Great writing begins with the sentence. Whether it's two words ("Jesus wept.") or William Faulkner's 1,287-word sentence in Absalom Absalom , sentences have the power to captivate, entertain, motivate, educate, and, most importantly, delight. Yet, the sentence-oriented approach to writing is too often overlooked in favor of bland economy. Building Great Sentences teaches you to write better sentences by luxuriating in the pleasures of language.

Award-winning Professor Brooks Landon draws on examples from masters of long, elegant sentences--including Don DeLillo, Virginia Woolf, Joan Didion, and Samuel Johnson--to reveal the mechanics of how language works on thoughts and emotions, providing the tools to write powerful, more effective sentences.