英语写作句法

Week 8 Writing on the Sentence Level (3)

Rhetorical varieties of sentence

To entertain the reader or avoid monotony, we sometimes may intentionally (rhetorically) write sentences in a normal or special way. In terms of rhetorical devices on the sentence level, we take 3 ways for example: short-long, loose-periodic, or parallel-balanced frameworks. They are in fact 3 pairs of names but 6 ways to add variety to your plain sentence writing, though you may already use some of them often in your writing.

Call them ‘rhetorical varieties’ if you like. Remember, all sentence varieties should still observe the rules of the 4 basic sentence patterns we discussed before.

short long

Simpler to compose parallel balanced More complicated

loose periodic

1) Short and long

Short sentences are usually emphatic or forceful in presenting important facts and ideas; whereas long sentences are capable of expressing complex ideas accurately with more modifiers, commonly seen in legal, political writing and occasionally in fiction.

For example:

·Our city is on the threshold of a great era. Of this we can be sure. But in order to fulfill the promise of the future, we must be willing to work---and to spend. We need a larger police force for public protection. We need a modernized fire department. We need an enlarged library. We need to increase the pay scale of teachers in the public schools. We need to improve our water supply. For all these needs there is but one solution. We must see that the bond issue approved by the voters in the November election. [

·Art, in the sense here intended---that is, the generic 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 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.

?I have to declare the decision of His Majesty’s Government---and I feel sure it is a decision in which the great Dominions will in due course concur---for we must speak out now at once, without a day’s delay.I have to make the declaration, but can you doubt what our policy will be? We have but one aim and one single irrevocable purpose. We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime. From this nothing will turn us. Nothing. --Winston Churchill

Of the above 3 paragraphs, the first is composed of mainly short sentences, the second of all long sentences in order to explain an complex idea of ‘art’, and the last of a combined use of several short-long sentences with the last as short as one word.

2) Parallel and balanced

When a sentence contains two or more parts of the same form and grammatical function, it is one with parallel construction. Parallel sentences are emphatic and forceful.

For example:

·Studies serve for delight, for ornament and for ability.

·We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

·Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind, but it has been delayed till I am indifferent and cannot enjoy it;

till I am solitary and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.

--Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Letter to Lord Chesterfield

On the other hand, when a sentence contains two parallel clauses similar in structure but contrasted in meaning, it is a balanced sentence. Balanced sentences are impressive. They are mainly used in formal writing, like expository and argumentative prose and speeches.

For example:

·One politician is concerned with successful elections, whereas the statesman is interested in the future of his people.

·In Plato?s opinion man was made for philosophy; in Bacon?s opinion philosophy was made for man.

3) Loose and periodic

A loose sentence puts the main idea first before all supplementary information, letting the reader know what it is mainly about when he has read the first few words. Loose sentences are easier, simpler, more natural and direct. And a periodic sentence does the reverse, keeping the reader ignorant of the main idea until the very end. Periodic sentences are more complex, emphatic, formal or literary.

For example:

·She decided to study English though she was interested in music.

·Although she was interested in music, she finally decided to study English.

·His voice was deep, loud, and his manner displayed a kind of dogged self-assertion which had nothing aggressive in it.

·Dawn came as a relief, with a gesture of coolness, and we tumbled out of bed, almost sick with excitement.

·It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. ---Jane Austin

Writing projects calling for bids

Week 8: (004) Can you find more examples for “balanced” and “periodic” sentences? Possible sources include your textbook of intensive reading, readings assigned in the writing course, and other formally published materials.