1~2 periods
Date: Sept.1st
Objects: 1.Complete sentences and sentence fragments 2.Loose, periodic and balanced sentences
Contents: I.What is the complete sentence?
S/V (Subject/verb) David cried.
S/V/SC (subject complement) David looks tired.
S/V/DO (direct object) David loves his mother.
S/V/IO (indirect object) /DO David gave me the book.
S/V/DO/OC (object complement) David makes his mother angry. Sentence stripped to their basic patterns give us only a minimum of information, but they provide the skeleton (基干)for more fully developed sentences.We use two kinds of material to build up sentences.a.attributive or adverbial modifiers develop or narrow the meaning of the basic sentence elements.A modifier may be a single word, a phrase, or a clause: Basic: the woman stood.Expanded: the short, wrinkled old woman who was wearing a jacket stood behind the counter reading a fishing magazine.b.Compounding: using more than one of the basic sentence elements or a set of similar modifiers.( modification and compounding are usually combined in building a sentence) Basic: He enjoyed dances.Expanded: He enjoyed dances, parties, and concerts.
II.what is Sentence fragment? A complete sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period.A sentence fragment (破碎句)is part of a sentence that is set off as if it were a complete sentence by an initial capital letter and a final period or other punctuation marks signifying the end of a complete sentence (such as questions marks and exclamatory marks). A sentence fragment : 1 lacks a verb(e.g.The horse running fast.)
2.lacks a subject (And ran away)
3.is a subordinate clause not attached to a complete sentence ( Because it was confusing.) Fragment: To earn some pocket money, you only need an odd job.While to accomplish something remarkable, you must spend lots of time and energy.Revised: To earn some pocket money, you only need an odd job.But to accomplish something remarkable, you must spend lots of time and energy.Fragment: More than anything else, I wanted to get away from the heat.To somewhere cooler.Revised: More than anything else, I wanted to get away from the heat to somewhere cooler.( the phrase is combined with the main clause.) Revised: more than anything else, I wanted to get away from the heat.I longed for somewhere cooler.( the phrase is turned into a complete sentence.)
Comma Splices (逗号误用) and Run-on sentences（粘连句）: A comma splice is one of the common errors that inexperienced writers make – separating independent clauses by only a comma or by a comma and a conjunctive adverb or a transitional phrase.Conjunctive adverbs include such words as furthermore, however and moreover; transitional phrases are expreions such as in fact and for example.Rain had fallen steadily for sixteen hours, many basements were flooded.Power tends to corrupt, moreover, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Revising comma splices: (1) Turn the clauses into separate sentences.Comma Splice: Rain had fallen steadily for sixteen hours, many basements were flooded. Revised: Rain had fallen steadily for sixteen hours.Many basements were flooded.(2) Insert an appropriate coordinating conjunction (such as: and, or, nor, for, but yet, and so) after the comma between clauses.Comma Splice: he had intended to work all weekend, his friends arrive Friday and stayed until Sunday.Revised: he had intended to work all weekend, but his friends arrived Friday and stayed until Sunday.(3) Insert a semicolon between clauses.Comma Splice: Tom and Henry were more than close friends, they were inseparable.Revised: Tom and Henry were more than close friends; they were inseparable.(4) Subordinate one clause to the other.When the idea in one clause is more important than that in the other, you can expre the le important idea in a phrase or a subordinate clause with the help of subordinating conjunctions (such as because, when , who, so that, where and till) Comma Splice: The examination was finally over, Becky felt free to enjoy herself once more.Revised: The examination was finally over.Becky felt free to enjoy herself once more.Revised: When the examination was finally over, Becky felt free to enjoy herself once more.( Emphasis on the second idea.) Revised: The examination being over, Becky felt free to enjoy herself once more.( Absolute construction is used to emphasize the second part.)
Run-on sentences: when two main clauses are joined without a word to connect them or a punctuation mark to separate them, the result is a run-on sentence, or a fused sentence.Generally, run-on sentences may be corrected in the same way as comma splices.Run-on: Our foreign policy is not well defined it confuses many countries.
Excise: Read the following rough draft carefully and repair any sentence fragments and revise any comma splices or run-on sentences, using one of the methods you think effective.
Jim, Jeff, and I took introductory foreign language courses last year.Each of us was interested in learning a different language, however, we were all trying to accomplish the same goal.To begin mastering a new language.When we compared our claes and the results, we found that each course used a quite different approach to language learning.In my Spanish course, Profeor Cruz introduced lists of new words every week she devoted half of each cla to grammar rules I spent most of my time memorizing the lists and rules.In addition to vocabulary and grammar study, I read paages of Spanish literature.Translating them into English.And wrote responses to the reading in Spanish.The only time I spoke Spanish, however, was when I translated a paage or answered questions in cla.Although Profeor Cruz spoke Spanish for the entire cla period.In stead of memorizing vocabulary lists and grammar rules and translating reading selections, Jim’s Portuguese cla rehearsed simple dialogues useful for tourists.Conducting every cla in Portuguese, Jim’s profeor asked students to recite the dialogues, she corrected the students’ pronunciation and grammar as they spoke.Jim’s homework was to go to the language lab, he listened to various dialogues and practiced ordering meals, asking for directions to a train station, and so on.Jim learned to pronounce the language well, he mastered the simple dialogues.But he did not get much practice in reading.When Jeff took a course in Ruian, his experience was different from Jim’s and from mine.His profeor asked the students to read articles from the Ruian pre.And to listen to recent news programs from Ruian.In cla, students discued the articles and programs.Jeff’s profeor encouraged the students to use Ruian as far as poible in their discuions, she also allowed them to use English.Other cla activities included writing letters in response to articles in Ruian publications and role playing to duplicate real-life situations.Such as a discuion with a neighbor about the lack of meat in the shops.Jeff learned to understand spoken Ruian and to speak the language, in addition, he regularly practices reading and writing.Although his Ruian course was difficult, Jeff thinks it will help him when he visits Ruia this summer.
Of the three of us, Jeff is the most positive about his course.He is certain that he will further develop his language skills when visiting Ruia, moreover, he is confident that he can communicate without struggling too much with a dictionary.Jim and I feel le positive about out courses.Because we both have forgotten the vocabulary and grammar rules.If I were asked to read a paage in Spanish now, I couldn’t, Jim says he would not understand Portuguese or be able to respond to a single dialogue if he had to.
III.
A loose sentence puts the main idea before all supplementary information; in other words, it puts first things first, and lets the reader know what it is mainly about when he has read the first few words.Periodic sentence: the main idea is expreed at or near the end of it, and it is not grammatically complete until the end is reached.The reader does not know what it is mainly about until he finishes reading it.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in poeion of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
- Jane Austen This is the sentence with which Jane Austen begins her Pride and prejudice.It is clearly of the periodic structure because neither in syntax nor in meaning is it complete before the last word.The sentence follows a climactic order, the last word being the most important, and because many words are piled up before the key word, the sense of climax is made very strong. Here is the opening paragraph of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim:
He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed-from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull.His voice was deep, loud, and his manner displayed a kind of dogged self-aertion which had nothing aggreive in it.It seemed a neceity, and it was directed apparently as much at himself as at anybody else.He was spotlely neat, appareled in immaculate white from shoes to hat, and in the various Eastern ports where he got his living as ship-chandler’s water-clerk he was very popular.
Most of the sentences are compound and compound-complex, and all of them, except the second half of the last sentence, are loose in structure.There is no suspense or climax; the tone is easy, relaxed and informal.The writer uses these loose sentences because he is enumerating facts or ideas of equal importance, and also because he aims at a natural and orderly presentation.
Loose sentences are easier, simpler, more natural and direct; periodic sentences are more complex, emphatic, formal, or literary.
