Name: ________________________________________________ Hour: ____ Date: __________________
Syntax =
the ordering of words to say what needs to be said
What to Look For


Sentence length
o Telegraphic: shorter than 5 words
o Short: 5-10 words
o Medium: 15-20 words
o Long: 30 words or more
Sentence beginnings
o Is there a good variety, or does a
pattern emerge?
Syntactical Terms
1. Restatement
a. Definition:
b. Purpose:
c. Example:
2. Repetition
a. Definition:
b. Purpose:
c. Example:
3. Parallelism
a. Definition:
b. Purpose:
c. Bad Example:
d. Good Example:
4. Rhetorical Question
a. Definition:
b. Purpose:
c. Example:


Word order
o Are words in a specific order for a
purpose or added effect?
Arrangement of Ideas
o Are ideas in a specific order for a
purpose or added effect?
Syntax Practice: Independence Day Speech (from notes PowerPoint)
Annotate the speech below.
In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be
launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind.
Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed
by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps its fate
that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from
tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live,
to exist. And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American
holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into
the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!"
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!
Answer the following questions after you annotate the text.
1. Are there sections in the piece where the syntax changes? In what ways?
2. What is the president’s purpose in giving this speech?
3. Select three of the syntactic constructions that best reinforce the purpose. Then explain how
they illustrate or emphasize the purpose.
a.
b.
c.
Syntax Practice: Gettysburg Address
Directions: Annotate the text of the speech. Identify syntactical methods by
highlighting and labeling.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived
in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come
to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this
ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our
poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it
can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we
here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.
Answer the following questions after you annotate the text.
4. Are there sections in the piece where the syntax changes? In what ways?
5. What is Lincoln’s purpose in writing this speech?
6. Select three of Lincoln’s syntactic constructions that best reinforce his purpose. Then explain
how they illustrate or emphasize his purpose.
a.
b.
c.