NONFICTION UNITSyntax, Diction, and Tone

Four Types of Sentences

Simple (one subject, one verb) Example: By keeping a close watch over every penny and by

refusing to spend unnecessarily, Tom and Mary saved money and paid all their debts.

Compound (two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction or semicolon) Example: Go and speak.

Complex (one independent clause, one or more dependent clauses) Example: When I really understand grammar and when I

actually put it to use, my grades in English will improve. Compound-complex (two or more independent

clauses and one or more dependent clauses) Example: Where you go I will go, and where you dwell I will

dwell.

Above each clause, mark I for independent and D for dependent.

Also name the sentence type.1. People who sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.

2. My folks didn’t come over on the Mayflower; they were there to meet the boat.3. The impersonal hand of the government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.4. If you don’t go to other people’s funerals, they won’t go to yours.

5. Tell us your phobias, and we will tell you what you are afraid of.

6. The tragedy of life is that people don’t change.

7. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

8. The best mind-altering drug is truth.

9. Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated.

10. Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.

Above each clause, mark I for independent and D for dependent.

Also name the sentence type.11. Without music, life would be a mistake.

12. One arrow is easily broken, but you cannot break a bundle of ten.

13. If you scatter thorns, don’t go barefoot.

14. The car had stalled, and the driver had pushed it to the side of the road where it would not block traffic.15. If you see him, say hello.

16. She saw him, and she said hello.

17. Many women and quite a few men voted for him.

18. Many women voted for him, and quite a few men did too.

19. The father, his two sons, and several cousins left this morning on a hunting trip.20. The glorification of one race and the subsequent debasement of another—or others—always has been and always will be a recipe for murder and there is no way around this.

Four Purposes of Sentences

Declarative: makes a statement Interrogative: asks a question (?) Exclamatory: exclaims something (!) Imperative: gives a command; often has

a subject of (you)

Mark each sentence below with its purpose (D, Int, E, Imp)

1. Will you see him today?2. How beautiful the evening is!

3. Let us start immediately.

4. Can you go with us?

5. He hopes to be here for the meeting.

6. The message was written last Monday.

7. Will you please send your check at once?

8. In spite of all our anxiety, we enjoyed this search for work.

9. Come at six o’clock.

10.

The fire which destroyed the building is said to have been set by a discharged employee.

More Types of Sentences

Loose – The main idea is stated at beginning of the sentence followed by additional information. Example: He resigned after denouncing his

accusers and asserting his own innocence time and time again.

Periodic – The main idea is withheld until the end of the sentence. Example: After denouncing his accusers and

asserting his own innocence time and time again, he resigned.

More Types of Sentences

Convoluted structure – The main clause is split in two; subordinate material is in between. Example: The pizza delivery boy, no matter

how late, expected a hefty tip. Centered structure – The main clause is

place in the middle with subordinate material on both sides. Example: After digging a large hole, I planted

the tree, which was large and hard to handle.

Mark L for loose and P for periodic.

1. Even the humble ambition, which I long cherished, of making sketches of those places which interested me, from a defect of eye or of hand was totally ineffectual.

2. If there is no future for the black ghetto, the future of all Negroes is diminished.

3. One inmate had been kept there for twenty-eight days on bread and water, although the regulations prohibited a longer stay than forty-eight hours.

4. As the sun went down and the evening chill came on, we made preparations for bed.

5. The men returned to camp in the morning after the sun had come up, burning the dew off the ground.

6. Such clothes as they wear, s skirt of shredded bark, a buckskin breechclout, an occasional fur or feather cape, also blend into the natural background.

Word Order

Natural—The subject comes first and the verb follows later in the sentence. Example: The dog ran through the mud.

Inverted—The main verb or helping verb comes before the subject. Example: Through the mud ran the dog.

Mark I for inverted and N for natural.

7. And in one corner, book-piled like the rest of the furniture, stood a piano.

8. He avoided wrangles, and he usually treated disagreeable persons with a cold and freezing contempt.

9. Him the Almighty Power hurled.

10.

The study of syntax can be challenging and rewarding.

Rhetorical Devices

Rhetorical question— a question which expects no answer; used to draw attention to a point; stronger than a direct statement Example: If Mr. Smith is always fair, as you have said, why

did he refuse to listen to Mrs. Baldwin’s arguments? Repetition– using words, sounds, or ideas more than

once for enhancing rhythm and/or creating emphasis Parallel structure—the phrases or clauses balance

each other in likeness or structure, meaning or length. Example: To err is human; to forgive divine. Example: But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we

cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. Example: Together we planned the house, together we built

it, and together we watched it go up in smoke.

Mark each sentence with the rhetorical device used (RQ, Rep, PS).1. Ethan Frome is not a tragic fool; he is a tragic hero.2. How long shall we ignore this under-developed nation in

our midst? How long shall we look the other way while our fellow human beings suffer? How long?

3. In its energy, its lyrics, its advocacy of frustrated joys, rock music is one long symphony of protest.

4. The new product not only is better than the old, but is also cheaper.

5. This is more than poetic insight, it is hallucination. 6. And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of

human rights—the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation—the right to breathe air as nature provided it—the right of future generations to a healthy existence?

7. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

8. He told his sentence at home, then he repeated it at school.

9. Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.

10.

Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

Rhetorical vs. Interrogative

Rhetorical question— a question which expects no answer; used to draw attention to a point; stronger than a direct statement

Interrogative sentence—asks a question (?) and elicits a response

Mark R for rhetorical and I for interrogative.

1.

In what ways do high school and college differ?

2.

Who could fail to read the sermon in the stones of Newport? Who could think that the building of a railroad could guarantee salvation, when there on the lawns of the men who built the railroad nothing is left but the shadows of migrainous women, and the pony carts waiting for the long-dead children?

3.

Would a pick be best, or would dynamite be better—or would dynamite be too indiscriminately destructive?

4.

You’re going downtown?

5.

But Toronto—Toronto is the subject. One must say something—what must one say about Toronto? What can one? What has anybody ever said?

More Rhetorical Devices

Anaphora – repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences Example: We shall fight on the beaches; we

shall fight on the landing-grounds; we shall fight in the fields and in the streets; we shall fight in the hills.

Juxtaposition – placing unassociated ideas, words, or phrases next to one another to create an effect of surprise or wit Example: She slouched gracefully.

Sentence Length

Telegraphic – shorter than five words Short – approximately five words in

length Medium – approximately eighteen words

in length Long or Involved – thirty words or more

(not necessarily a run-on just because it’s long)

Sentence Openers Adverb opener

Wisely, Helen made two course choices. Actually, I enjoyed the storm for two reasons.

Adverbial clause opener When I find the pot of gold, I will do two things. (answers “when”) Because Helen attended summer session at the college, she

acquired two new skills Prepositional phrase opener

In Southern California a tourist will find many unique spots of interest.

On the way to work, I see many interesting people. Verbal phrase opener

Infinitive: To do well in sports, you must practice regularly. (to + verb)

Gerund: Finding a needle in a haystack would be easier than what we're trying to do. (ends in –ing and functions as a noun)

Participle: Exhausted after the long hike, we took an afternoon nap. (functions as an adjective and ends in –ing or -ed)

Diction

Monosyllabic words Anglo-Saxon origin One syllable Example: tree, hut, cow

Polysyllabic words Latin origin Multiple syllables Antiquated, hierarchy

More polysyllabic words usually indicates a more sophisticated text.

Diction Continued: Denotation vs. Connotation

Denotation: dictionary definition Connotation: other meanings associated

with the word as a result of a person’s background

Look at how each word changes when it is given a connotative meaning below.

house public servant financier law officer legislative consultant investigator soldier of fortune

home bureaucrat speculation cop lobbyist spy hired killer