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The Big Four
This packet will introduce you to four sentence structures that professional writers use
frequently and students rarely. The ultimate goal is for you to become so familiar with
these structures that you will use them confidently and naturally in the sentences you
compose.
1. 3 Actions
The fish darted behind a rock, waited for its enemy to pass,
and swam away quickly.
The attendant vaulted into the car, backed it up with insolent
skill, and parked it where it belonged.
2. Appositive
The monster, cruel and determined, stalked its prey.
(appositive adjective)
Mr. Nick Malloy, a cashier at the Farmers and Merchant
Bank, draped his jacket over the pack of the chair. (appositive
noun)
Hour after hour he stood there, a shadow carved in ebony and
moonlight. (appositive noun)
3. Participle
Sitting up in bed eating breakfast, we could seethe lake and
the mountains across the lake on the French side.(opener)
Mr. Kazan, wearing a spotlessly white tropical suit and a
wide brimmed hat, was the first ashore. (S-V split)
She hung around L.A., working as an usher in movie theaters,
getting an occasional part as an extra on TV, and dreaming
of becoming a star. (closer)
4. Absolute
His head aching, his throat sore, Jon called his boss and
asked for the day off.(opener)
A seared man, his charred clothes fuming with smoke, rose
from the curb. (S-V split)
The cat slept for hours, its tail twitching every so often, its
head buried in its paws, its soft fur a temptation for everyone.
(closer
Three Actions
A three action sentence is a structure utilized frequently by professional writers. It is
simply a way to expand the action of the sentence, elevate your prose, and engage your
reader. Let's look at how it develops.
Step One:
Example:
Example:
Step Two:
Example:
Example:
Step Three:
Example:
Example:
Who or What + action
The man (who) walked to town (action).
The dog ate its food.
Who or What + Action Group 1 and Action Group2.
The man (who)jumped from the roof (action 1)and landed on his
feet (action 2).
The rock broke off from the hill and tumbled across the highway.
Who or What + Action Group 1, Action Group 2, and Action
Group 3
The squirrel sat on a limb (action 1), held a nut in its paws (action
2), and began to eat (action 3).
The fish darted behind a rock, waited for its enemy to pass, and
swam away quickly.
Punctuation Notes: Place a comma after the first and second action groups, and use the
conjunction and to begin the third action group.
Practice: The Two-Sentence Story
Sentence 1: Who or What + Action
Sentence 2: Who or What + Action Group1, Action Group 2, and Action Group 3.
Example:
Sentence 1: The newlyweds gazed at the sunset.
Sentence 2: They held hands, looked lovingly at each other, and kissed.
Style Suggestions:
- Vary the length of the groups of words.
- Don't repeat words. The who or what in the second sentence will usually be a
pronoun (he, she, they, everyone, his, her, etc.).
Participle Phrase
Present participles, verbs ending in -ing, and past participles, verbs that end in -ed (for
regular verbs) or other forms (for irregular verbs), are combined with complements and
modifiers and become part of important phrasal structures. Participial phrases always act
as adjectives. Here are three sentences, all of which were written by professional writers.
However, some parts have been deleted.
- We could see the mountains across the lake.
- But Sadao had his reward.
- The rose clear and bright.
Now compare the above sentences with the originals. Notice that the part deleted, when
combined with the reduced sentence above, accounts for the distinctiveness of the
author's original sentence.
1. Sitting up in bed eating breakfast, we could see the mountains across the lake.
2. But Sadao, searching the spot of black in the twilight sea that night, had his reward.
3. The sun rose clear and bright, coloring the foamy crests of the waves with a reddish
purple.
The boldfaced phrases are participles, one of the sentence parts that differentiate
professional writing from student writing. These phrases can be used as sentence openers,
S-V split (splits the subject and verb), or sentence closer.
Below are examples of each part with the participle phrase bolded and the noun modified
by the phrase underlined.
Sentence Openers
- BLUSHING, she covered her face and rushed out of the room.
- WEAVING in and out of the tacklers, the tailback scored a touchdown.
- STANDING there in the middle of the street, Marty suddenly thought of
Halloween, of the masks, children and candy.
S-V Splits
- The woman, STANDING by the large tree, began yelling.
- Mr. Kazan, WEARING a spotless white tropical suit and wide-brimmed hat,
was the first ashore.
- The sight of Nick's beam of light, FLASHING through the darkness a few
yards away, reminded him that he was not alone. (Here, the participle modifies
the "beam of light," not Nick, but still splits the subject, sight, and the verb,
reminded.)
Sentence Closer
- The others stood about him, WATCHING.
- The entire crowd in the hall gathered about him now, URGING him to play
another song.
- He walked to the corner of the lot, then back again, LAUGHING out loud and
SCRATCHING his head (two participles).
Punctuation Notes: When the participle phrase is a sentence opener, a comma follows it.
When the participle phrase is a S-V split, commas precede and follow the phrase. When
the participle phrase is a sentence closer, a comma precedes the phrase and a period
follows it (Seethe sentences above).
Practice: Positioning Participles (experiment by varying the length and by including
more than one)
- Write 3 sentences, each with a participle in the sentence opener position.
- Write 3 sentences, each with a participle splitting the subject and the verb.
- Write 3 sentences, each with a participle in the closing position.
Practice: Two-Sentence Story Options
Sentence 1: three-action sentence; Sentence2: participle in the closer (or opener or S-V
split) position.
Soon, the biggest of the boys poised himself, shot down into the water, and swam
to the rock shore. The other stood about, watching.
Sentence 1: participle in the closer (or opener or S- V split) position. Sentence 2: threeaction
The entire crowd gathered about him now, urging him to play another song. He
smiled humbly, took his guitar back out of its case, and played an old B.B. King
tune, "Everybody's Blue."
Sentence 1: participle in the opener; Sentence2: participle in the closer position with an
appositive.
Rowing as easily as I could, I brought the boat up to the pier. The boatman, a
gray-haired old man, pulled in the line, coiling it onto the dock.
Absolute Phrase
An absolute phrase (also called a nominative absolute) is a group of words consisting of a
noun or pronoun and a participle as well as any modifiers. Absolute phrases modify the
entire sentence, usually adding information. Once again, here are three sentences, all of
which were written by professional writers. And once again, some parts have been
deleted.
- Jon called his boss and asked for the day off.
- A seared man rose from the curb.
- The girl witnessed a murder.
Now compare the above sentences with the originals. Notice that the part deleted, when
combined with the reduced sentence above, accounts for the sophistication of the author's
original sentence.
- His head aching, his throat sore, Jon called his boss and asked for the day off.
- A seared man, his charred clothes fuming from smoke, rose from the curb.
- The girl witnessed the murder, her eyes bulging in the dark.
Noun Part + ing
Each absolute phrase contains a word that is PART of the noun being modified in the
sentence- not grammatically, but physiologically a PART of the noun or the noun's
environment. This "noun part" is followed by an -ing word or word group. Note the
following example.
- Her feet tapping to the music, the girl wished she was on the dance floor.
(noun part+ ing)
(noun)
- The man fell off the huge cliff, his loud voice cutting through the wind.
(noun)
(noun part +ing)
Position
Sentence Opener
- Her eyes bulging in the dark, the girl witnessed the murder.
- Their house in ruin, they rummaged through the rubble looking for personal treasure.
S-V Split
- The girl, her eyes bulging in the dark, witnessed the murder.
- The soldiers, their spirits crushed by defeat, retreated two days ago.
Sentence Closer
- The girl witnessed the murder, her eyes bulging in the dark.
- A water snake slipped along on the pond, its head help up like a little periscope.
- Six boys ran hard over the hill half an hour early that afternoon, their heads down,
their forearms working, their breath whistling. (three absolute phrases)
Punctuation Notes: Like the participle phrase, when the absolute phrase is the sentence
opener, a comma follows it; when it is a S-V split, commas precede and follow it; when it
is a sentence closer, a comma precedes the phrase and a period follows it. (See the
examples above)
Practice: Positioning Absolute Phrases (varying the length and the number)
- Write 3 sentences, each with an absolute phrase in the sentence opener position.
- Write 3 sentences, each with an absolute phrase splitting the subject and the verb.
- Write 3 sentences, each with an absolute phrase in the sentence closer position.
For each of the above phrases, one of the sentences must contain two (2) or more
absolute phrases.
Practice: Two-Sentence Story Options (Mixing Absolutes, Participles, Appositives,
3-Action)
- Sentence 1: absolute and participle; Sentence 2: three-action:
His suitcase in his hand, Billy stood in front of the bus station, waiting. When the
bus approached, he double-checked his ticket, buttoned his coat, and said goodbye
to the city that caused him so much pain.
- Sentence 1: appositive and absolute phrase; Sentence 2: absolute and participle:
The Braves, last year's champions, sat in the dugout, their spirit crushed by the
shocking defeat. Meanwhile, swarming onto the field, the Yankees celebrated,
their fists raised in triumph.
Appositive Phrase
Another type of sentence structure that frequently appears in professional writing but
rarely appears in student writing is the appositive phrase. An appositive (or appositive
phrase) is a noun or pronoun – often with modifiers – set beside another noun or pronoun
to explain or identify it. There are, however, two types of appositives; one uses
adjectives, the other uses a noun.
Appositive Adjective Phrase
Adjectives are words that describe nouns. At a very early age we learn to describe the
who or what (noun) by placing one or possibly two adjectives in front of it.
Example: The big lion roared
Example: The tall, magnificent tree overlooked the canyon.
These kinds of structures, however, are rather elementary and pedestrian. To add variety
and increase the sophistication of your sentences, clarify the noun by using an appositive
adjective phrase. An appositive adjective is created by placing two adjectives separated
by the word "and" immediately after the who or what (noun to be modified).
Example: The monster, cruel and determined, stalked its prey.
Example: A man, weary and delirious, appeared at the door of a remote motel.
Punctuation Notes: Commas are required before and after the appositive adjective
phrase (see examples).
Practice: The Two-Sentence Story
Sentence 1: Marie, thirsty and exhausted, hung up her spurs in the barn.
Sentence 2: She walked to the well, pumped the handle, and lowered her head under the
rushing water.
Appositive Noun Phrase
Another way to expand and clarify a noun is to "rename" it. The renamers are called
appositives.
Examples:
- girl…teenager (or "blonde")
- car. .. sedan (or "Volkswagen")
- house. .. mansion (or "shack")
Words and groups of words may be added to the renamer to form a "renamer group"
(appositive noun phrase).
Example: The determined man, a ragged prospector carrying a heavy pack, staggered
along the trail.
In the above example, the underlined word is the actual appositive, and in bold is the
appositive phrase.
Punctuation Notes: Like the appositive adjective phrase, commas are required before
and after the appositive noun phrase.
Practice: The Two-Sentence Story
Sentence 1: That night in the south upstairs room, a hot little chamber where a fullleafed oak tree shut all the air from the single window, Jason turned
restlessly in his bed. (note: here the noun "room," not the subject, "Jason"
is modified with the appositive phrase.)
Sentence 2: In the morning he rose sweating, walked down the hall and into the
bathroom, and took a long, cool shower.