WRITING ANALYSIS A STUDY OF SYNTAX

ELEMENTS OF SYNTAX SENTENCE LENGTH NUMBER OF SENTENCES RHYTHM OF SENTENCES SENTENCE BEGINNINGS – VARIETY OR PATTERN VOICE WORD ORDER/ARRANGEMENT OF IDEAS SENTENCE TYPES

SENTENCE LENGTH STACCATO – ONE OR TWO WORDS, ABRUPT TELEGRAPHIC – SHORTER THAN FIVE WORDS SHORT – APPROX. 5-10 WORDS MEDIUM – APPROX. 15-20 WORDS LONG – 30 OR MORE WORDS

SENTENCE TYPES DECLARATIVE – STATEMENTS INTERROGATIVE – QUESTIONS IMPERATIVE – COMMANDS, REQUESTS EXCLAMATORY SIMPLE SENTENCES - 1 SUBJECT, 1 PREDICATE COMPOUND SENTENCES – TWO OR MORE INDEPENDENT CLAUSES JOINED WITH COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS, TRANSITIONAL WORDS/PHRASES, SEMICOLONS, OR COLONS

SENTENCE TYPES COMPLEX SENTENCES – ONE INDEPENDENT CLAUSE AND ONE DEPENDENT CLAUSE COMPOUND-COMPLEX – TWO OR MORE INDY CLAUSES AND AT LEAST ONE DEPENDENT CLAUSE FRAGMENTS AND RUN-ONS

SCHEMES – A CHANGE IN THE NORMAL WORD ORDER IN A SENTENCE LOOSE SENTENCES – MAIN POINT IS AT THE BEGINNING; FRONT LOADED PERIODIC SENTENCE – MAIN POINT AT END, END LOADED NATURAL ORDER – SUBJECT BEFORE MAIN VERB INVERTED ORDER – VERB BEFORE SUBJECT INTERRUPTED SENTENCE – SUBORDINATE CLAUSE IN MIDDLE SET OFF BY DASHES OR COMMAS BALANCE ISSUES - PARALLEL STRUCTURE BALANCE ISSUES – ANTITHESIS – MAKES USE OF CONTRAST FOR EMPHASIS

SCHEMES BALANCE – PARALLELISM Her purpose was to impress the ignorant, to perplex the dubious, and to startle the complacent. BALANCE – ANTITHESIS “Evil men fear authority; good men cherish it.” INTERRUPTION New developments in a language, it seems, tend to arise in colloquial speech.

SCHEMES OMISSION “And he to England shall along with you.” REPETITION “I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody too? Then there’s a pair of us-don’t tell! They’d banish us you know.” –Emily Dickinson

SCHEMES ANAPHORA – REPETITION OF WORD OR PHRASE AT THE BEGINNING OF SUCCESSIVE PHRASES, CLAUSES, SENTENCES "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost shall be." ANASTROPHE – NORMAL WORD ORDER IS CHANGED FOR EMPHASIS "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put." ANTITHESIS – CONTRASTING WORDS, PHRASES, SENTENCES, OR IDEAS ARE USED IN PARALLEL GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES FOR EMPHASIS "Evil men fear authority; good men cherish it."

SCHEMES APOSTROPHE – PERSON OR ABSTRACT QUALITY IS DIRECTLY ADDRESSED THOUGH NOT PRESENT “Dear God, sorry to disturb you” EPISTROPHE – REPETITION OF WORD OR PHRASE AT THE END OF SUCCESSIVE PHRASES, CLAUSES, SENTENCES "He's learning fast; are you earning fast?"

SCHEMES ASYNDETON – USING NO CONJUNCTIONS FOR THE PURPOSE OF SPEED OR EFFICIENCY “I came I saw I conquered.” POLYSYNDETON – USING TOO MANY CONJUNCTIONS FOR THE PURPOSE OF EMPHASIS “I am taking AP Physics and AP English and AP Psychology and AB Calc and AP Econ and AP Bio.”