Constance Hale

The author's style doesn't really appeal to me. I feel like she's trying too hard. However, I like the examples from well-known authors, particularly of them editing and improving their work.

I thought it was a bit of a cheap shot using song lyrics from Everclear to illustrate a point. Writing song lyrics is not the same as writing prose.

As a translator, I am annoyed that Constance Hale gives Gabriel García Márquez the credit for writing wonderful sentences in English. He didn't write them, the translator did!

I haven’t made the most of this book because I haven't done the suggested exercises.

This would be a useful reference book for writers of all sorts.… (mere)

Constance Hale provides one of the most thorough treatments of verbs I've read. The book is aimed at writers, both novice and experienced, and unless you hold a PhD in English composition, you will learn something useful to make your writing better. Do you know all about verb tense, mood, and voice? How well do you understand participles, gerunds, irregular verbs, and phrasal verbs? Do you know why these things matter (and they do matter) and how mastering them will help your writing shine brighter? Hale's book provides the answers.

The title is a bit awkward (try saying it three times fast!)--I think "Let Verbs Power Your Writing" by itself would have been just fine--but "vex," "hex," "smash," and "smooth" provides the framework around which Hale organizes each chapter, and the scheme works pretty well. At times she ventures into murky waters where even she may be out of her depth. For example, I'm still scratching my head at how "tight-fisted" is a past participle, as she asserts on page 224. But for the most part, she's spot on. She includes many examples from real life and literature to illuminate the concepts, along with plenty of endnotes and an extensive bibliography to warm the hearts of readers who care to dig deeper.

I highly recommend this book, and I know that I'll regularly pull it off my bookshelf to consult for my own writing.… (mere)

This small book packs in a lot of information in a spirited and intelligent way. Starting “New Principles of Prose” - which are: Relish Every Word. Be Simple, But Go Deep. Take Risks. Seek Beauty. Find The Right Word. She then divides it into three parts: Words, Sentences and Music. Each chapter has four subheadings, Bones, Flesh, Cardinal Sins, and Carnal Pleasures.

This book is a good introduction or refresher for using correct grammar, a word which I think frightens some people, including me, myself and I(?)! Stylistically, it is modern and clever rather than old and stuffy.

But this is a grammar book, you already know what it’s going to explain... the parts of speech, their proper usage, and structure and Hale does so in a manner that uses reference that are topical and sometimes comical and it keeps the information from feeling stale and dated. As in this example for an ‘obscure pronominal reference’ from a church bulletin, “The ladies of the church have cast off clothing of every kind, and they can be seen in the church basement Friday afternoon.” Hahaha!

Hale’s layout is logical and consistent. Using Chapter 8-Interjection as an example:

The Bones (grammar sermonette) are explanations of the chapter subject. She describes interjections as “The banging windows and bursting pipes that add excitement to the story inside.”

The Flesh (lesson on writing), “Since speech tics reveal as much individuality as proper syntax, interjections can help impart character.”

Cardinal Sin (true transgressions) “In speech, like as an interjection buys you a little time when your mind can’t keep up with your mouth. But in prose it has the effect of whittling your words down to whimpering, simpering sissyspeak.”


I appreciate writers who can inform and amuse at the same time. Though the threats of death were a bit extreme. “We do not say I’s, you’s, he’s, or she’s to indicate possession, so why would we say who’s or it’s?” “Who’s and it’s are contractions of who is and it is. Learn this or die.” —Okay, okay!… (mere)