tpotd - Index by style

Main Menu

To receive paragraphs by e-mail, subscribe on this site.

Index by style

This index groups paragraphs on the website into the following categories:

action
ambiguity
comedy
conversation
describing a community
describing a person
describing a place
describing a relationship
describing thoughts
details
first paragraph
irony
last paragraph
movement within the paragraph
narrator: first person
narrator: third person
omit needless words!
end of a paragraph: pithy conclusions, irony, sardonic remarks, and summing up
poetic style
quotation
rhythm
scene (like theater)
short sentences
vocabulary

action

“Antony,” Plutarch’s Lives

Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain [Sodom and Gomorrah] (1922), part five of Remembrance of Things Past, translated by C.K. Scott Montcrieff (1927)

James Thurber, “Snapshot of a Dog,” The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeeze (1935)

John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937)

Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding (1946)

Gerald Durrell, The Whispering Land (1983)

Tobias Wolff, In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994)

Ryszard Kapuscinski, "When There is Talk of 1945," Granta 88: Mothers (2004)

ambiguity

The Memoirs of Harriet Wilson (1825)
Letter written by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), quoted by Francine Prose in “Alice Liddell,” in The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired (2002)

comedy

Edgar Box (Gore Vidal), Death Likes it Hot (1954)
Graham Greene, Travels With My Aunt (1969)
Ian Frazier, “If Memory Doesn’t Serve,” The Atlantic Monthly (October, 2004)

conversation

Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854)
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929)
Mary McCarthy, “The Friend of the Family,” Cast a Cold Eye (1950) (stories written from 1944 to 1950)
Peter Collier, “Transference,” Canto (1979)
Thomas Geoghegan, "Warren Court Children," The New Republic (May 19, 1986)
Sean O'Faolain, “Falling Rocks, Narrowing Road, Cul-de-sac, Stop,” Foreign Affairs (1976)
Roddy Doyle, The Snapper (1990)
Lorrie Moore, “If Only Bert Were Here,” The New York Times (1993)
Lorrie Moore, “Agnes of Iowa,” Granta 54 (1996)
Elliot Perlman, Seven Types of Ambiguity (2003)
Ian Frazier, “If Memory Doesn’t Serve,” The Atlantic Monthly (October, 2004)

describing a community

Letter from Horace Walpole, quoted in David Cecil, Library Looking-Glass -- A Personal Anthology (1975)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926)

Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)

Meyer Isenberg,"The Professor in the University," Journal of General Education (January, 1956)

Fritz Stern, “National Socialism as Temptation,” in Dreams and Delusions: The Drama of German History (1987)

describing a family

John Galsworthy, The Man of Property (1906)
V.S. Pritchett, A Cab at the Door (1968)
Norman MacLean, A River Runs Through It (1976)
Roddy Doyle, The Snapper (1990)

describing a person

“Antony,” Plutarch’s Lives
Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint Simon, Memoirs (1696)
Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854)
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment (1869)
Sherwood Anderson, "Hands," in Winesburg Ohio (1919)
“Mrs. Viola Leslie of Mt. Vernon Observes her 87^th Birthday,” Gazette-Republican, Mount Vernon, Iowa (October 28, 1928)
Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding (1946)
Mary McCarthy, “The Friend of the Family,” Cast a Cold Eye (1950) (stories written from 1944 to 1950)
J. H. Plumb, England in the Eighteenth Century (1950)
Duff Cooper, Old Men Forget (1953)
Stanley Loomis, Paris in the Terror: June 1793 - July 1794 (1964)
Esme Wingfield-Stratford, "Churchill -- The Making of a Hero," quoted in the essay by Basil Liddell Hart, "The Military Strategist," in Churchill: Four Faces and the Man (1968)
V.S. Pritchett, A Cab at the Door (1968)
Harold Brodkey, First Love and Other Sorrows (1978)
V.S. Pritchett, "Jonathan Swift: The Infantilism of Genius," The Tale Bearers (1980)
Richard Ford, “The Womanizer,” Granta 40 (Summer, 1992)
Anatole Broyard, Kafka Was the Rage: a Greenwich Village Memoir (1993)
Lorrie Moore, “Agnes of Iowa,”Granta 54 (1996)
William Maxwell, “The Bohemian Girl,” The Outermost Dream (1997)
Janet Malcolm, "Good Pictures," The New York Review of Books (January 15, 2004)

describing a place

“Antony,” Plutarch’s Lives

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1849-1850)

John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913)

John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937)

Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)

Andrea Lee, Russian Journal (1979)

Richard Ford, "Rock Springs" Granta (1983)

Gerald Durrell, The Whispering Land (1983)

Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun (1997)

Francine Prose, “Hester Thrale,” in The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired (2002)

Ryszard Kapuscinski, "When There is Talk of 1945," Granta 88: Mothers (2004)

describing a relationship

The Memoirs of Harriet Wilson (1825)
John Galsworthy, The Man of Property (1906)
Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain [Sodom and Gomorrah] (1922), part five of Remembrance of Things Past, translated by C.K. Scott Montcrieff (1927)
Mary McCarthy, “The Friend of the Family,” Cast a Cold Eye (1950) (stories written from 1944 to 1950)
Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
Duff Cooper, Old Men Forget (1953)
V.S. Pritchett, A Cab at the Door (1968)
Peter Collier, “Transference,” Canto (1979)
Charles Baxter, “Surprised by Joy,” Through the Safety Net (1985)
Roddy Doyle, The Snapper (1990)
Stephen McCauley, “The Whole Truth,” Harper’s (1992)
Richard Ford, "The Womanizer," Granta 40 (1992)
Lorrie Moore, “If Only Bert Were Here,” The New York Times (1993)
William Maxwell, The Outermost Dream (1997)
Elliot Perlman, Seven Types of Ambiguity (2003)
Cynthia Ozick, Heir to the Glimmering World (2004)

describing thoughts

Oscar Wilde, de Profundis (1905)
Mary McCarthy, “The Friend of the Family,” Cast a Cold Eye (1950) (stories written from 1944 to 1950)
Sean O'Faolain, “Falling Rocks, Narrowing Road, Cul-de-sac, Stop,” Foreign Affairs (1976)
Peter Collier, “Transference,” Canto (1979)
Richard Ford, "Rock Springs" Granta (1983)
Thomas Geoghegan, "Warren Court Children," The New Republic (May 19, 1986)
Richard Ford, "The Womanizer," Granta 40 (1992)
Tobias Wolff, In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994)

details

“Antony,” Plutarch’s Lives

Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint Simon, Memoirs (1696)

Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain [Sodom and Gomorrah] (1922), part five of Remembrance of Things Past, translated by C.K. Scott Montcrieff (1927)

James Thurber, “Snapshot of a Dog,” The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeeze (1935)

Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)

Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding (1946)

Stanley Loomis, Paris in the Terror: June 1793 - July 1794 (1964)

Andrea Lee, Russian Journal (1979)

Peter Collier, “Transference,” Canto (1979)

Gerald Durrell, The Whispering Land (1983)

Thomas Geoghegan, "Warren Court Children," The New Republic (May 19, 1986)

Charles Baxter, “Surprised by Joy,” Through the Safety Net (1985)

Alden Jones, "Lard is Good for You," Coffee Journal (Winter 1998-1999)

Roddy Doyle, The Snapper (1990)

Lorrie Moore, “If Only Bert Were Here,” The New York Times (1993)

Lorrie Moore, “Agnes of Iowa,” Granta 54 (1996)

Jonathan Franzen, "Lost in the Mail," How to Be Alone (2002)

Ryszard Kapuscinski, "When There is Talk of 1945," Granta 88: Mothers (2004)

end of a paragraph: pithy conclusions, finishing with ironic and sardonic remarks, and summing up

John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913)
Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain [Sodom and Gomorrah] (1922), part five of Remembrance of Things Past, translated by C.K. Scott Montcrieff (1927)
Mary McCarthy, “The Friend of the Family,” Cast a Cold Eye (1950) (stories written from 1944 to 1950)
W.H. Lewis, The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV (1953)
Duff Cooper, Old Men Forget (1953)
Harold Brodkey, First Love and Other Sorrows (1978)
Gerald Durrell, The Whispering Land (1983)
Anatole Broyard, Kafka Was the Rage: a Greenwich Village Memoir (1993)
Tobias Wolff, In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994)
William Maxwell, The Outermost Dream -- Essays and Reviews (1997)
Ian Frazier, “If Memory Doesn’t Serve,” The Atlantic Monthly (October, 2004)
Ryszard Kapuscinski, "When There is Talk of 1945," Granta 88: Mothers (2004)
Cynthia Ozick, Heir to the Glimmering World (2004)
Joseph Epstein, “Forgetting Edmund Wilson,” Commentary (December, 2005)

first paragraph

John Galsworthy, The Man of Property (1906) (the first volume of The Forsyte Saga)

John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913)

T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926)

“Mrs. Viola Leslie of Mt. Vernon Observes her 87^th Birthday,” Gazette-Republican, Mount Vernon, Iowa (October 28, 1928)

Vita Sackville-West, The Edwardians (1930)

John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937)

Nancy Mitford, Madame de Pompadour (1953)

James Thurber, “Snapshot of a Dog,” The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeeze (1935)

Edgar Box (Gore Vidal), Death Likes it Hot (1954)

Graham Greene, Travels With My Aunt (1969)

Norman MacLean, A River Runs Through It (1976)

irony

John Galsworthy, The Man of Property (1906) (the first volume of The Forsyte Saga)

Mary McCarthy, “The Friend of the Family,” Cast a Cold Eye (1950) (stories written from 1944 to 1950)

Esme Wingfield-Stratford, "Churchill -- The Making of a Hero," quoted in the essay by Basil Liddell Hart, "The Military Strategist," in Churchill: Four Faces and the Man (1968)

Tobias Wolff, In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994)

Gerald Durrell, The Whispering Land (1983)

Stephen McCauley, “The Whole Truth,” Harper’s (1992)

Fritz Stern, “National Socialism as Temptation,” in Dreams and Delusions: The Drama of German History (1987)

last paragraph

James Joyce, “The Dead,” Dubliners (1914)

movement within the paragraph

Letter of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne (1626-1696)
Nancy Mitford, Madame de Pompadour (1953)
V.S. Pritchett, "Jonathan Swift: The Infantilism of Genius," The Tale Bearers (1980)
Letter written by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), quoted by Francine Prose in “Alice Liddell,” in The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired (2002)
Vita Sackville-West, The Edwardians (1930)
John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937)
Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding (1946)
Edgar Box (Gore Vidal), Death Likes it Hot (1954)
Meyer Isenberg,"The Professor in the University," Journal of General Education (January, 1956)
Leonard Woolf, Growing: An Autobiography of the Years 1880 to 1904 (1960)
Stanley Loomis, Paris in the Terror: June 1793 - July 1794 (1964)
Peter Collier, “Transference,” Canto (1979)
Gerald Durrell, The Whispering Land (1983)
Thomas Geoghegan, "Warren Court Children," The New Republic (May 19, 1986)
Stephen McCauley, “The Whole Truth,” Harper’s (1992)
Lorrie Moore, “If Only Bert Were Here,” The New York Times (1993)
Lorrie Moore, “Agnes of Iowa,” Granta 54 (1996)

narrator: first person

William Cobbett, Cobbett's Weekly Political Register (February 19, 1820)

The Memoirs of Harriet Wilson (1825)

Letter from Horace Walpole, quoted in David Cecil, Library Looking-Glass -- A Personal Anthology (1975)

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment (1869)

John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913)

Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain [Sodom and Gomorrah] (1922), part five of Remembrance of Things Past, translated by C.K. Scott Montcrieff (1927)

Duff Cooper, Old Men Forget (1953)

James Thurber, “Snapshot of a Dog,” The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeeze (1935)

Leonard Woolf, Growing: An Autobiography of the Years 1880 to 1904 (1960)

Graham Greene, Travels With My Aunt (1969)

Norman MacLean, A River Runs Through It (1976)

Harold Brodkey, First Love and Other Sorrows (1978)

Andrea Lee, Russian Journal (1979)

Raymond Carver, "Vitamins," Granta (1981)

Gerald Durrell, The Whispering Land (1983)

Alden Jones, "Lard is Good for You," Coffee Journal (Winter 1998-1999)

Tobias Wolff, In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994)

Jonathan Franzen, "Lost in the Mail," How to Be Alone (2002)

Elliot Perlman, Seven Types of Ambiguity (2003)

Cynthia Ozick, Heir to the Glimmering World (2004)

Ryszard Kapuscinski, "When There is Talk of 1945," Granta 88: Mothers (2004)

Ian Frazier, “If Memory Doesn’t Serve,” The Atlantic Monthly (October, 2004)

narrator: third person

“Antony,” Plutarch’s Lives

Thomas Babington Macaulay, "Lord Clive" (1840), reprinted in Critical and Historical Essays (1851)

John Galsworthy, The Man of Property (1906) (the first volume of The Forsyte Saga)

Alice Meynell, "Under the Early Stars"

Sherwood Anderson, "Hands," in Winesburg Ohio (1919)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

Vita Sackville-West, The Edwardians (1930)

John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937)

Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)

Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding (1946)

J. H. Plumb, England in the Eighteenth Century (1950)

Mary McCarthy, “The Friend of the Family,” Cast a Cold Eye (1950) (stories written from 1944 to 1950)

Nancy Mitford, Madame de Pompadour (1953)

W.H. Lewis, The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV (1953)

Edgar Box (Gore Vidal), Death Likes it Hot (1954)

Meyer Isenberg,"The Professor in the University," Journal of General Education (January, 1956)

Stanley Loomis, Paris in the Terror: June 1793 - July 1794 (1964)

Esme Wingfield-Stratford, "Churchill -- The Making of a Hero," quoted in the essay by Basil Liddell Hart, "The Military Strategist," in Churchill: Four Faces and the Man (1968)

Michael Herr, Dispatches (1968)

Peter Collier, “Transference,” Canto (1979)

V.S. Pritchett, "Jonathan Swift: The Infantilism of Genius," The Tale Bearers (1980)

Charles Baxter, “Surprised by Joy,” Through the Safety Net (1985)

Sean O'Faolain, “Falling Rocks, Narrowing Road, Cul-de-sac, Stop,” Foreign Affairs (1976)

Roddy Doyle, The Snapper (1990)

Richard Ford, "The Womanizer," Granta 40 (1992)

Stephen McCauley, “The Whole Truth,” Harper’s (1992)

Lorrie Moore, “If Only Bert Were Here,” The New York Times (1993)

Lorrie Moore, “Agnes of Iowa,” Granta 54 (1996)

Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun (1997)

William Maxwell, The Outermost Dream (1997)

Francine Prose, “Hester Thrale,” in The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired (2002)

Ryszard Kapuscinski, "When There is Talk of 1945," Granta 88: Mothers (2004)

Sarah Boxer, "William Steig, 95, Dies; Tough Youths and Jealous Satyrs Scowled in His Cartoons," The New York Times (October 5, 2003)

Janet Malcolm, "Good Pictures," The New York Review of Books (January 15, 2004)

Arthur Krystal, “Death, It’s What Ails You,” Agitations: Essays on Life and Literature (2002)

omit needless words!

John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913)

John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937)

James Thurber, “Snapshot of a Dog,” The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeeze (1935)

J. H. Plumb, England in the Eighteenth Century (1950)

Duff Cooper, Old Men Forget (1953)

Edgar Box (Gore Vidal), Death Likes it Hot (1954)

Esme Wingfield-Stratford, "Churchill -- The Making of a Hero," quoted in the essay by Basil Liddell Hart, "The Military Strategist," in Churchill: Four Faces and the Man (1968)

Graham Greene, Travels With My Aunt (1969)

Norman MacLean, A River Runs Through It (1976)

Harold Brodkey, First Love and Other Sorrows (1978)

Gerald Durrell, The Whispering Land (1983)

Thomas Geoghegan, "Warren Court Children," The New Republic (May 19, 1986)

Roddy Doyle, The Snapper (1990)

Lorrie Moore, “If Only Bert Were Here,” The New York Times (1993)

Tobias Wolff, In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994)

Lorrie Moore, “Agnes of Iowa,” Granta 54 (1996)

William Maxwell, The Outermost Dream (1997)

poetic style

Sean O'Faolain, “Falling Rocks, Narrowing Road, Cul-de-sac, Stop,” Foreign Affairs (1976)
Alice Meynell, "Under the Early Stars" reprinted in John Gross, ed., The Oxford Book of Essays (1991)
T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926)

quotation

Letter of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne (1626-1696)
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment (1869)
Stanley Loomis, Paris in the Terror: June 1793 - July 1794 (1964)
Michael Herr, Dispatches (1968)
Peter Collier, “Transference,” Canto (1979)
Charles Baxter, “Surprised by Joy,” Through the Safety Net (1985)
Fritz Stern, “National Socialism as Temptation,” in Dreams and Delusions: The Drama of German History (1987)
Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun (1997)
William Maxwell, The Outermost Dream (1997)
Jonathan Franzen, "Lost in the Mail," How to Be Alone (2002)
Francine Prose, “Hester Thrale,” in The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired (2002)
Sarah Boxer, "William Steig, 95, Dies; Tough Youths and Jealous Satyrs Scowled in His Cartoons," The New York Times (October 5, 2003)
Janet Malcolm, "Good Pictures," The New York Review of Books (January 15, 2004)
Cynthia Ozick, Heir to the Glimmering World (2004)

rhythm

The Memoirs of Harriet Wilson (1825)

Letter from Honore Balzac to his sister Laure, reproduced in V.S. Pritchett, Balzac (1973)

John Galsworthy, The Man of Property (1906)

Vita Sackville-West, The Edwardians (1930)

Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding (1946)

J. H. Plumb, England in the Eighteenth Century (1950)

Nancy Mitford, Madame de Pompadour (1953)

W.H. Lewis, The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV (1953)

Edgar Box (Gore Vidal), Death Likes it Hot (1954)

Esme Wingfield-Stratford, "Churchill -- The Making of a Hero," quoted in the essay by Basil Liddell Hart, "The Military Strategist," in Churchill: Four Faces and the Man (1968)

Graham Greene, Travels With My Aunt (1969)

Sean O'Faolain, “Falling Rocks, Narrowing Road, Cul-de-sac, Stop,” Foreign Affairs (1976)

Richard Ford, "Rock Springs," Granta (1983)

Gerald Durrell, The Whispering Land (1983)

Thomas Geoghegan, "Warren Court Children," The New Republic (May 19, 1986)

Alden Jones, "Lard is Good for You," Coffee Journal (Winter 1998-1999)

Stephen McCauley, “The Whole Truth,” Harper’s (1992)

Lorrie Moore, “Agnes of Iowa,” Granta 54 (1996)

Ryszard Kapuscinski, "When There is Talk of 1945," Granta 88: Mothers (2004)

scene

“Antony,” Plutarch’s Lives
John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937)
Duff Cooper, Old Men Forget (1953)

short sentences

“Mrs. Viola Leslie of Mt. Vernon Observes her 87^th Birthday,” Gazette-Republican, Mount Vernon, Iowa (October 28, 1928)
James Thurber, “Snapshot of a Dog,” The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeeze (1935)
John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937)
Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
Duff Cooper, Old Men Forget (1953)
Graham Greene, Travels With My Aunt (1969)
Sean O'Faolain, “Falling Rocks, Narrowing Road, Cul-de-sac, Stop,” Foreign Affairs (1976)
Raymond Carver, "Vitamins," Granta (1981)
William Maxwell, The Outermost Dream -- Essays and Reviews (1997)
Alden Jones, "Lard is Good for You," Coffee Journal (Winter 1998-1999)
Roddy Doyle, The Snapper (1990)
Jonathan Franzen, "Lost in the Mail," How to Be Alone (2002)

topic sentence

“Antony,” Plutarch’s Lives

Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint Simon, Memoirs (1696)

Letter of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne (1626-1696)

The Memoirs of Harriet Wilson (1825)

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment (1869)

John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913)

Mary McCarthy, “The Friend of the Family,” Cast a Cold Eye (1950) (stories written from 1944 to 1950)

Duff Cooper, Old Men Forget (1953)

W.H. Lewis, The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV (1953)

Meyer Isenberg,"The Professor in the University," Journal of General Education (January, 1956)

V.S. Pritchett, "Jonathan Swift: The Infantilism of Genius," The Tale Bearers (1980)

Fritz Stern, “National Socialism as Temptation,” in Dreams and Delusions: The Drama of German History (1987)

Tobias Wolff, In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994)

vocabulary

T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926)

Meyer Isenberg,"The Professor in the University," Journal of General Education (January, 1956)

Stanley Loomis, Paris in the Terror: June 1793 - July 1794 (1964)

V.S. Pritchett, A Cab at the Door (1968)

Sean O'Faolain, “Falling Rocks, Narrowing Road, Cul-de-sac, Stop,” Foreign Affairs (1976)

V.S. Pritchett, "Jonathan Swift: The Infantilism of Genius," The Tale Bearers (1980)

Alice Meynell, "Under the Early Stars" reprinted in John Gross, ed., The Oxford Book of Essays (1991)

tpotd.net home contact tpotd.net	(c) 2005 by Paul Strauss. The copyright does not extend to the books and articles quoted on this site, or to the paintings and photographs reproduced here. "The Paragraph of the Day" and "tpotd" are trademarks of Paul Strauss.