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New year. New semester. New chance at a wide range of fresh starts. 

—The Good Sentences Team
 
1. Essay: Katherine Milkman's "Fresh Start" Study Becomes Perennial Media Favorite by Hoag Levins (Wharton Magazine, 2019)

Favorite Sentence: "So, my tip to other researchers is don't be too discerning with journalists' calls because it's unlikely The New York Times will call you first."

—Picked by Tom Allen, Associate at Skadden, NY (Class of 2019) 


2. Poetry: On the Pulse of Morning by Maya Angelou (Spoken at the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony, January 20, 1993) 

Favorite Sentence:  "Before cynicism was a bloody
                                 sear across your
                                 Brow and when you yet knew you still
                                 Knew nothing."


—Picked by Sam Jaffe, Trial Attorney at Federal Defenders of San Diego (Class of 2017)


3. Fiction: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (2010)

Favorite Sentence: "And there are so many stories to tell, too many, such an excess of intertwined lives events miracles places rumors, so dense a commingling of the improbable and the mundane!"
       
—Picked by Bridget Grier, 3L (Class of 2021)
 
Michigan Sentences: Here is an essay based on a speech Professor John Pottow delivered in 2016 on how Puerto Rico can rebuild financially.
Syllabus Sentences: Here are materials I give to students who want to start adding a bit more nuance to their writing. It's an introduction to a book that collects many of the "Notes on Nuance" moves included in previous issues of "Good Sentences."
Book Recommendations
Notes on Nuance

Note how a noun can cleverly be used as a verb. 

"The new way to burger."
 
            —Advertisement for Smashburger
 
 
"This is how we Vegas."
 
—Advertisement for Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas

 

"Rose, my nine-year-old daughter, still p.j.’d and warm from bed, was bundled up on the right-hand side of the back seat, iPad in hand, nudging Foxy the dog over toward the middle."

         —John Seabrook, “Black Ice, Near-Death, and Transcendence on I-91” (2018)

 

Additional Resources
                                                                       
Online Course

Good with Words: Writing and Editing
Books     

Good with Words: Writing and Editing                                                              
The Syntax of Sports: Class 1 
The Syntax of Sports: Class 2
Notes on Nuance
New Words
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Copyright © Patrick Barry, All rights reserved.



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barrypj@umich.edu

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