Week Three Class Notes 9/27-10/1

Note: Many of the underlined titles have hyperlinks embedded in them.
Syntax:
~ the rules of modern language
~ how we structure our sentences; a category of technique
~ changing syntax= changing meaning
~ Pace: speed of the passage (does it move slowly or quickly?)
~ Tone: emotional feeling or attitude
~ Empasis/Attention: where is the attention directed?
~ S.V.O. (subject/verb/object):
  Ex: I am a teacup. (teacup completes the predicate)
Some helpful flashcards!

Sentence Types:
Simple- contains a subject and a verb
Ex: She went to the bank.
Compound- two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction(see below) connecting the two
Ex: Allison went to the bank,but she left her check at home.
Complex- independent clause joined by one or more dependent clauses; contains a subordinator(see below) or relative pronoun (that, who, which)
Ex: After Allison returned,she picked up her check from her kitchen table.


Conjunctions:
~ Coordinating- Ex: And, But, For, Yet, For, Nor, So (FANBOYS)
   connects sentences
   Independent Clause,conjunction Independent Clause
~ Subordinating- Ex: After, although, as, if, because, before, than, that, since, although, until, when, while
Clarity:
~Make sure you are saying what you mean!
~Keep a sense of action in your writing!
~Let your writing have a natural rhythm and read easily.
~A clause consists of a noun acting as a subject and conjugated verb attached to the subject
~Phrases are similar to clauses, except their verbs are NOT conjugated
~AVOID PASSIVE VOICE (when a subject receives an action)
~Avoid Nominalizations (When an action is expressed as a noun)
The Plain Style:
~Find a “voice” and stick with it!
~Use plain style carefully; there are some situations where it is not appropriate
~Stay away from “The Official Style”; it is usually without direction or purpose
~Agency: trying to avoid who said what or who holds responsibility (often leads to mistakes)
Concision:
~Don’t pad your writing; excessive wordiness is bad!
~ “keys are to build around strong verbs, prefer the active voice to the passive voice, be suspicious of adverbs, and toss out empty words and phrases”
~ “Less is more”
~ Eliminate and replace “empty words” (Ex: Good! Nice!)
~ getting rid of weak adverbs sometimes leads the writer to choose stronger verbs!

Rhetoric:
~ encourages thinking about one’s audience
~ “different words…have different connotations”
~ use diction that is appropriate with your audience
~ parallelism brings style and grace to a piece
~ avoid using parallelism incorrectly
~ avoid repeating information too much
~ repeating words is sometimes necessary to avoid awkward phrasing
~ KEEP TENSES THE SAME
~ historical present: when discussing a text, refer to the author and/or its characters in the present
~ Alliteration: “repeating two or more stressed syllables with the same letter or sound”
~ if appropriate, use the “rule of three”
~ use humor sparingly
~ 1^st person is usually appropriate in academic writing, but 2^nd person rarely is
~ Direct questions are usually good to incorporate into writing, exclamations usually are not
~ use natural rhythm to create emphasis
~ Rhetoric can help a writer persuade their audience