The book is an extraction of a university course in a book form, a little of conventional wisdom poured to breakdown the technique of a well written sentence. However, it is not a Grammar book.
Brooks Landon inscribed a memo that helps us with alternatives, to write the same thing differently. This is a course in which we'll dance with the language, not a course in which we fight towards remedial correctness.
A deeper and complete understanding of sentential level of writing is explained. Landon shows a strong fixation through out the book for "cumulative sentences", building through a series of phrases on its predecessor, without making too big a point.
The coordinate form also tends itself to rhythmic processes. He argues, sincerely, how do you write great sentences? As you
can't necessarily articulate in formal bullet pointed rules, the correct technique can only be learnt by getting the motions
down ourselves.
Appreciation of different styles is subjective. However, recognition of skill is not. Lest, you think of it as a rhetorical art. There is always the simplicity of using the correct syntax to form beautiful sentences. The book consists of a series of assignments that render to the knowledge of correct sentences.
There are two components, Landon prescribed:
⁃ To write cumulative sentences
⁃ To write short sentences and accumulate a lot
of them.
The technique he suggests is salient enough to maintain spontaneity, these are also strategies we can use in our writing
to ensure that our sentences will be effective and possibly even elegant. The professor points out that long sentences are
bad, not because it is long but because it is bad.
Prepositions are the bricks from which the sentences are built. If the long sentence is elegant, It is a thing of beauty. However, if it is clumsy, it is a monstrosity.
My favorite part is the illustration from :The Great Gatsby". It is wonderful for those suggestive spontaneity.
"Slenderly, languidly, their hands set lightly on their hips, the two young women preceded us out onto a rose-colored porch, open toward the sunset, where four candles flickered on the table in the diminished wind."
He implies that finding these pressure points where the rules simply don't work is part of what makes writing so much fun. He also mentioned writing instructions, which were described precisely and created more stylistic options in all areas.