Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch: Let Verbs Power Your Writing

by Constance Hale

Overview

A writing handbook that celebrates the infinite pizzazz of verbs.

Writers know it instinctively: Verbs make a sentence zing. Grammar gurus agree: Drama in writing emerges from the interplay of a subject (noun) and a predicate (verb). Constance Hale, the best-selling author of Sin and Syntax, zooms in on the colorful world of verbs. Synthesizing the pedagogical and the popular, the scholarly and the scandalous, Hale combines the wit of Bill Bryson with the practical wisdom of William Zinsser. She marches through linguistic history to paint a layered picture of our language—from before it really existed to the quirky usages we see online today. She warns about habits to avoid and inspires with samples of brilliant writing. A veteran teacher, Hale gives writing prompts along the way, helping readers “try, do, write, play.” Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch guides us to more powerful writing by demonstrating how to use great verbs with style.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393081169
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/15/2012
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Constance Hale is the author of Wired Style and Sin and Syntax. She has taught at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and UC Berkeley Extension. She is based in San Francisco, California.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Power and Pizzazz of Verbs 9

1 Me Tarzan, You Jane: The world before verbs 23

2 Up! Cup! Tadatz! Our first sentences 42

3 Bastard Verbs: A new angle on the Angles 63

4 Grammar Wars: The tension between chaos and control 83

5 I Came, I Saw, I Conquered: The dynamics of verbs 104

6 Verb Tenses: A rose is a rose is a rose. Until it dies. Then it was a rose 127

7 Passive Restraint: Understanding the voice of verbs 151

8 Be There or Be Square: Time to master moods 174

9 Predicate Etiquette: Making the back end of a sentence behave 193

10 Verbal Dexterity: Playing with participles and other cross-dressers 219

11 Two-Stroke Engines: Pair a verb with a particle and-presto! 242

12 Headache Verbs: Odd usages and other sources of confusion 260

Epilogue: Got Style? 286

Appendix 1 Chomp-or, um, Chomsky-on this 297

Appendix 2 Each of these cases are complicated. Is complicated? 300

Appendix 3 When it comes to dictionaries, be polygamous 303

Appendix 4 Those sneaky irregular verbs 307

Appendix 5 Phrasal verbs: What's up, what's down 314

Appendix 6 More migraines 325

Notes 335

Selected Bibliography 353

Acknowledgments 363

Permissions 369

Index 371

Editorial Reviews

Journalist Hale (Sin and Syntax) loves language. In this latest offering, she focuses on the power of verbs to make writing sing. After a discussion of the history of language and commentary about the importance of verbs, she organizes the book into topical sections, each arranged in four subsections based on the titular verbs. "Vex" clears up confusion about the rules; "Hex" challenges grammar myths and assumptions; "Smash" focuses on particular bad habits and offers examples of not-so-good writing; and "Smooch" showcases examples of writing in which the verbs dance. This book encourages readers to think about how language is used and how it evolves. Overall, it's a romp for the language obsessed, with a broad sampling of usage to help readers who want to become better writers. VERDICT Hale's book will be useful for those seeking an accessible writing guide; it will also appeal to general readers and writers interested in increasing their understanding and mastery of the power found in a living language.—Nancy Almand, Fresno Cty. Coll. Lib., CA

Library Journal

Self-help for aspiring writers, who need, it seems, to zap the red sauce of their prose with tangier verbs. In a text that looks like many others in the self-help genre (lots of sidebars, multiple appendixes, forests of exclamation points, bushels of bullet points and gee-whiz-this-stuff-is-easy! diction), Hale (Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose, 1999, etc.) offers plenty of advice for would-be writers. Each chapter follows the title's structure, dealing, in sequence, with things that vex writers, grammar myths the author wishes to discredit, the failings of "writers famous and infamous, hapless and clueless" and, finally, exemplary passages. This soon grows tiresome. However, the author has done considerable homework and is careful to credit her sources and mentors (David Crystal, Steven Pinker and many others). She also assails dragons long-ago slain or grievously wounded--split infinitives, for example, or prepositions at the ends of sentences. Her attacks on the language of politicians (often George W. Bush and Sarah Palin) fail to recognize that everyone makes grammatical mistakes in extemporaneous speech and that speechwriters deserve the credit and the blame for the rest. She calls Ronald Reagan a "rhetorical genius," though it was more likely Peggy Noonan. The author tries to make it all seem so easy, and she enjoys chiding the strict grammarian types who are more fastidious than she. Hale's explanations of the differences between affect and effect and lie and lay are generally clear. Bubbling with energy and conviction but less practical than an old-fashioned style manual.

Kirkus Reviews

"Hale’s comprehensive guide gives teachers, editors, writers and language lovers a rich array of instruction, advice and awe-inspiring writing."

Journal Sentinel - Elfrieda Abbe

"As with Hale’s previous book, you don’t need a PhD in linguistics to read Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch. Hale uses plain English in an entertaining way to keep the pages turning…This book deserves a spot on your physical or digital bookshelf."

Copyediting.com - Erin Brenner

"I put this book down feeling I’ve been to a great party where I’ve ‘met’ a lot of interesting people."

Christian Science Monitor - Ruth Walker

"Hale’s book often brings color to a subject tinted gray."

Santa Cruz Sentinel - Wallace Baine

"Hale has figured out how to write about verbs so that she knocks people out in a ‘that’s-so-cool’ way, rather than a ‘dose-of-Ambien’ way…Every reader will learn something."

The Rumpus - Lauren O’Neal

"Her handy tips will help your verbs crackle, spit and thunder."

Hartford Courant - Rob Kyff