is available for interviews. For more information, visit her Web site www.grammarsnobs.com or her blog ConjugateVisits.blogspot.com.
It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences: A Writer’s Guide to Crafting Killer Sentences
by June Casagrande
$14 paper, 224 pages, 5 x 7 inches, ISBN: 978-1-58008-740-7
TEN SPEED PRESS, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group
