Scrutinizing the sentence

What makes a great sentence? That’s a question English Professor Jeff Noh and his creative writing students could debate for hours.

“A sentence is often a temporary place you visit on your way to the next sentence,” says Noh. “Some writers certainly are obsessed with the sentence and think about it as an enormous, capacious kind of thing. I think it’s more the case that we think of sentences in their relationship to other sentences.”

Sentences can be complex or simple. Unconventional or original. Succinct or meandering. On this episode of Challenge. Change., Noh, Kaleigh Gibbons ’24, and Julianna Hall ’24, among the first students to graduate with a new creative writing major, share their favorite sentences and break down what makes the structures special.

Challenge. Change. is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

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