1. Asyndeton & Polysyndeton: The Power of Coordinating Conjunctions!
English II Pre-AP

2. What do you notice about this sentence?
“Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly–mostly–let them have their whiteness.” (Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)

3. And then what do you notice about this sentence?
“You could draw me to fire, you could draw me to water, you could draw me to the gallows, you could draw me to any death, you could draw me to anything I have most avoided, you could draw me to any exposure and disgrace.” (Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend)

4. Huh?
Writers use extra conjunctions (polysyndeton) or eliminate conjunctions (asyndeton) to control reading pace and to create meaning.

5. Coordinating Conjunctions
A conjunction links and relates two or more parts of a sentence
Coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS!) connect words or groups of words
For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
Writers can choose to add FANBOYS when they are not needed or can omit them where they are expected.

6. Polysyndeton Using extra, unnecessary coordinating conjunctions
“Poly” = many
“syn” = with, together
“polysyndeton” = with many conjunctions
“For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,/Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech/To stir men’s blood.” (William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)

7. Polysyndeton Places emphasis on the items between the conjunctions
Slows the pace
Often creates a serious, ponderous tone
Memoirists often use it to create nostalgia by focusing on the images between the conjunctions
Writers also use it excessively to create monotony or humor
“The rest of the house was plain and uncomfortable and noisy with the complaints of twenty relatives.” (Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club)

8. Polysyndeton Write a descriptive paragraph about this image.
Use polysyndeton!

9. Asyndeton Not using coordinating conjunctions when they are expected
“a” = not, without
“syn” = with, together
“asyndeton” = without conjunctions
“The men left in a rush: they flung on coats, they slid kisses at everybody’s cheeks, they slammed house doors, they slammed car doors; they ground their car’s starters till the motors caught with a jump.” (Annie Dillard, An American Childhood)

10. Asyndeton
Writers use asyndeton to fuse the words (or sections) into one unit
Writers may not want to split the words (or sections) because their power or fragility may be lost if they are separated
Causes the pace to speed up
Builds tension or anticipation, and creates breathlessness or lightheartedness
Overuse can make the rhythm jerky or disconnected or make the subject seem trivial or insignificant
“The drunks, the jobless, the junkies are shadow figures of his everyday world.” (Martin Luther King, Jr., Why We Can’t Wait)

11. Asyndeton Write a descriptive paragraph about this image.
But now use asyndeton!

12. Anaphora And just to review…
The deliberate repetition of the first part of a sentence
A form of parallelism in which both the diction and the syntax are repeated. Fun!
“You could draw me to fire, you could draw me to water, you could draw me to the gallows, you could draw me to any death, you could draw me to anything I have most avoided, you could draw me to any exposure and disgrace.” (Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend)
This sentence uses both asyndeton and anaphora!