Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780156034432)

A delightfully offbeat history of the art and science of sentence diagramming by a veteran copyeditor and writer. Grumpy grammarians, crossword-puzzle aficionados, and lovers of language will appreciate this book.

In its heyday, sentence diagramming was wildly popular in grammar schools across the country. Kitty Burns Florey learned the method in sixth grade from Sister Bernadette: "It was a bit like art, a bit like mathematics. It was a picture of language. I was hooked."

Florey explores the sentence-diagramming phenomenon, including its humble roots at the Brooklyn Polytechnic, its "balloon diagram" predecessor, and what diagrams of famous writers' sentences reveal about them. Along the way, Florey offers up her own commonsense approach to learning and using good grammar. Charming, fun, and instructive, Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog will be treasured by all kinds of readers.

Author: Kitty Burns Florey
ISBN-10: 0156034433
ISBN-13: 9780156034432
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Language: English
Published: 11/05/2007
Pages: 176
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.61lbs
Size: 8.50h x 7.11w x 0.47d