Sentences: Techniques and Purposes
SIMPLE SENTENCE
Vampires suck blood.
COMPOUND SENTENCE
Life is a bed or roses, but sometimes we prick our fingers on the
thorns.
COMPLEX SENTENCE
If two teams are physically equal, the winner will probably be decided by mental preparedness.
COMPOUND-COMPLEX SENTENCE
When I painted my room, the smell made me dizzy, and I had to lie down on the couch.
INVERTED SENTENCE
High soared the eagle as it rose into the sunrise.
A jolly old soul was he.
INTERRUPTED SENTENCE
He who goes to sleep without homework, goes to sleep a happier person.
"Will you allow me, or do I ask too much, to introduce my sister to your acquaintance during your stay at
Lambton?" (Jane Austen)
"He who, she had been persuaded, would avoid her as his greatest enemy, seemed, on this accidental meeting,
most eager to preserve the acquaintance." (Jane Austen)
ABSOLUTES
"His heart pounding in his temples, he forced himself to walk straight in her direction."
PARTICIPLES
"Standing alone on the porch, Beloved is smiling." (Toni Morrison)
APPOSITIVE
Sergeant Shanny, the best cop on the force, was patrolling the East Side slums, the worst neighborhood in town,
when he was last seen.
FREIGHT TRAIN
"He turned south along the old war trail and he rode out to the crest of a low rise and dismounted and dropped
the reins and walked out and stood like a man come to the end of something." (Cormac McCarthy)
LOOSE SENTENCE
Most sentences exhibit what is called loose structure, as does this sentence from an essay by Virginia Woolf: "thus
the desire grows upon us to have done with half-statements and approximations: to cease from searching out the
minute shades of human character, to enjoy the greater abstractness, the purer truth of fiction." This sentence can
be terminated at several points before the end and still make complete sense.
It was a dreary November night, the pea-soup fog overwhelming the street lamps and cars crawling through the
blackness, when I stepped off the curb and heard scuffling of dress shoes on the gritty, wet, cobblestone street,
like a scene from a Bogart movie.
CUMULATIVE SENTENCE
A cumulative sentence is an extended variety of the loose sentence. Often used in description, the cumulative
sentence begins with a general statement that it then expands in a series of particulars, as this description of a
ward in a state mental hospital: "The geriatric section is always the most unattractive, poorly lighted, no
brightness, no pictures, no laughter."
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"It came boring out of the east, like some ribald satellite of the coming sun howling and bellowing in the distance
and the long light o f the headlamp running through the tangled mesquite brakes and creating out of the night the
endless fenceline down the dead straight right o f way and sucking it back again wire and post mile on mile into
the darkness after where the boilersmoke disbanded slowly along the faint new horizon and the sound came
lagging and he stood still holding his hat in his hands in the passing groundshudder watching it till it was gone."
(Cormac McCarthy)
"He rode where he would always choose to ride, out where the western fork of the old Comanche road coming out
of the Kiowa country to the north passed through the westernmost section of the ranch and you could see the
faint trace of it bearing south over the low prairie that lay between the north and middle forks of the Concho
River." (Cormac McCarthy)
PERIODIC SENTENCE
A sentence that delays the expression of a complete thought until the end, or until near the end, is called periodic.
The following is an example form an essay by Virginia Woolf: "If behind the erratic gunfire of the press the author
felt that there was another kind of criticism, the opinion of people reading for the love of reading, slowly and
unprofessionally, and judging with great sympathy and yet with great severity, might not this improve the quality
of his work?" One must read this entire sentence before a complete thought emerges.
With his arm lying gently across my back, barely touching it, and the moonlight shining through the darkness of
the trees, my date and I walked along the path.
"If Elizabeth, when Mr. Darcy gave her the letter, did not expect it to contain a renewal of his offers, she had
formed no expectation at all of its contents." (Jane Austen)
"She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man, who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her."
(Jane Austen)
"No man of common humanity, no man who had any value for his character, could be capable of it." (Jane Austen)
BALANCED
"He wasn't being nervous; he was being prevented." (Toni Morrison)
"I have been to the mountaintop, and I have seen the promised land." (MLK)
TRICOLON
I came; I saw; I conquered.
PARATAXIS
He picked up the can, emptied it, threw it back down.
He started, stared, shook his head, then bolted out of the room.
ANAPHORA
The cause of the attitude was not ignorance, not apathy, not rejection, but hopelessness.
"To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heavens. A time to be born, and a time to
die; a time to plant, and a time to reap; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build; a
time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance." (Ecclesiastes)
CHIASMUS
If attitudes can change people, people can change attitudes.
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your
country. We should eat to live, not live to eat.
"Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and
remember everything they don't want to forget." (Zora Neale Hurston)
ANTITHESIS
The smallest lie can become the biggest wrong.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
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RHETORICAL QUESTION
What's love got to do with it?
Why can't we all just get along?
Who do you think you are?
Grammar and Style
Clear, Concise Sentences Use the Active Voice Put the Action of the Sentence in the Verb Put Wordy Phrases on a
Diet Reduce Wordy Verbs Reduce Prepositional Phrases Reduce Expletive Constructions Avoid Using Vague Nouns,
Which Lead to Wordiness Avoid Unnecessarily Inflated Words Avoid Noun Strings
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Unless You Have a Reason Not To, Use the Active Voice.
At the heart of every good sentence is a strong, precise verb; the converse is true as well--at the core of most
confusing, awkward, or wordy sentences lies a weak verb.
Passive: It is believed by the candidate that a ceiling must be placed on the budget by Congress.
Active: The candidate believes that Congress must place a ceiling on the budget.
Passive: It was earlier demonstrated that heart attacks can be caused by high stress.
Active: The researcher showed that high stress causes heart attacks.
There are sometimes good reasons to use the passive voice:
*To emphasize the action rather than the actor.
(After long debate, the proposal was endorsed by the long-range planning committee. )
*To keep the subject and focus consistent throughout a passage.
(The data processing department recently presented what proved to be a controversial
proposal to expand its staff. After long debate, the proposal was endorsed by . . . .)
*To be tactful by not naming the actor.
(The procedures were somehow misinterpreted.)
*To describe a condition in which the actor is unknown or unimportant.
(Every year, thousands of people are diagnosed as having cancer.)
*To create an authoritative tone.
(Visitors are not allowed after 9:00 p.m.)
Avoid Unnecessary Words
INSTEAD OF ……….. USE
cognizant of ……….. aware of, know
facilitate ……….. help
impact on ………… affect
implement ……… start, create, carry out, begin
subsequent to….. after
utilize ………… . use
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Put Wordy Phrases on a Diet.
INSTEAD OF………… USE:
the reason for
for the reason that
due to the fact that
owing to the fact that
in light of the fact that
considering the fact that
on the grounds that
this is why
despite the fact that
regardless of the fact that
notwithstanding the fact that
in the event that
if it should transpire/happen that
under circumstances in which
because, since, why
although, even, though
if
on the occasion of
in a situation in which
under circumstances in which
when
as regards
in reference to
with regard to
concerning the matter of
where . . . is concerned
about
it is crucial that
it is necessary that
there is a need/necessity for
it is important that
it is incumbent upon
cannot be avoided
must, should
is able to
has the opportunity to
is in a position to
can
has the capacity for has the ability to
it is possible that
there is a chance that
it could happen that
the possibility exists for
prior to
in anticipation of
subsequent to
following on
at the same time as
simultaneously with
may, might,
can, could
before, after, as
Eliminate Unnecessary Prepositional Phrases.
--The opinion of the working group. (The working group's opinion.)
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-- The obvious effect of such a range of reference is to assure the audience of the author's
range of learning and intellect. (The wide-ranging references in this talk assure the
audience that the author is intelligent and well read.)
Avoid Using Vague, All-Purpose Nouns, Which Often Lead to Wordiness
--factor, aspect, area, situation, consideration, degree, case
weak *Consumer demand is rising in the area of services
better *Consumer demand for services is rising.
best *Consumers are demanding more services.
Unless Your Readers Are Familiar with Your Terminology, Avoid Writing Strings of Nouns (or Noun Strings!).
--patient program satisfaction
--student-professor relationship factor
--processing step change
--competitive cotto salami performance test
--program implementation process evaluation
weak *MHS has a hospital employee relations improvement program.
better *MHS has a program to improve employee relations.
Put the Action of the Sentence in the Verb (AVOID PASSIVE VOICE!)
Don't bury it in a noun or blur it across the entire sentence. Watch out especially for nominalizations (verbs that
have been made into nouns by the addition of -tion).
--An evaluation of the procedures needs to be done.
(The procedures need to be evaluated.) (We need to evaluate the procedures.)
--The stability and quality of our financial performance will be developed through the
profitable execution of our existing business, as well as the acquisition or development
of new businesses. (We will improve our financial performance not only by executing
our existing business more profitably but by acquiring or developing new businesses.)
Reduce Wordy Verbs
--is aware, has knowledge of ----------> knows
--is taking --------> takes
--are indications --------> indicate
--are suggestive --------> suggest
Use Expletive Constructions ("it is," "there is," "there are") Sparingly
--It was her last argument that finally persuaded me. (Her last argument finally
persuaded me.)
--There are likely to be many researchers raising questions about this methodological
approach. (Many researchers may question this methodological approach.)
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