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Syntax is a set of rules in a language. It dictates how words from different parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought.
Syntax and diction are closely related. Diction refers to the choice of words in a particular situation, while syntax determines how the chosen words are used to form a sentence. More often than not, adopting a complex diction means a complex syntactic structure of sentences, and vice versa. In combination, syntax and diction help writers develop tone, mood, and atmosphere in a text, along with evoking readers’ interest.
Punctuation is used to reinforce meaning, construct effect, and express the writer’s voice. Of particular interest in shaping voice are the semicolon, colon, and dash.
The semicolon gives equal weight to two or more independent clauses in a sentence. The resulting syntactical balance reinforces parallel ideas and imparts equal importance to both (or all) of the clauses.
The colon directs reader attention to the words that follow. It is also used between independent clauses if the second summarizes or explains the first. A colon sets the expectation that important, closely related information will follow ,a and words after the colon are emphasized.
The dash marks a sudden change in thought or tone, sets off a brief summary, or sets off a parenthetical part of the sentence. The dash often conveys a casual tone.
Another aspect of syntax is sentence length. Writers vary sentence length to forestall boredom and control emphasis. A short sentence following a much longer sentence shifts the reader’s attention, which emphasizes the meaning and importance of the short sentence.
Syntactic tension is the withholding of syntactic closure until the end of a sentence. Sentences that so delay closure are called periodic sentences.
Periodic sentences carry high tension and interest the reader must wait until the end of the sentence to understand the meaning.
Ex: As long as we ignore our children and refuse to dedicate the necessary time and money to their care, we will fail to solve the problem of school violence.
Sentences that reach syntactical closure early (loose sentences) relieve tension and allow the reader to explore the rest of the sentence without urgency.
Ex: We will fail to solve the problem of school violence as long as we ignore our children and refuse to dedicate the necessary time and money to their care
Repetition is another way writers achieve sentence focus.
Purposeful repetition of a word, phrase, or clause emphasizes the repeated structure and focuses the reader’s attention on meaning.
Writers can also repeat parallel grammatical forms such as infinitives, gerunds, and prepositional phrases.
Purpose--Sound: Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Sibilance, Rhyme, etc.
Purpose--Emphasis: Parallelism, Anaphora, Epistrophe, Polysyndeton, Polyptoton, Antistasis, Antanaclasis, Tautology, etc.
Consider:
He was a year older than I, skinny, brown as a chocolate bar, his hair orange, his hazel eyes full of mischief and laughter.
— Esmeralda Santiago, When I was Puerto Rican
Discuss:
Look carefully at the way the sentence is written. All of the words following the word I are used to describe the he of the sentence. They are adjectives and adjective phrases. This is not the way words are usually ordered in English. (In English, adjectives are usually right before the nouns they modify, or at least right next to them.) What effect does this word order have on the meaning of the sentence?
Placing all of the adjectives and adjective phrases one after the other is called layering. What effect does this layering have on the impact of the sentence?
Apply: Fill in the blanks to create a sentence similar to Santiago's sentence.
He was a year older than I, skinny, brown as a chocolate bar, his hair orange, his hazel eyes full of mischief and laughter.
Comparative Adjective Adjective simile describing subject Adjective Adjective Phrase
S/He was Comparative Adjective than I, Adjective, simile describing subject, his/her hair Adjective, his hazel eyes Adjective Phrase.
Consider: When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little -- a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it -- you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily -- until, at length a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye.
— Edgar Allan Poe, "The Tell-Tale heart," The Tell-Tale heart and Other Writings
Discuss:
1. Look carefully at the first sentence. There are several groups of words called phrases (very patiently, without hearing him lie down; a very, very little) that interrupt the flow of the sentence. For what reason might an author write a sentence in this way?
2. Look at the second sentence. What is the purpose of the dashes? How do these dashes, and the words they set off, involve the reader in the action of the passage?
Apply: Write a sentence about doing your homework. Try to imitate the way that Poe uses phrases to slow down the way one reads the sentence. Use at least one dash. When I __________________________________
Consider: He found that he was often angry, now: irrationally angry at his groupmates, that they were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on.
— Lois Lowry, The giver
Discuss:
What is the purpose of the colon in the sentence?
How would it change the effectiveness of the sentence if it were rewritten in this way? He found that he was often irrationally angry at his groupmates because they were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on.
Apply: Write a sentence which uses a colon to connect important ideas. The words which follow the colon should explain and emphasize the words that come before the colon. Use Lowry's sentence as a model/mentor. Start your sentence in this way:
Tonya found that she was much happier now: _______________________________________________
Consider: When I woke up it was light. It was awfully quiet. Too quiet. I mean, our house just isn't naturally quiet. The radio's usually going full blast and the TV is turned up loud and people are wrestling and knocking over lamps and tripping over the coffee table and yelling at each other. Something was wrong, but I couldn't quite figure it out. Something had happened...I couldn't remember what.
— S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders
Discuss:
Hinton starts the passage with two short sentences, a sentence fragment, and another short sentence. Then she writes two longer sentences. Look at these sentences carefully, and contrast the purpose of the short sentences and fragment and the purpose of the longer sentences. Make a two column chart to jot down your ideas. In column write down the purpose of the short sentences and the fragment. In the other column write the purpose of the longer sentences. After finishing the chart, consider how the sentence length reinforces the meaning of the passage.
Hinton uses ellipses in the last sentence to show that something has been left out. What has been left out? How do you know?
Apply: Think about a time when you got a present you knew you wouldn't like--you knew it even before you opened it. Now write a sentence about this experience. Create tension by using ellipses to show that some important words have been left out.
Consider: They came because they were afraid or unafraid, because they were happy or unhappy, because they felt like Pilgrims or did not feel like Pilgrims. There was a reason for each man. They were leaving bad wives or bad towns; they were coming to find something or leave something or get something, to dig up something or bury something or leave something alone. They were coming with small dreams or large dreams or none at all.
— Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
Discuss:
Bradbury repeats sentence parts in this passage. In the first sentence he repeats clauses beginning with because. In the third sentence he repeats similar clauses (They were leaving...they were coming). How does this influence your understanding of the passage?
What is the purpose of the semicolon in the third sentence? Why do you think Bradbury uses a semicolon instead of a period in this sentence?
Apply: Write a sentence about changing schools. Two parts of the sentence should be contrasting ideas. Use the following sentence structure (modeled after Bradbury's third sentence) as a guide.
I was leaving _____________________; I was coming to ________________________.
Consider: Like sunshine after storm were the peaceful weeks which followed.
— Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Discuss:
What is the subject of the sentence? What is the main verb? Is this the usual word order of subjects and verbs in English?
How would the meaning and impact of the sentence be different if it read: The peaceful weeks that followed were like sunshine after storm.
Apply: Reorganize the sentence below. Start with the simile and reverse the normal order of the subject and verb.
Spring break came like a time of calm after a hurricane.
Consider: Suddenly there was a sickening thud. A loud crack. The ship shuddered, then split open. It had slammed into a reef near the Scilly Isles, the outermost island off the southwest English coast. Within minutes it sank. Moments later three other ships pierced their hulls on the same rocks.
— Kathryn Lasky, The Man Who Made Time Travel
Discuss:
Look at the first two sentences. Which one is a sentence fragment? What is missing from the sentence to make it a fragment? What effect does this omission have on the reader?
Label the sentences in the paragraph as short and long. After labeling them, consider the effect the use of long and short sentences have on the reader.
Suddenly there was a sickening thud.
A loud crack.
The ship shuddered, then split open. It had slammed into a reef near the Scilly Isles, the outermost island off the southwest English coast.
Within minutes it sank.
Moments later three other ships pierced their hulls on the same rocks.
Apply: Write a paragraph of at least six sentences describing a car accident. Vary your use of short an dlong sentences. Use ONE intentional sentence fragment. Be prepared to share your paragraph and explain why you chose to put your sentence fragment where you did.
Consider: I picked up a tomato so big it sat on the ground. It looked like it had sat there for a week. The underside was brown. Small white worms lived in it. It was very juicy. I had to handle it carefully to keep from spilling it on myself. I stood up and took aim, and went into the wind-up, when my mother at the kitchen window called my name in a sharp voice. I had to decide quickly. I decided.
— Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon Days
Discuss:
Label the sentences in the paragraph as short and long. In terms of meaning, what do the short sentences have in common? What do the long sentences have in common? How does the sentence length help the reader understand the speaker's attitude?
What did the narrator decide? How does the syntax help you know what the narrator decides?
Apply: Look carefully at Keillor's paragraph and use it as a model/ mentor. Start your paragraph with this sentence: I picked up the pizza, which looked as if it had been on the table for weeks.
Now write three short sentences describing the pizza. Follow those with a long sentences describing what you start to do with the pizza. End your paragraph with a short sentence.
Consider: I said I did, and to prove it I went right out and fell in love with Carly Hudson. I mean facedown in the soup in love; head-banging, eye-popping, short-of-breath, plead-with-the-universe-till-your-box-is-raw kind of love.
— Chris Crutcher, Whale Talk
Discuss:
Look for the semicolon. Read what comes before and after. Is the semicolon used in the conventional way? How does the use of the semicolon here create a feeling for the reader? How does it help the reader understand the intensity of the speaker's feelings?
The second part of the text uses a variety of hyphens to connect adjectives. In what ways does the use of these hyphenated adjectives create emotion in the sentence?
Apply: Look carefully at Crutcher's text and use it as a model/ mentor. Write about something that you did and had STRONG emotions about. Relay those emotions by using the hyphenated adjective construction Crutcher used. Be prepared to share your response.
Consider: The impact of poetry is so hard and direct that for the moment there is no other sensation except that of the poem itself. What profound depths we visit then - how sudden and complete is our immersion! There is nothing here to catch hold of; nothing to stay us in our flight.... The poet is always our contemporary. Our being for the moment is centered and constricted, as in any violent shock of personal emotion.
— Virginia Woolf, "How Should One Read a Book?"
Discuss:
Woolf uses a variety of sentence types in this selection. Among them is the exclamatory sentence. Identify the exclamatory sentence and explain its effect.
Classify each sentence as to length: short, medium, or long. How is the meaning of the passage reinforced and clarified by sentence length?
Apply: Write a declarative sentence about college entrance examinations. Then write an exclamatory sentence which amplifies or clarifies the declarative sentence. Share your sentences with the class.
Consider: Brother, continue to listen.
You say that you are sent to instruct us how to worship the Great Spirit agreeably to his mind; and, if we do not take hold of the religion which you white people teach, we shall be unhappy hereafter. You say that you are right and we are lost. How do we know this to be true?
- Chief Red Jacket, "Chief Red Jacket Rejects a Change of Religion"
Discuss:
The words you say are repeated several times in the sentence. What is the repetition's function?
The question at the end of the passage is a rhetorical question. What attitude toward the audience is expressed by the use of a rhetorical question?
Apply: Write a three-sentence paragraph modeled after Chief Red Jacket's passage. The first two sentences should contain repetition; the third sentence should be a rhetorical question. Your topic is school uniforms. Share your sentence with the class.
Consider: No sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into silence, then I was answered by a voice from within the tomb! - by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman - a howl! - a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the damned in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation.
- Edgar Allan Poe, "The Black Cat"
Discuss:
The dashes in this long sentence set off a series of appositives. (An appositive is a noun or noun phrase placed beside another noun or noun phrase and used to identify or explain it.) What noun phrase is explained by the appositives?
This sentence makes syntactic and semantic sense if it ends with the first exclamation point. What do the appositives add to the meaning and effectiveness of the sentence?
Apply: Rewrite Poe's sentence, changing it into a series of short sentences. Read your sentences to the class and discuss how the use of short sentences changes the overall meaning of the original.
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