Sentences with Style
Member Price: $15
Non-Member Price is $25
**This event will be recorded. Registrants can access the recording for 30 days.
**We are changing our registration systems, so reminders may look a little different from normal after we migrate to the new platform.
Description: What’s going on when you fiddle with a sentence and suddenly it’s sharper and stronger, exactly what you want? It’s not magic; it’s syntax. The study of syntax (word order) has gone the way of foolscap and fountain pens, but it has a lot to teach modern writers about clarity, emphasis, anticipation, and rhythm. Join us as we dust off some intriguing sentence-level techniques and explore how they can punch up your writing.
Outcomes: The key to mastering the sentence is to move beyond intuition—a vague sense of what works and what doesn’t—to a more systematic understanding of sentence structure. This webinar will examine sentences from all angles through examples, discussion, and exercises. After a brief review of English syntax, participants will learn a few common syntax pitfalls; explore three basic variations and three special techniques; and consider ways of keeping sentences lively. Topics include when to prefer passive voice (yes, you read that right), periodic versus cumulative sentences, the power of paring down, and rhetorical techniques such as ellipsis and isolation.
Audience: This webinar is for intermediate to established writers who are looking for systematic yet creative ways to revise their work at the sentence level. Writers who’ve been at their craft for a while can diagnose any sentence ruts they’ve fallen into and pull themselves free. The session’s focus on sentences, words, and even syllables makes it suitable for writers of prose and poetry alike.
Presenter bio: Frances Peck is a long-time editor, ghostwriter, and instructor who lives in North Vancouver. She’s a co-author of the HyperGrammer website and the author of Peck’s English Pointers, a Language Portal of Canada resource. Her first novel, The Broken Places, was a Globe and Mail best book of 2022 and a finalist for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. Her second novel, Uncontrolled Flight, made 2023 book-of-the-year lists at 49th Shelf and Consumed by Ink.
Digital doors open at 1:55 pm, event starts at 2:00 pm
