写作复习资料

写作复习资料

1. Loose, periodic, and balanced sentence

Loose sentence: a loose sentence puts the main idea before all supplementary infor mation.

Easier, simpler, more natural and direct.

Periodic sentence: the main idea is expressed at or near the end of it, and it is no t grammatically complete until the end is reached.

More complex, emphatic, formal, or literary.

Balanced sentence: when a sentence contains two parallel clauses similar in structur e but contrasted in meaning, it is a balanced sentence.

They are mainly used in formal writing, like expository and argumentative prose, an d speeches.

Task. Tell what kind of sentence each is (loose, periodic, and balanced):

(1).Loose sentences:

She missed the step and sprained her ankle.

The wangs must have gone away for the summer holidays, for we have not seen t hem for two or three weeks.

There were the translators in their booths, and the girl secretaries at the doors, an d the reporters grumbling and scribbling in their seats.

Our friends, who had started before us, promised that they would meet us, but wh en we arrived at the bus stop, they were nowhere to be seen.

(2).Periodic sentences:

It is a pleasure to read good books.

Badly frightened by the explosion, the boy rushed out of the laboratory.

In the speeches of politicians toward the close of 1919 and the spring of 1920, the re was manifest an increasing recognition of the fact that what is called the capitali st system—the private ownership system that is, in which private profit is the worki ng incentive—was on trail.

There are still two different methods of getting what you want.

(3). Balanced sentences:

One is to make yourself so useful that others are glad to pay you, or give you wh at you want, in return for you service or your product; the other is to make yourse lf so dangerous that others will be afraid to refuse what you demand. The one app eals to good will; the other to fear. The one is constructive; the other is destructiv

e. The one is the method of civilized men; the other is the method of savages.

2. Variety:

Variety is essential to good writing. A series of sentences of the same structure and length, beginning with the same noun or pronoun as the subject, would sound mo notonous.

Variety is achieved when short sentences are used in between long ones, simple se ntences in between compound and complex ones, periodic sentences in between loo se ones. An occasional question, command, or exclamation among statements may also be helpful.

But variety is not to be sought for its own sake. The structure and length of sente nces are primarily determined by the ideas to be expressed. Only when ideas are p roperly expressed is variety desirable.

The passage below is taken from Churchill’s speech on Hitler’s invasion of the U.S.S. R. while expressing his views and decision in a very forceful way, the speaker uses a variety of types of sentences.

I have to declare the decision of His Majesty's Government - and I feel sure it is a decision in which the great Dominions(英联邦国家) will in due course concur –for we must speak out now at once, without a day's delay. I have to make the declar ation, but can you doubt what our policy will be? We have but one aim and one si ngle, irrevocable purpose. We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of th e Nazi regime. From this nothing will turn us –nothing. We will never parley; we will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land, we shall fight him by sea, we shall fight him in the air, until, with God's help, we have rid the earth of his shadow and liberated its peoples from his yoke. Any man or s tate who fights on against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who march es with Hitler is our foe... That is our policy and that is our declaration. It follows t herefore that we shall give whatever help we can to Russia and the Russian people. We shall appeal to all our friends and allies in every part of the world to take the same course and pursue it, as we shall faithfully and steadfastly to the end. 3. Unity:

Unity of a paragraph is concerned with its content. If all the sentences in the para graph lead to one central theme, the paragraph is unified. The central theme is usu