What do you think?
Rate this book
25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way
Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Neil Armstrong, Jack Kerouac, Yoda: these are just a handful of the writers and speakers whose words are parsed in this diverting romp through sentences culled from poems, essays, speeches, songs, fiction and film.
In chapters titled for distinctive features, such as “U-turn” and “impossibility,” master teacher Geraldine Woods deftly reveals the underlying craft that goes into the creation of a memorable sentence. Literature lovers will be delighted to discover new authors and revisit favorite passages from a fresh perspective. And writers who want to stretch their skills by following the prompts in each chapter may well find themselves feeling as Henry James did when he wrote, “I have many irons on the fire, and am bursting with writableness.”
This is a must-read book for any resister of grammar-bound, sentence-diagramming analysis who wants to understand the art that lifts a sentence from good to great.
In chapters titled for distinctive features, such as “U-turn” and “impossibility,” master teacher Geraldine Woods deftly reveals the underlying craft that goes into the creation of a memorable sentence. Literature lovers will be delighted to discover new authors and revisit favorite passages from a fresh perspective. And writers who want to stretch their skills by following the prompts in each chapter may well find themselves feeling as Henry James did when he wrote, “I have many irons on the fire, and am bursting with writableness.”
This is a must-read book for any resister of grammar-bound, sentence-diagramming analysis who wants to understand the art that lifts a sentence from good to great.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published August 18, 2020
About the author
Geraldine Woods
81 books22 followersGeraldine Woods has taught English at every level from fifth grade through Advanced Placement, most recently at the Horace Mann School. She is the author of numerous nonfiction books for adults and children, including 25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way. She lives in New York City.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
April 16, 2021
Here is a list of the different kinds. You will have to read the book to see the actual 25 sentences and learn how they grew.
Part I: STRUCTURE
1. Pocket
2. Crossed Sentence
3. Parallelism
4. Reversed Sentences
5. Surprise
6. Questions
Part II: DICTION
7. Valuable Verbs
8. Tone
9. Word Shifts
10. Coinage
Part III: SOUND
11. Onomatopoeia
12. Matching Sounds
13. Repetition
Part IV: CONNECTION AND COMPARISON
14. First Person
15. Second Person
16. Contrast
17. Negativity
18. Creative Descriptions
19. Synesthesia
Part V: EXTREMES
20. Marathon Sentences
21. Simplicity
22. Contradiction
23. Time
24. Impossibility
25. Visual Presentation
Part I: STRUCTURE
1. Pocket
2. Crossed Sentence
3. Parallelism
4. Reversed Sentences
5. Surprise
6. Questions
Part II: DICTION
7. Valuable Verbs
8. Tone
9. Word Shifts
10. Coinage
Part III: SOUND
11. Onomatopoeia
12. Matching Sounds
13. Repetition
Part IV: CONNECTION AND COMPARISON
14. First Person
15. Second Person
16. Contrast
17. Negativity
18. Creative Descriptions
19. Synesthesia
Part V: EXTREMES
20. Marathon Sentences
21. Simplicity
22. Contradiction
23. Time
24. Impossibility
25. Visual Presentation
Read
March 29, 2021Fascinating for writers. How these great pieces developed. Genius at work.
December 31, 2020
Books about the craft of writing typically fall into two camps; those which focus on the detail and technical aspects of writing, such as punctuation, point-of-view, or narrative; and those which take a more meta-view, such as inspiration, creating a distinctive voice, or story structure.
25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way appears at first to fall into the first camp. Its very title tells you that author and English professor Geraldine Woods is concerned with what she considers the building block of any writing (fiction, non-fiction, prose or poetry), the sentence. But I soon discovered that this book also encourages readers to think about the 'why' as well as the 'how'. What are you trying to achieve with your writing, and how might carefully crafted sentences help you achieve it?
In each of the 25 chapters she highlights a sentence exemplifying the point she wishes to make, for example repetition, cross-over, exaggeration, onomatopoeia, etc. Each chapter ends with a series of exercises for the writer to practice the new-found skill.
As a writer, I found this book the perfect combination of inspiration and instruction. It encouraged me to experiment with word order, with word choice, with punctuation even. While I recognised many of the examples given in the book as beautiful, or compelling, or memorable sentences, Geraldine Woods explores what makes them this way, and how you can apply similar techniques to your own writing.
For anyone who wants to improve their writing, or enhance their reading pleasure, I highly recommend this book.
25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way appears at first to fall into the first camp. Its very title tells you that author and English professor Geraldine Woods is concerned with what she considers the building block of any writing (fiction, non-fiction, prose or poetry), the sentence. But I soon discovered that this book also encourages readers to think about the 'why' as well as the 'how'. What are you trying to achieve with your writing, and how might carefully crafted sentences help you achieve it?
In each of the 25 chapters she highlights a sentence exemplifying the point she wishes to make, for example repetition, cross-over, exaggeration, onomatopoeia, etc. Each chapter ends with a series of exercises for the writer to practice the new-found skill.
As a writer, I found this book the perfect combination of inspiration and instruction. It encouraged me to experiment with word order, with word choice, with punctuation even. While I recognised many of the examples given in the book as beautiful, or compelling, or memorable sentences, Geraldine Woods explores what makes them this way, and how you can apply similar techniques to your own writing.
For anyone who wants to improve their writing, or enhance their reading pleasure, I highly recommend this book.
April 16, 2024
A delightful book. A good author sharing her passion.
So many writing books are really more about editing than the act of creation itself. That's where this one stands out. Each great sentence--and the myriad examples that follow--models a different way you can communicate your ideas to the world. Tired of being told that a sentence is subject-predicate-period, Woods set out to show all of the other structures, sounds, and techniques that can create a "unit of discourse."
Her great sentences come from just about everywhere--British classics are frequent sources, but so are Yoda, "The Little Engine that Could", and Hamilton (the musical). Some sentences excited me more than others, and some chapters were better than others. The whole structure section was fantastic, for example, but her treatment of tone and verb choice were more cursory. And I often felt that certain authors were snubbed (the chapter on coining words skipped both Tolkein and Orwell???). But that's not the point. The point is she got me thinking about all of the other places I'd seen these techniques used before, and how they improved the writing, and how I could use them in the future.
I picked up this book looking to grease my mental wheels after not writing for awhile, and that's exactly what it did. I even found myself doing most of the short writing exercises she suggests. Her passion is contagious. It's clear she could hardly contain her excitement as she piled more and more examples into each chapter, like a living room cluttered with stacks of books that could never fit on the shelves. Count me among the inspired.
So many writing books are really more about editing than the act of creation itself. That's where this one stands out. Each great sentence--and the myriad examples that follow--models a different way you can communicate your ideas to the world. Tired of being told that a sentence is subject-predicate-period, Woods set out to show all of the other structures, sounds, and techniques that can create a "unit of discourse."
Her great sentences come from just about everywhere--British classics are frequent sources, but so are Yoda, "The Little Engine that Could", and Hamilton (the musical). Some sentences excited me more than others, and some chapters were better than others. The whole structure section was fantastic, for example, but her treatment of tone and verb choice were more cursory. And I often felt that certain authors were snubbed (the chapter on coining words skipped both Tolkein and Orwell???). But that's not the point. The point is she got me thinking about all of the other places I'd seen these techniques used before, and how they improved the writing, and how I could use them in the future.
I picked up this book looking to grease my mental wheels after not writing for awhile, and that's exactly what it did. I even found myself doing most of the short writing exercises she suggests. Her passion is contagious. It's clear she could hardly contain her excitement as she piled more and more examples into each chapter, like a living room cluttered with stacks of books that could never fit on the shelves. Count me among the inspired.
March 2, 2023
The author loves writing and has many examples of sentences from a variety of venues, not just literature, to illustrate her examples of things like Time, Impossibility, Contradiction, etc. The sheer delight of the range of sentences could be fun, but could also be tiring, like she was using up her index cards of example sentences. I feel like this would've made a good, shorter book with more carefully curated choices. She includes writing prompts, and they seemed fine but I didn't use them. In the end, despite some good analysis and a smile at one of two particular sentences, this felt like being lectured to by an English teacher, and one who had a grey-haired sense of humor. Not one for the keeper shelf.
April 7, 2021
Had mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, Geraldine Woods collected examples from a wide variety of genres and provided interesting vignettes about the authors, the works, and the circumstances in which the chosen sentences were crafted. It introduced me to authors I would not otherwise come across and heightened my appreciation for the writing craft.
On the other hand, I did not feel like I really learned anything new or useful/applicable. The first few chapters reminded me of a Music Theory class I took in college: we learned to reduce complex works (sonata or symphony movements) to a progression of few notes, and while I could see the logic and learn the technique for how to do it, I was mystified by its purpose. I am certain that Beethoven did not start with a five-tone reduction and then developed it into Eroica. Just as I am certain that Virginia Wolf did not say, Let's use a pocket sentence here, and thus started "Mrs. Dalloway."
One example provided a true revelation. Wood unpacked a masterful sentence from Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey," it took three pages to explain three short lines, and the depth of its meaning took my breath away. Some other expositions, though, seemed to read into the text more than what was there.
The "For the writer" exercises at the end of each chapter were designed to "improve your ability to write," as she says in the Introduction, and I suppose they can be helpful in that.
On the other hand, I did not feel like I really learned anything new or useful/applicable. The first few chapters reminded me of a Music Theory class I took in college: we learned to reduce complex works (sonata or symphony movements) to a progression of few notes, and while I could see the logic and learn the technique for how to do it, I was mystified by its purpose. I am certain that Beethoven did not start with a five-tone reduction and then developed it into Eroica. Just as I am certain that Virginia Wolf did not say, Let's use a pocket sentence here, and thus started "Mrs. Dalloway."
One example provided a true revelation. Wood unpacked a masterful sentence from Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey," it took three pages to explain three short lines, and the depth of its meaning took my breath away. Some other expositions, though, seemed to read into the text more than what was there.
The "For the writer" exercises at the end of each chapter were designed to "improve your ability to write," as she says in the Introduction, and I suppose they can be helpful in that.
May 30, 2023
One of my favorite books on writing yet.
February 2, 2021
A very good book if you are a writer, thinking of being a writer, or learning, or learning to help others write.
This book should be read a second time for implementing the ideas into words.
This book should be read a second time for implementing the ideas into words.
November 21, 2022
Very insightful book that prompted me to think about stories on a sentence-by-sentence and word-by-word level. Has some interesting writing exercises too!
October 24, 2020
My personal collection of “great sentences” is geared more towards sentences that stand alone as being impressive, beautiful, clever, etc. in their own right, even out of context, like poetry in miniature. From that perspective, Woods’ “great sentences” weren’t all winners, and often tended to be more just illustrating a technique, or being effective in context. But what I liked was that the 25 sentences referred to by the title were just the first examples, one per chapter, and they were followed by many others in each category, from books, poetry, songs, and other sources—Monty Python even made a cameo with a line from the Dead Parrot sketch. The format was very good: each chapter starts with a detailed examination of the leading sentence and the concept it embodies. Then we get lots of other examples, with less commentary. And finally, there’s a section “for writers,” which offers some ideas and inspiration for writing your own sentences with the same qualities. You might not want to bother with these exercises (I read them, but didn’t actually do them myself), but they could be useful for teachers, for example.
February 21, 2023
Finally done! I bought this at a little indie bookstore and thought it looked perfect for me - a book analyzing great sentences from literature and teaching me how to write killer sentences of my own? But in actuality it wasn't as good as it sounded. It gets a solid three stars for the sheer number of writing exercises; I did try several and they were pretty fun and helpful. But I wasn't happy with most of the sentences featured, and the whole thing turned into a bunch of chapters on types of sentences rather than true close reading of noteworthy, literary sentences (if that makes any sense). The beginning chapters were more interesting to me but I really didn't gain many new insights from it overall. It's still a valuable book, but maybe a little young for me.
July 27, 2023
What's with Cocaine, Geraldine?
There! I got your attention!
I liked this book so much I checked out the author on Good Reads, she has read only 1 book- "Cocaine", which she wrote, but she gave it 1 star???!!!! That's odd!
Anyway, I enjoyed this book- there was diversity in the media chosen and she gave writing exercises with every chapter which I think should have been noted in the title. She is super smart and good at dissecting & explaining things.
I particularly liked- "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret." MLK's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and the passage from "Catcher in the Rye."
There! I got your attention!
I liked this book so much I checked out the author on Good Reads, she has read only 1 book- "Cocaine", which she wrote, but she gave it 1 star???!!!! That's odd!
Anyway, I enjoyed this book- there was diversity in the media chosen and she gave writing exercises with every chapter which I think should have been noted in the title. She is super smart and good at dissecting & explaining things.
I particularly liked- "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret." MLK's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and the passage from "Catcher in the Rye."
May 26, 2024
I bought this because I wanted to to use it in my AP Lang classroom. I tuned out a bit as I was going through it because it started to actually feel like work.
I think I expected this to be a deep-dive into 25 well-known sentences in literature, and while there were some of those in the book, there are many, many sentences that exemplify the 25 composition rules that Woods highlights. This is more about sentence CONSTRUCTION and how syntax creates meaning than it is about breaking down literary symbolism within sentences.
It’s definitely on target with AP Lang, and I was able to use some of Woods’ writing exercises for my classroom. I would not recommend it unless you’re interested in writing as a craft.
I think I expected this to be a deep-dive into 25 well-known sentences in literature, and while there were some of those in the book, there are many, many sentences that exemplify the 25 composition rules that Woods highlights. This is more about sentence CONSTRUCTION and how syntax creates meaning than it is about breaking down literary symbolism within sentences.
It’s definitely on target with AP Lang, and I was able to use some of Woods’ writing exercises for my classroom. I would not recommend it unless you’re interested in writing as a craft.
December 25, 2021
A good text, worth reading.
Essentially she covers some of the syntax I teach my high school students (anaphora, chiasmus, parallelism...) along with other elements like patterns of sound and figurative language. Each chapter provides several variations of the chapter's focus, each taken from well known authors, and provides analysis and explanation of the effect of each example. Each chapter ends with writing exercises to promote play with the techniques.
Essentially she covers some of the syntax I teach my high school students (anaphora, chiasmus, parallelism...) along with other elements like patterns of sound and figurative language. Each chapter provides several variations of the chapter's focus, each taken from well known authors, and provides analysis and explanation of the effect of each example. Each chapter ends with writing exercises to promote play with the techniques.
June 12, 2023
There are many more than just 25 examples of sentences good authors use in here. Probably more like 500. In my opinion (whatever that is worth) some of thesentences don't work well (i.e., don't seem all that "great") without context. But many do. The chapters all end with myriad exercises for the reader.
Overall, a great tool for an aspiring writer or someone who is looking for some inspiration and a nudge out from behind that writer's block.
Overall, a great tool for an aspiring writer or someone who is looking for some inspiration and a nudge out from behind that writer's block.
Read
June 16, 2021It was well researched, and it provided so many examples of great sentences, along with thoughtful analysis of what makes them great. It was interesting both as an approach to literature and as an approach to writing. I found that last 1/3 of the book had some ideas that were a bit repetitive with the first 2/3, but not so much that I couldn't enjoy it right to the end.
January 21, 2022
I use 1 star ratings to designate a DNF. Got from the library but didn’t expect to have all of the writing exercises. I may buy this book so I don’t have a time constraint then update my rating and review.
February 16, 2022
It's probably a four star book, but a three star review because I didn't read it correctly. Had I followed the prompts and learned with the book, I'm sure I'd bump it up. But library due dates being what they are, this book was read, mostly enjoyed and gone again.
July 10, 2022
I’m not a writer and so was surprised but amused by the writing exercises at the end of each identified sentence style. I do hope I can be more cognizant of an author’s emphasis as expressed based on sentence structure.
February 1, 2024
Overall I thought this book was great for writers and non-writers alike! The writing exercises were very approachable and I appreciated the diversity of featured work (from Mindy Kaling to Shakespeare) in the examples for each chapter.
February 13, 2021
Dense but SO INTERESTING.
February 24, 2021
Good
I found this fun to read! It would be a good source for people wanting to try different writing styles.
I found this fun to read! It would be a good source for people wanting to try different writing styles.
March 6, 2021
3.5--most fun is in all the side references that bring up memories of books read
November 17, 2021
An excellent exploration of what makes writing stand out, along with exercises for writers to explore how to use such construction in their own works.
May 1, 2022
Not what I expected. Not interested at the mechanics...I was looking for magic. It was lost soon after the introduction.
December 31, 2022
Great book, will be re-reading this one often.
Read
June 15, 2023DNF Pedantic lecturing tone.
September 19, 2023
Fantastic reference and inspiration.
May 28, 2024
A great book for fellow word-nerds. I want to try some of the writing challenges posed at the end of each chapter. I feel like my writing will improve after reading this book.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews