How do you start a piece of writing? How do you edit one? And what can be done to combat those pesky—and paralyzing—feelings of perfectionism that often derail our most important sentences and paragraphs?

This sixth volume of the Syntax of Sports series creatively uses the language of baseball, football, tennis, and many other sports to explore these questions. Based on a popular course at the University of Michigan, it captures the energy, originality, and discipline - crossing insights that make its author, Professor Patrick Barry, such a sought-after teacher and presenter.

An All-American soccer player in college who holds both a Ph.D. in English and a J.D., Professor Patrick Barry joined the University of Michigan Law School after clerking for two federal judges and working in legal clinics devoted to combating human trafficking and reforming the foster care system.  He is the author of several books on advocacy — including Good with Words: Writing and Editing and Notes on Nuance — and regularly puts on workshops for law firms, state governments, and non-profit organizations.  He also teaches at the University of Chicago Law School and has developed a series of online courses for the educational platform Coursera.