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Under the Cover of Darkness: Part 1.

Written by GreatSentences.com

Narrated by (Your name goes here.)

Under the cover of darkness, they came, descending from the mountains, weapons slung over their shoulders, around their waistlines, and strapped to their thighs.

A short distance apart, in groups of two or three, sometimes even four, they headed towards the village.

Constantly scanning their surroundings, their silence, occasionally punctuated by whispers and murmurs, spoke of a need for caution.

The end. This audio quickie may be continued at a later date.

I continue to decline requests to state what, to me, constitutes a great sentence. That's because I don't want to influence what other people submit to me. I'm interested in what others consider to be great sentences. One thing I will say, however, is that a famous sentence isn't necessarily a great sentence.

I know exactly what makes a sentence great to me, but I'm not telling—yet. You may look at the sentences I have posted and see if you can figure it out. If you're interested in letting me know what you consider to be a great sentence, feel free to leave a comment below. 

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Based on the bestselling series from The Great Courses, Building Great Sentences celebrates the sheer joy of language—and will forever change the way you read and write.

Great writing begins with the sentence. Whether it’s two words (“Jesus wept.”) or William Faulkner’s 1,287-word sentence in Absalom! Absalom!, sentences have the power to captivate, entertain, motivate, educate, and, most importantly, delight. Yet, the sentence-oriented approach to writing is too often overlooked in favor of bland economy. Building Great Sentences teaches you to write better sentences by luxuriating in the pleasures of language.

Award-winning Professor Brooks Landon draws on examples from masters of long, elegant sentences—including Don DeLillo, Virginia Woolf, Joan Didion, and Samuel Johnson—to reveal the mechanics of how language works on thoughts and emotions, providing the tools to write powerful, more effective sentences.