Syntax Sentence Structure

Functional Sentence Patterns declarative interrogative imperative exclamatory

Grammatical Structure simple compound complex compound-complex

Rhetorical Structure Loose - main idea stated at the beginning of the sentence followed by additional information Periodic - Main idea withheld until the end of the sentence Balanced - phrases and clauses balance each other in likeness or structure

Loose, Periodic, or Balanced? After denouncing his accusers and asserting his own innocence time and time again, the State Department Official resigned. Together we planned the house, together we built it, and together we watched it go up in smoke. He resigned after denouncing his accusers and asserting his own innocence time and time again.

Rhetorical Techniques Antithesis - a contrast used for emphasis Example - India is a poetic nation, yet it demands new electrical plants. It is a mystical nation, yet it wants new roads.

Rhetorical Techniques Juxtaposition Example - The apparition of these faces in the crowd:/ Petals on a wet, black bough.

Rhetorical Techniques Parallelism - structural similarity between parts of the sentence Example - He was walking, running, and jumping for joy.

Rhetorical Techniques Repetition Example -...government of the people, by the people, for the people...

Rhetorical Techniques Rhetorical questions - a question which expects no answer

Advanced Rhetorical Techniques anaphora - a special kind of repetition using the same words or phrase at the beginnings of successive clauses example - We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing- grounds, we shall fight in the fields and the streets, we shall fight in the hills.

Advanced Rhetorical Techniques asyndeton - deliberate omission of conjunctions example - I came, I saw, I conquered.

Advanced Rhetorical Techniques chiasmus - second clause in a sentence is a reversal of the first example - Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

Advanced Rhetorical Techniques epistrophe - the same word is repeated as the end of successive phrases example - I believe we should fight for justice. You believe we should fight for justice. How can we not, then, fight for justice?

Advanced Rhetorical Techniques polysyndeton - the deliberate use of many conjunctions for special emphasis example -...my mother fixed okra and green beans and ham and apple pie and green pickled tomatoes and ambrosia salad and all manner of fine country food...

Advanced Rhetorical Techniques zeugma - the use of a verb that has two different meanings with objects that complement both meanings example - He stole both her car and her heart that fateful night.

Other Things to Consider Sentence patterns sentence length (telegraphic, medium, long)

Analysis Practice Next morning when the first light came into the sky and the sparrows stirred in the trees, when the cows rattled their chains and the rooster crowed and the early automobiles went whispering along the road, Wilbur awoke and looked for Charlotte.

Analysis Practice Col Grangerford was very tall and very slim, and had a darkish-paly complexion, not a sign of red in it anywheres; he was clean-shaved every morning all over his thin face, and he had the thinnest kind of lips, and the thinnest kind of nostrils, and a high nose and heavy eyebrows, and the blackest kind of eyes, sunk so deep back that they seemed like they was looking out of caverns at you, as you may say.

Analysis Practice In the grass and the grain, beside the road, and in some places scattered over the road, there was much material: a field kitchen, it must have come when things were going well; many of the calfskin-covered haversacks, stick bombs, helmets, rifles, sometimes one butt-up, the bayonet stuck in the dirt, they had dug quite a little at the last; stick bombs, helmet rifles, entrenching tools, ammunition boxes, star-shell pistols, their shells scattered about, medical kits, gas masks, empty gas-mask cans, a squat tri-podded machine gun in a nest of empty shells, full belts protruding from the boxes, the water cooling can empty and on its side, the breech block gone, the crew in odd positions, and around them, in the grass, more of the typical papers.

Analysis Practice She was standing in the middle of the railroad tracks.