Stellar English lays out the fundamentals of effective writing, from word choice and punctuation to parts of speech and common errors. Frank Cioffi emphasizes how formal written English—though only a subdialect of the language—enables writers to reach a wide and heterogenous audience.
Cioffi’s many example sentences illustrating grammatical principles tilt in an otherworldly direction, making up a science fiction story involving alien invasion. Reading the book through will not only help you with your grammar but also reveal how the story ends!
An invaluable brief handbook for native and nonnative speakers alike, Stellar English avoids the jargon and emphasis on outdated rules found in typical grammar guides and shows how good writing uses carefully constructed language that’s at once appropriate to an audience and communicates—without distractions or confusion—just what the writer wants.
Frank L. Cioffi is professor of English at Baruch College, City University of New York. He has taught writing and literature at Indiana University, Eastern New Mexico University, Central Washington University, Scripps College, Princeton University, and the University of Gdańsk in Poland. His books include The Imaginative Argument: A Practical Manifesto for Writers and One Day in the Life of the English Language: A Microcosmic Usage Handbook (both Princeton).
- Introduction
- PART ONE Credibility
- 1 Sentence-Level Issues: Fragments
- 2 Sentence-Level Issues: Run-ons and Subject-Verb Agreement
- PART TWO Communicativeness
- 3 Verbs
- 4 Nouns and Pronouns
- PART THREE Complexity
- 5 Modifiers: Adjectives
- 6 Modifiers: Adverbs
- PART FOUR Confidence
- 7 Predeterminers, Central Determiners, and Postdeterminers
- 8 Varieties of Definiteness, or More Essentials of The and A/An
- PART FIVE Clarity
- 9 Semicolons, Hyphens, and Other Baffling Punctuation Marks
- 10 A Special Case: Commas
- PART SIX Comprehensibility
- 11 Creating Understandable Sentences: Metaphoric Language, Parallelism, Jargon, Slang, and Clichés
- 12 Word-Level Issues
- PART SEVEN Consequentiality
- Appendix. For Further Reading: Ten Indispensable Resources
- Acknowledgments
- Works Cited
- Index
“People cannot possibly enter or enjoy the academic debate if they cannot represent their ideas properly in writing. Stellar English makes an excellent contribution by opening up scholarly communication to writers who struggle to write well.”—C. M. Gill, author of Essential Writing Skills for College and Beyond
“Cioffi explains the importance of knowing formal writing alongside everyday informal English and ensuring that your prose has its intended results. Stellar English instills the fundamentals required to become a good writer and the confidence needed to undertake the process.”—Grant Barrett, author of Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking
“Cioffi makes an important argument for formal English—not necessarily the best English, but rather an English that can sharpen ideas, focus logic, and communicate effectively with specific audiences. The mechanism of telling a story in the sample sentences, combined with the thumbs-up and thumbs-down markings, is ingenious.”—Kit Nicholls, coauthor of Syllabus: The Remarkable, Unremarkable Document That Changes Everything
“What sets this book apart is the way in which it succinctly presents grammatical rules without sacrificing complexity or nuance. Cioffi’s tone is affable and approachable—he uses humor, personal anecdotes, and concrete examples to explain rules. He is both respectful and playful, clear and entertaining.”—Shannon K. Winston, Indiana University
