1. Syntax Review Virginia Woolf and Henry David Thoreau Sentences

2. Sentences According to Function Declarative Sentence: “He was little or nothing but life.” Interrogative Sentence: “What remained for him but to fly to a third corner and then to a fourth? Imperative Sentence: “Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails.” Exclamatory Sentence: “What news!”

3. Loose Sentence It was a pleasant morning, mid-September, mild, benignant, yet with a keener breath than that of other months.

4. Periodic Sentence As often as he crossed the pane, I could fancy that a thread of vital light became visible.

5. Periodic or Loose? He was trying to resume his dancing, but seemed either so stiff or so awkward that he could only flutter to the bottom of the window- pane; and when he tried to fly across it he failed.

6. Periodic or Loose? Yet, because he was so small, and so simple a form of the energy that was rolling in at the open window and driving its way through so many narrow and intricate corridors in my own brain and in those of other human beings, there was something marvelous as well as pathetic about him.

7. Subject Complements Subject complements follow linking verbs: to be, feel, seem, look. Predicate Nominatives rename the subject. “I am Tarzan.” Tarzan is the predicate nominative. Predicate Adjectives describe the subject. I am strong and wild. Strong and wild are both predicate adjectives.

8. Subject Complements in V.W.’s Writing They are hybrid creatures. It was a pleasant morning. Because he was so small. The struggle was over. Just as life had been strange a few minutes before, so death was now strange. Oh yes, he seemed to say, death is stronger than I am.

9. Simple Sentences from V.W. He was little or nothing but life. I laid the pencil down again. The horses stood still. The body relaxed, and instantly grew stiff. The struggle was over. The insignificant little creature now new death.

10. Compound Sentence from V.W. Presumably it was midday, and work in the fields had stopped.

11. Complex Sentence from V.W. As I looked at the dead moth, this minute wayside triumph of so great a force over so mean an antagonist filled me with wonder. As often as he crossed the pane, I could fancy that a thread of vital light became visible. I lifted the pencil again, useless though I knew it to be.

12. Compound-Complex Sentences from V.W. The plough was already scoring the field opposite the window, and where the share had been, the earth was pressed flat and gleamed with moisture. He was trying to resume his dancing, but seemed either so stiff or awkward that he could only flutter to the bottom of the window-pane; and when he tried to fly across it he failed.