101 Elegant Paragraphs by Robert Hartwell Fiske

This is a Vocabula Book. 101 Elegant Paragraphs — A Vocabula 101 Series Handbook

Vocabula 101 Series Handbooks are slim volumes replete with sound advice on how to use the English language well.

Based on The Vocabula Review's "Elegant English" feature, this handy reference includes some prize examples of beautifully written, elegant English.

101 Elegant Paragraphs encourages you to speak and write with deliberation, style, even beauty.

Think critically: read a Vocabula Book.

From the Introduction:

We all know far too well how to write everyday English, but few of us know how to write elegant English — English that is expressed with music as well as meaning, style as well as substance. The point of this collection is not to suggest that people should try to emulate these examples of elegant English but to show that the language can be written with grace and polish — qualities that much contemporary writing is bereft of and could benefit from.

Read these examples of elegant English at your leisure, and from each you might glean some turn of phrase, some device of rhetoric, some clarity of expression, some novelty of thought that, in more contemporary writing, you seldom will have noticed. From these paragraphs you might indeed learn that language can be written with care and cleverness.

You need not study these paragraphs; simply read them. If you find any pleasure in having read them once, read them twice, over time, and you will absorb some of their music, some of their style. It is possible to learn to write well, or to learn to write better, from reading good writing.

Elegant English, as these paragraphs show, is exhilarating; it stirs our thoughts and feelings as ably as everyday English blurs them.

101 Elegant Paragraphs — A Vocabula 101 Series Handbook.

Perfect bound, 5-by-7-inch trim, 78 pages.

You may order 101 Elegant Paragraphs from Vocabula or Amazon.

Initially, I thought the books 101 Wordy Phrases and 101 Foolish Phrases would be most useful for the composition class; these are exactly the kinds of phrases that litter most undergraduates' writing. But now I think that 101 Elegant Paragraphs might be the most useful. Composition classes generally use anthologies of essays that are intended to give the students examples of good writing. The essays are so long, however, that most students do not read them. Perhaps it would be better to substitute 101 Elegant Paragraphs for the typical, bigger anthologies. The readings are short, and students could read and discuss a paragraph in a single class. The homework assignment for the day could be a one-page response to the selected paragraph. Do you know if other people are using 101 Elegant Paragraphs in this way? Unfortunately, I already have committed to the college bookstore to use one of the big anthologies for the spring term. This will cost each student around $40. I should be able to use 101 Elegant Paragraphs in the autumn term, however. — David Palmer, Department of Humanities, Massachusetts Maritime Academy

I am enjoying [101 Elegant Paragraphs] and want to give a copy to each of three friends. — John Foshee

I recently subscribed to Vocabula Review and received my selected book, 101 Elegant Paragraphs, which I've enjoyed immensely. Thanks very much. — Dena Hunt

Vocabula Books, an imprint of Vocabula Communications Company, is now publishing books about language and literature.

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