Some Simple, Good Writing

I decided to write down a few of the many good sentences in the book, Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style, by Virginia Tufte. It goes into the details and mechanics of good writing. What I have read of it, a good bit has been challenging to read. The reason is, at least for me, is that it gets into much grammar, of which I have never really had a taste for.

But I'm trying to learn to change my tastes. Here is a few lines:

The lamp had been standing cobwebbed in a corner, unplugged.      John Updike

Outside, the darkness was total.   Brian Moore

Slowly, the sky blew up.      Philip Wylie

All that life soon faded.       John Hersey

The noise had become so loud, so sharp.    William Golding

The relationship is disgraceful, disgusting.    Janet Frame

The town was occupied, the defender defeated, and the war finished.     John Steinbeck

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