Complex Sentence Structure, Essays (university) of English Language

Download Complex Sentence Structure and more Essays (university) English Language in PDF only on Docsity! VARYING SENTENCE STRUCTURE S-2 Revised Summer 2012 1 VARYING SENTENCE STRUCTURE with BOY FANS, CHIN FAT TO MOM, and BE WISE AT WAR Created by Kathleen C. Volz FCCJ, South Campus LAC VARYING SENTENCE STRUCTURE S-2 Revised Summer 2012 2 VARYING SENTENCE STRUCTURE with BOY FANS, CHIN FAT TO MOM, and BE WISE AT WAR Have you ever listened to a speaker who talked in a monotone, never varying his or her pitch, vocal inflections, or tone? How did you feel as you listened—perhaps bored, listless, unengaged? Just as some speakers talk in a monotone, so also do some writers express themselves in a monotonous voice, one that lacks variety in sentence style and length. Readers can quickly lose interest in a paper composed of a string of simple sentences that do not connect related ideas. Examine the short and choppy sentences below: Mattie loved to drive sports cars. She bought a red Mustang. She had fun driving it. What do you notice about these sentences? Perhaps they seem to stop and go, stop and go, stop and go, much as you do while driving your car during rush hour traffic. When you write, just like when you drive, you do not want your trip to be constantly interrupted by your hitting the brakes and then pressing the accelerator. Rather, you want to travel at a steady and constant speed. You can avoid the pitfall of creating short and simple sentences by learning to use coordinating conjunctions, adverbial conjunctions, and subordinating conjunctions. Review of a Simple Sentence To understand these concepts, however, let’s begin by reviewing the definition of a simple sentence. A sentence, which expresses a complete idea, is composed of three parts: a subject, a verb, and a completer. While a subject is who or what the sentence is about, a verb expresses action (read, smile, walk, paint, see) or conveys a state of being that is, it expresses the time, location, or condition of someone or something.] For example, be verbs such as am, is are, was, and were reveal a state of being: “It is late (time).” “The children are at home (location).” “I am ill with the flu (condition).” Finally, a completer finishes the thought begun by the subject and verb. Study the models below. Note that the completers are separated with parentheses. S V C The young man sent (his wife a dozen long-stemmed red roses). S V C The dog barked (loudly at the neighbors). VARYING SENTENCE STRUCTURE S-2 Revised Summer 2012 5 CONSEQUENTLY HOWEVER INDEED NEVERTHELESS FURTHERMORE AS A RESULT THEREFORE THUS ON THE OTHER HAND MOREOVER OTHERWISE MEANWHILE By using adverbial conjunctions, you can connect closely related ideas and once again vary your sentence style. When you use a CHIN FAT TO MOM word to join sentences, follow this pattern for punctuation: IC; transition, IC IC + transition + IC Example: Mattie loved to drive sports cars; therefore she bought a red Mustang. Notice that once you join the simple sentences with a transition, you can see the relationship between them much more easily. Additional Examples: IC + transition + IC 1. Katherine majored in English and education, furthermore she minored in Spanish. VARYING SENTENCE STRUCTURE S-2 Revised Summer 2012 6 IC + transition + IC 2. The ardent suitor was intelligent, funny, and romantic; thus the young woman married him. Just as BOY FANS will help you to avoid stop-and-go sentences, so also will CHIN FAT TO MOM. Lastly, you can improve your writing by using subordination. III. Subordinating Conjunctions To understand subordination, think about the meaning of a subordinate. Do you have a job now? Do you have a boss? If you answered “yes” to these questions, you are already familiar with the term “subordinate” because you yourself are a subordinate. That is, you have to answer to a superior, to your boss. You are not entirely self-sufficient but rather depend on his or her supervision to do your job. Likewise, in a sentence with subordination, one part is dependent on another. Subordination means that you are connecting a dependent clause (a group of words that cannot stand alone) to an independent clause. In fact, a dependent clause must be joined to an independent one in order to express a complete idea. !!!WARN1NG!!!: If you don’t connect a dependent clause to an independent one, you will create a fragment. Look at the models below; note that the fragments have been italicized: Fragment: When you went to the humane shelter. You bought the adorable black and white puppy. Fragment: You bought the adorable black and white puppy. When you went to the humane shelter. What makes each of these italicized clauses a fragment? The use of the subordinating conjunction “when” is in fact what creates a dependent clause, which by itself, produces a fragment. How can you correct these fragment sentences? If you are thinking of joining the dependent clauses to the independent one, you are already getting the hang of subordination! Correct: When you went to the humane shelter, you bought the adorable black and white puppy. Correct: You bought the adorable black and white puppy when you went to the humane shelter. VARYING SENTENCE STRUCTURE S-2 Revised Summer 2012 7 Dependent clauses are easy to recognize because they always begin with a subordinating conjunction, such as when, where, while, who, after, before, since, because, etc. Though not a complete list of all the subordinating conjunctions, the acronym, BE WISE AT WAR, will help you remember some of the commonly used ones: BE EVEN IF WHEN IF SINCE EVEN THOUGH ALTHOUGH THOUGH WHILE AS WHEREAS Subordinating conjunctions work in one of three ways. First, they can start a dependent dame at the beginning of a sentence. Secondly, they can lead to a dependent clause in the middle of a sentence. Lastly, they can create a dependent clause at the end of a sentence. Let’s examine these three methods for using BE WISE AT WAR words. 1. If a dependent clause comes before an independent one, place a comma after the dependent clause and before the independent. Follow the pattern below: DC,+ IC DC IC VARYING SENTENCE STRUCTURE S-2 Revised Summer 2012 10 Try the following exercises to test your understanding of these three concepts. Practice One: Coordinating Conjunctions Directions: Use one of the BOY FANS to join simple sentences below. Be sure to add a comma where needed. 1. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written around 1595 _________ audiences enjoy seeing it performed today. 2. This play is often referred to as a comedy of errors __________ its characters find themselves in one confusing situation after another. 3. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream refers to the English tradition of “midsummer night,” the day before Saint John the Baptist’s festival, ___________ Shakespeare’s audiences associated this night with magic, merrymaking, and witchcraft. 4. This play has four subplots _______ at times it can be challenging to understand. 5. The play begins with a scene between Theseus and Hippolyta, an aristocratic couple engaged to be married, _______ these characters do not appear again until Act IV. 6. Throughout the rest of the play, little supernatural beings known as fairies intervene in the human world ______ no character except Bottom ever gets to see them. 7. The playful fairies are not rational _________ are they responsible. 8. Due to the fairies’ intervention, several strange events occur on a midsummer evening _________ later none of the characters can clearly recall what happened. VARYING SENTENCE STRUCTURE S-2 Revised Summer 2012 11 9. A Midsummer Night’s Dream portrays love as being inconstant __________ it represents lovers as being fools. 10. A Midsummer Night’s Dream could be read as a play-within-a-play __________ it could be read as a comedy about human folly. Practice Two: Adverbial Conjunctions Directions: Use one of the CHIN FAT TO MOM words to join the simple sentences below. Be sure to include correct punctuation. 1. When preparing for a multiple choice test, find out as much as you can about it from the professor_ _____________make up questions about the material that you believe the professor might ask. 2. You should study thoroughly for the test by taking notes and reviewing the material _________ you will feel well-prepared on the day of the exam. 3. On a multiple choice test, you should answer all the easy questions first ________ you skip the difficult ones and return to them upon finishing the exam. 4. Consider these hard-to-answer questions closely __________ experience shows that your intuition will often help you make the right choice. 5. Each multiple choice test item has a stem (an incomplete statement) __________ this stem is followed by four or five possible answers. 6. First, study the term __________ read all the options carefully. 7. Next, eliminate any obviously wrong answers by crossing them out __________ you will enhance your chances of making the right choice. 8. Watch for negative or extreme words such as “not” and “except” ___________ they are frequently found in incorrect answers. VARYING SENTENCE STRUCTURE S-2 Revised Summer 2012 12 9. Interestingly, “all of the above” answers are typically correct _________ you should investigate each possible answer carefully. 10. Options that look very strange and unfamiliar on a test are often incorrect: _________ these choices may reflect your need to study the material more closely. Practice Three: Subordinating Conjunctions Directions: Read these sentences for their meaning. Then fill in the BE WISE AT WAR word that best expresses the relationship between the two clauses. Be sure to add a comma if needed in the space provided. 1. ________ Emily Dickinson is now regarded as one of the best American poets of the nineteenth century ______ she was virtually unknown to the literary world until after her death. 2. Born on December 10, 1830, Dickinson lived her entire life in Amherst, Massachusetts, _________ she had several romantic interests in her youth ______ she never married. 3. Like other unwed women in nineteenth century New England, she gradually withdrew from society. In fact, she never left home ________ she turned forty. 4. Many literary critics have speculated that Dickinson became a recluse __________ she suffered from a broken heart. Moreover, they often interpret her poetry based on her biography. 5. Yet to read Dickinson’s personal life into her poems does injustice to them _________ she did write many love poems _______ critics will never know if they are products of her experiences or her imagination. 6. _________ she had very little emotional or intellectual contact with the outside world after 1870 ________ many people have wondered what her literary influences were. 7. Dickinson appears to have forged a style all her own _________ she had access to approximately 1,000 books in her family’s library.