A fully revised and updated edition with writing prompts and challenges in every chapterToday’s writers need more spunk than Strunk: whether it's the Great American e-mail, Madison Avenue advertising, or Grammy Award-winning rap lyrics, memorable writing must jump off the page. Copy veteran Constance Hale is on a mission to make creative communication, both the lyrical and the unlawful, an option for everyone.With its crisp, witty tone, Sin and Synt...

"Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch is more than just a writing handbook; it’s a key to unlocking every writer’s innate creativity by offering countless paths to verbal expressiveness." —San Francisco ChronicleGreat sentences pivot on great verbs. In Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch, Constance Hale, best-selling author of Sin and Syntax, zeroes in on verbs that make bad writing sour and good writing sing. Each chapter in Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch

Are you a teacher trying to help struggling writers perk up their prose? Would you like to learn a little about language yourself as you put together lesson plans for your wards?Constance Hale's Lesson Plans for Teachers offers two semesters worth of material to prepare novice writers not just for college but for a lifetime of professional-grade work. Chock full of clear-headed explanations, dynamic exercises, and inspiring prompts, these lessons will transform the way novice write...

Sometimes called the “literature of ideas,” science fiction is a natural medium for normative political philosophy. Science fiction’s focus on technology, space and time travel, non-human lifeforms, and parallel universes cannot help but invoke the perennial questions of political life, including the nature of a just social order and who should rule; freedom, free will, and autonomy; and the advantages and disadvantages of progress. Rather than offering a reading of a work inspired by a pa...