Sentence Styles

1. Sentence Styles

2. Types of Sentences: Simple A simple sentence contains one independent clause: “Culture is the sum of our experiences.” Every time we use a period, we ask the reader for a long pause. Consider the pacing of your essay when using short forms of this sentence type repeatedly.

3. Types of Sentences: Complex and Compound Compound: IC+ IC: “We want honesty, but we don’t really want it in every area of our lives.” Complex: Independent and Dependent Clause: “While we want honesty, we don’t really want it in every area of our lives.”

4. Vary Length The Winslow family visited Canada and Alaska last summer to find some native American art. In Anchorage stores they found some excellent examples of soapstone carvings. But they couldn't find a dealer selling any of the woven wall hangings they wanted. They were very disappointed when they left Anchorage empty-handed

5. Revised The Winslow family visited Canada and Alaska last summer to find some native American art, such as soapstone carvings and wall hangings. Anchorage stores had many soapstone items available. Still, they were disappointed to learn that wall hangings, which they had especially wanted, were difficult to find. Sadly, they left empty-handed.

6. Front Loaded Sentences Present the subject and the verb in the initial position, followed by a variety of modifying phrases: Edward Scissorhands is a typical Tim Burton film, with distorted perspectives, stylized lighting, misfit characters, and gothic horrors invading suburban environments.

7. End loaded sentences Create suspense and emphasis by placing the main idea or some part of it at the end of the sentence: After having spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours renovating the townhouse, the Petersons sold it.

8. Parallelism Parallelism —words, phrases, and sometimes whole clauses—creates interest and emphasis. Freud examined dreams, collected narratives, analyzed the accounts, and found patterns of meaning. Some dreams contained flying, running, and floating, while others contained drowning, estricting, or imprisoning.

9. Types of Sentences: Cumulative • 1. Cumulative: information accumulates after the main point: • John decided to spend the money selflessly on a new book for his brother and not selfishly on a new shirt for himself

10. Types of Sentences: Cumulative • Sometimes we can vary even simple sentences by inverting the order of the subject and the verb. • “Then came the moment we were waiting for.”

11. Types of Sentences: Periodic • 2. Periodic: the main point is at the end of the sentence, while information modifying that point appear before it: • When John saw that he could spend the money in two ways, either selfishly on a new shirt for himself or selflessly on a new book for his brother, he chose the latter.

12. Is the difference between these two sentences only stylistic or is there a difference in what they convey also? John decided to spend the money selflessly on a new book for his brother and not selfishly on a new shirt for himself When John saw that he could spend the money in two ways, either selfishly on a new shirt for himself or selflessly on a new book for his brother, he chose the latter.

13. Types of Sentences: Periodic • Periodic sentences can break the monotonous pattern of our prose. They are not simply a stylistic tool, however. They place emphasis on items (“two ways”). • “At the end of the day, after all the customers had gone home , once they had cleaned all the burners and swept all the floors, the workers at the restaurant would sit together and have a cigarette and some much-needed friendly conversation.

14. Types of Sentences: Balanced • Balanced: sentences have two (or more) similar structures in them: • “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country” John F. Kennedy

15. Types of Sentences: Balanced • Balanced sentences often use antithesis: They make a statement one way and then make a different statement in a very similar way

16. Openers, Interrupters, Closers • A word, phrase, or clause can be added for variety • To the front of a sentence (opener) • To the middle of a sentence (interrupter) • To the end of a sentence (closer)

17. Openers can • stipulate the time of an action:“When you finish with that, we can go watch a movie” • state necessary conditions for an event: “if the blizzard comes our way, the college will close” • Emphasize a trait or descriptive detail that defines the subject: “With his usual disregard for good manners, he pushed ahead of everyone in line”

18. Openers • Are usually connected to the main clause with a comma

19. Interrupters • add information about the subject or the verb, enhancing the reader’s understanding and perhaps also creating emphasis: “He managed, with the help of his family, to get out of debt for good.” • Interrupters are usually enclosed in paired commas or dashes: “John Johnson—the school’s resident troublemaker—looked satisfied as the chemistry set exploded in the teacher’s hands”

20. Closers can • add descriptive details to the general picture of the clause preceding them: “He stood alone in the hall, his socks bunched around his ankles, his shoes untied, and his sweater dragging on the ground” • Offer an explanation for an action or situation already discussed: “He refuses to clean up his room, probably to irritate his mother”

21. Closers • can highlight a word or two, giving them extra emphasis: “Laura hated only one thing about college life—studying” • Can be preceded by a comma or a dash. When the closer is a dependent clause, no punctuation is needed to separate it

22. Your Turn • Choose any 2 consecutive paragraphs from your draft. Underline all cumulative sentences. Find 3 that you can turn to periodic by using openers, interrupters, or closers. You don’t have to keep these changes. This is just an exercise. • Tell your writing partner to look at your selected paragraphs

23. Your Turn • Your writing partner will try to create 3 periodic sentences from among the same paragraphs. • When you are both done, look at the sentences you came up with. Then the writers will decide which new sentences for their draft they like best—I will ask you to explain your choice.