Reading Like A Writer by Francine Prose

1. Reading Like A Writer by Francine Prose “Sentences” Kayla Kimbrel

2. Clarity • Regardless of the number of semicolons or commas, the sentence flows smoothly • The sentence can still be easily understood. “It has been observed in all ages that the advantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness; and that those whom the splendour of their rank, or the extent of their capacity, have placed upon the summits of human life, have not often given any just occasion to envy those who look up to them from a lower station;…” (Prose).

3. Personal • Reader can take apart the process by which the writer wrote the sentence, just by reading it. • The sentence has rhythm, which reflects the writer’s style and makes the sentence personal to the writer.

4. Fragments • Short fragments, especially in the form of questions, can relay moods. • For example, short, quick statements or questions can relay a tone of urgency. “And who can adjust then? Here is someone not set up for life’s working out poorly, let alone for the impossible. But who is set up for the impossible that is going to happen? Who is set up for tragedy and the incomprehensibility of suffering? Nobody. The tragedy of the man not set up for tragedy– that is every man’s tragedy” (Prose).

5. Grammar • Be sure the sentence follows all grammar rules • Even though most students do not use proper grammar, the sentence flows better when it is grammatically correct. • Never think you are above or too good for grammar, and never feel like you will lose your focus by following grammar rules. Grammar actually adds to the logic of thought. • It is suggested that you purchase a book about using proper grammar, and to make sure the book is up to date, yet loose in interpretation. For example, a stingy interpretation would say never to use fragments, yet we see in Roth’s case, they were quite acceptable.

6. Imagination and Logic • Learn how to produce a sentence that is balanced with imagination and logic. This should give the sentence a purpose, but should not be boring. • In the passage by Virginia Woolf, she explains the point of the piece, but with so much imagery and description that you are engulfed by the whole passage. “Considering how common illness is…what wastes and deserts of the soul a slight attack of influenza brings to view…how we go down into the pit of death and feel the waters of annihilation close above our heads and wake thinking to find ourselves in the presence of angels and the harpers when we have a tooth out…it becomes strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love and battle and jealousy among the prime themes of literature” (Prose).

7. Bravado and Playful Assurance • Sentences should be full of suspense and they should draw people in to the next sentence. “In Santiago, the capital of the kingdom of Chile, at the very moment of the great earthquake of 1647 in which many thousands of lives were lost, a young Spaniard by the name of JeronimoRugera, who had been locked up on a criminal charge, was standing against a prison pillar, about to hang himself” (Prose).

8. Spice it up! • Don’t settle for the short and boring phrases. • Elkin, in this sentence, describes someone who knows when to bring what on a certain trip. However, instead of just stating the obvious, he elaborates and states how important of a trait it really is. “All my life I have been a guest in other people’s houses, following the sun and seasons like a migratory bird, an instinct in me, the rich man’s cunning feel for ripeness, some oyster-in-an-r-month notion working there which knows without reference to anything outside itself when to pack the tennis racket…the wet suit to swim in beneath his waters when the exotic fish are running” (Prose).

9. Repetition • Repetition will help the reader easily see the point of the story, which will give you more freedom for the other details. • In this passage, the idea that Hemingway and Stein do not see eye to eye is repeated, which gives the writer freedom to add more details, while still keeping the reader focused on the main point. “They disagreed about this. They also disagreed about Sherwood Anderson. Gertrude Stein contended that Sherwood Anderson had a genius for using a sentence to convey a direct emotion…and that really except Sherwood there was no one in America who could write a clear and passionate sentence. Hemingway did not believe this. He did not like Sherwood’s taste” (Prose).

10. Fragments (in another sense) • While fragments can help to relay moods and tones, they can also help to give information on a change that has occurred or to decrease the subject’s value. • For example, in this passage, the small and usually affectionate gesture is down-played by the use of fragments. “But I don’t talk about it. Not even with his own mother. Especially her. She and I talk less and less as it is. But I remember that night…In the car, Fran sat close to me as we drove away. She kept her hand on my leg. We drove home like that from my friend’s house” (Prose).

11. Rhythm • Rhythm is very important when it comes to the “perfect” sentence. • Sometimes, choosing a wrong word that helps the rhythm is better than choosing the right word that makes the sentence choppy. • It is suggested that you read the sentence aloud, and if you stumble awkwardly through it, it needs better rhythm. • “Rhythm gives words a power that cannot be reduced to, or described by, mere words” (Prose, 56).

12. Rhythm (continued) • Order is important. For example, in this passage, the items are listed first, then the characters along with their characteristics. “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity, Among the necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tabs….Henry Dobbins, who was a big man, carried extra rations; he was especially fond of canned peaches in heavy syrup over pound cake. Dave Jensen, who practiced field hygiene, carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-sized bars of soap he’d stolen on R&R in Sydney, Australia” (Prose).

13. Rhythm (continued) • Rhythm also includes the way your words are put together. • For example, this passage contains the words “falling”, “falling faintly”, and “faintly falling”, which, when read aloud, mimics the action of snow drifting from the sky. “It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead” (Prose).

14. Rhythm (continued) • Rhythm can signal an ending • This passage has a sing-song and almost an incantation-like rhythm to it, which signals that this is the end of the story. “Oh, what can you do with a man like that? What can you do?...The sea that morning was itidescent and dark. My wife and my sister were swimming– Diana and Helen– and I saw their uncovered heads, black and gold in the dark water…” (Prose).

15. “Beautiful Sentence” • The beauty in a sentence is one of the hardest things to describe. It is something that you feel, not something that you can look up in a dictionary. • Hemingway states this about sentences: • Prose believes that what Hemingway means by “true” may be “beautiful”, and with all of these elements, a beautiful and true sentence is not difficult to produce! “Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get going…I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say (Prose).”

16. Works Cited Prose, Francine. Reading Like a Writer. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006. Print.