Loose and
Periodic
Sentences
From a rhetorical point of view, sentences are
loose, periodic, or balanced.
 I.
loose sentence
 1.A
loose sentence puts the main idea before
all supplementary information
 In other words, it puts first things first, and lets
the reader know what it is mainly about when
he has read the first few words.
 The reverse arrangement makes a periodic
sentence:
Periodic
 The
main idea is expressed at or near the
end of it, and it is not grammatically
complete until the end is reached. The
reader does not know what it is mainly
about until he finishes reading it.
A Handbook of Writing, Ding Wangdao.
a. She decided to study English though she
was interested in music. (Loose)
b. Although she was interested in music, she
finally decided to study English.(Periodic)
 The
main idea of both sentences is the fact that
she decided to study English.
 This idea is put at the beginning of the first
sentence and at the end of the second.
 The first part of sentence ‘a’ is complete in
structure, but that of ‘b’is only an adverbial
clause and cannot be called a sentence without
the second part.
2. The definition offered in the Webster’s New
World Dictionary:
 Loose
sentence: a sentence in which the essential
elements, in the main clause, come first, followed by
subordinate parts, modifiers, etc., as in a compound
sentence.
 Periodic sentence: a sentence in which the essential
elements, in the main clause, are withheld until the
end or separated as by modifiers or subordinate
clauses.
A Further Explanation…
 Loose
sentence: a loose sentence is one that may
be brought to a grammatical close before the end
is reached.
 Periodic sentence: a periodic sentence is one that
is not grammatically complete until the end is
reached. For example,
 You cannot make great progress in English without
good study habits.
 Without good study habits, you cannot make great
progress in English.
A. You cannot make great progress in English
without good study habits.
B. Without good study habits, you cannot make
great progress in English.



Sentence a and sentence b are semantically
same, but different in structure.
Sentence a is a loose sentence, but sentence
b the periodic sentence. The main idea is put
at the beginning of the first sentence followed
by the supplement and explanation
The main idea is at the end of the second
sentence, thus making it a periodic sentence.
II. The difference between the two types of
sentences
 *Loose
sentences are easier, simpler, more
natural and direct.
 periodic sentences are more complex,
emphatic, formal, or literary.
III. The methods of making loose sentences and
periodic sentences





1.Preposing or postposing the adverbial
clause
(1) Loose ( postposition): The world won’t
end even if we fail again and again.
Periodic (preposition): Even if we fail again
and again, the world won’t end.
(2) Loose ( postposition):Bill had cleaned
the room before Tom returned.
Periodic (preposition):Before Tom returned,
Bill had cleaned the room.
An adverbial, or adverbial phrase (AdvP) is a linguistic term for a
group of two or more words operating adverbially when viewed
in terms of their syntactic function





Compare the following sentences:
I'll go to bed soon.
I'll go to bed in an hour.
I'll go to bed when I've finished my book.
In the first, soon is an adverb (as distinct from a noun or
verb), and it is an adverbial (as distinct from a subject or
object). Clearly, in the second sentence, in an hour has the
same syntactic function, though it does not contain an
adverb; therefore, a preposition and a noun (preceded by
its article) can function together as an adverbial. Such a
multi-word adverbial may be called an adverbial phrase. In
the third sentence, we see a whole clause functioning as
an adverbial.





2.Preposing or postposing the adverbial
phrase
(1) Loose ( postposition):Bill started to write
his composition early in the morning.
Periodic (preposition):Early in the morning,
Bill started to write his composition.
(2) Loose ( postposition):We feel honored
to have you come to visit our country.
Periodic (preposition):To have you come
to visit our country, we feel honored.
 3.
Preposing or postposing the ppl (participle)
phrase
 (1) Loose ( postposition): She came up shouldering
a spade.
 Periodic (preposition):Shouldering a spade, she
came up.
 (2) Loose ( postposition): He came back, utterly
exhausted.
 Periodic (preposition): Utterly exhausted, he
came back.
 4.
Preposing or postposing the prepositional phrase
 (1) Loose (postposition):Tom was cutting a piece of
metal with great care.
 Periodic (preposition):With great care, Tom was
cutting a piece of metal.
 (2) Loose (postposition): This was done without my
knowledge and without my consent.
 Periodic (preposition):Without my knowledge and
without my consent, this was done.
 6.
Preposing or postposing the adjective or
adjective phrase
 (1) Loose (postposition): She took down what he
said, conscientious and eager.
 Periodic (preposition): Conscientious and eager,
she took down what he said.
 (2) Loose (postposition): Bill was cleaning the lathe
full of energy.
 Periodic (preposition): Full of energy, Bill was
cleaning the lathe.
IV. The rhetorical function of loose sentence
and periodic sentence
1. loose sentence


(1) loose sentences give prominence to to the
beginning of the sentence.
She was offered a professional contract after
winning the Olympic gold medal for figure skating,
according to the newspaper reports.
 The
most valuable information--she was
offered a professional contract--appears at
the beginning of the sentence and the
other information follows, which is in
accordance with our thinking practice. For
example,
2. periodic sentence


causes anticipation and suspense in readers
because the important information readers are
eager to know is postposed at the end of the
sentence.
Though Jim Thorpe had brought great glory to his
nation, though thousands of people cheered him
upon his return to the United Stages and attended
banquets and a New York parade in his honor, he
was not a citizen.
 The
two thoughts: Jim Thorpe’s achievements and
the craze expressed by the people are made to
be climactic.
 When readers finish reading the two clauses, they
anticipate the ending and discover that simply,he
was not a citizen to bring the sentence to a
sudden end. The impact of him not being a
citizen is hightened. Readers understand the
severity of his situation; he has made great
contributions and is well loved, but still is unable to
be recognized as a citizen.
 During the course, readers follow the
anticipation-suspense-suddenness track. This is the
charm of periodic sentences.
Compare:



There was a lamp burning on the
table in the empty room and a little
cat lying near the lamp.(loose)
On the table burned a lamp in the
empty room, and near it lay a little
cat.(periodic)
The key words—a lamp and a little
cat—are withheld at the end of
sentence b, so as to create suspense
and anticipation.




periodic sentences can focus on expressing the
sadness and happiness of the writer and
strengthen the power of the words.
The one absolute, unselfish friend a man
may have in this selfish world, the one that
never deserts him, the one that never
proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.
-George Graham West
The writer uses three sentences with
parallel construction and the repetition of
ones to emphasize the noble personality of
his friend. The impression of the friend is
more important than who the friend is (the
dog).
V. Balanced sentence
When a sentence contains two or more parts of the
same form and grammatical function, it is one with
parallel construction:

Let us be ruthless in our criticism, cruel to personal
vanities, indifferent to age, rank or experience if
these stand in our way.
--Norman Berthune

It does not do to live in memories, in regrets
for the good old days, or in sadness about
friends who are dead. One’s thoughts must
be directed to the future, and to things
about which there is something to be done.
--Bertrand Russell
 The feeling of the nation must be quickened;
the conscience of the nation must be
roused; the propriety of the nation must be
startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be
exposed; and its crimes against God and
men must be proclaimed and denounced.
--Frederick Douglass

Such parallel sentences are emphatic and forceful.
When a sentence contains two parallel clauses
similar in structure but contrasted in meaning, it is a
balanced sentence.
 On hearing the news, he was angered, and I was
saddened.
 In Plato’s opinion man was made for philosophy; in
Bacon’s opinion philosophy was made for man.

--Thomas Babington Macaulay
 In
a word, a balanced sentence is one in which
sentence elements (words, phrases, clauses) of
equal importance are set off against each other.
Thus it is particularly effective for comparisons and
contrasts, as well as for emphatic statements. Study
the following examples:
 The President wanted an increase in taxes to
reduce the national debt; the Congress wanted a
reduction in taxes to stimulate business.
 Thus,
good sentences are more than
grammatically correct. They are varied in
length in word order, and in their
rhetorical patterns. As you read essays,
consider the sentence structure of each
selection. And as you write your own
essays, apply the techniques for attaining
sentence variety that we have discussed.
Short and Long Sentence
Short sentences are usually emphatic, whereas
long sentences are capable of expressing complex
ideas with precision, because it may contain many
modifiers.
 Short sentences are suitable for the presentation of
important facts and ideas, and long sentences for
the explanation of views and theories, or the
description of things with many details.

Look at the following passage which makes good
use of short sentences:
 Our
city is on the threshold of a great era. Of this we
can be sure. We must be willing to work—and to
spend in order to fulfill the promise of the future. We
need a large police force for public protection. We
need a modernized fire department. We need an
enlarged library. We need to improve our water
supply. For all these needs there is but one solution.
We must see that the bond issue is approved by the
voters in the November election.

Here each short sentence presents an
important suggestion. If the points were
grouped into two or three longer
sentences, there would not be the force
and clarity of these shorter sentences.
The following passage describes how
a man saved a drowning girl:
 He
crouched a little, spreading his
hands under the water and moving
them round, trying to feel for her. The
dead cold pond swayed upon his
chest. He moved again, a little deeper,
and again, with his hands underneath,
he felt all around under the water. And
he touched her clothing. But it evaded
his fingers. He made a desperate effort
to grasp it….

He laid her down on the bank. She was
quite unconscious and running with water.
He made the water come from her mouth,
he worked to restore her. He did not have to
work very long before he could feel the
breathing begin again in her; she was
breathing naturally. He worked a little longer.
He could feel her live beneath his hands;
she was coming back. He wiped her face,
wrapped her in his overcoat, looked round
into the dim, dark gray world, then lifted her
and staggered down the bank and across
the fields.
 The
many short sentences in the above
passage vividly describe the man’s rapid
movements and make the reader feel the
tension the man was experiencing at the
moment.

Long sentences are common in legal, political and
theoretical writing, which depends on modification for
accuracy.

Art, in the sense here intended—that is, the genetic term
subsuming painting, sculpture, architecture, music, dance,
literature, drama, and film—may be defined as the
practice of creating perceptible forms expressive of
human feeling. I say “perceptible” rather than “sensuous”
forms because some works of art are given to
imagination rather than to the outward senses. A novel,
for instance, usually is read silently with the eye, but is not
made for vision, as a painting is; and though sound plays
a vital part in poetry, words even in poetry are not
essentially sonorous structures like music…..
 The
writer is trying to define such abstract
term as “art” and “feeling”, and it is
necessary for her to use so many words to
make the definitions accurate and
prevent misunderstanding.
 In fiction long sentences are sometimes
used to describe a person, a thing or a
scene.

Mrs. Chalmers was kind of fat and her hair was
pretty blond and her complexion was soft and pink
and she always looked as though she had been in
the beauty parlor all afternoon. She always said
“My, you’re getting to be a big boy” to Peter when
she met him in the elevator, in a soft voice, as
though she was just about to laugh. She must have
said that fifty times by now. She had a good, strong
smell of perfume on her all the time, too.

Mr. Chalmers wore pince-nez glasses most of the
time and he was getting bald and he worked late
at his office a good many evenings of the week.
When he met Peter in the elevator he would say,
“ It’s getting colder,” or “ It’s getting warmer,” and
that was all, so Peter had no point about him,
except that he looked like the principal of a school.
-- Irwin Shaw
 Of
the five sentences in the above
passage four are long, and they give
detailed descriptions of the two
characters. Were they broken into many
short sentences, the contrast between the
normal Chalmers couple and the couple
on that particular occasion would not be
so striking.
 Various
sentence structures have been discussed.
The basic principle is that the structure should fit the
idea being expressed.
 In other words, the idea determines the choice of
the structure, not the other way round.