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Rhetorical Analysis
Vocabulary
How to talk about syntax
Simple Sentence
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A sentence containing one subject and one
predicate.
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Ex.: “The singer bowed to her audience.”
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Ex: “The singer bowed and waved to her
audience.”
Even if there is a compound subject (2 or more
nouns) or a compound predicate (2 or more
verbs), the sentence is still a simple sentence:
Declarative Statement
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Make a statement.
Ex: “The king is sick.”
Imperative Statement
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Gives a command.
Ex: “Don’t be silly.”
The implied subject is . . .
“You.”
Interrogative Statement
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A sentence that asks a question.
Ex: “Why is the king sick?”
Exclamatory Statement
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A sentence that expresses strong feelings by making
an exclamation.
“The king is dead!”
Phrases, Clauses, and Sentences
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Clause: A word grouping that contains a subject
doing a predicate.
Phrase: May contain nouns and verbals, but not a
subject doing a verb.
A complete sentence always contains at least one
clause, but not all clauses are complete sentences.
Some jargon clarified
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Complete Sentence = Independent Clause =
Principle or Main Clause
Incomplete Sentence = Dependent clause =
Subordinate Clause
Compound Sentence
Contains two independent clauses (two complete
sentences) joined by a coordinating conjunction
(F,A,N,B,O,Y,S) OR joined by a semicolon.
Ex: “The singer bowed to the audience, and they cheered
for an encore.”
Ex: “The singer bowed to the audience; they cheered for an
encore.”
Independent clause + Independent clause
Complex Sentence
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Contains an independent clause and one or more
dependent (subordinate) clauses.
Ex: “The singer bowed while the audience cheered for
an encore.”
Independent Clause + Subordinate (Dependent) Clause
Compound-Complex Sentence
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Contains two or more independent clauses (the
“compound” part) and one or more dependant (aka
subordinate) clauses (the “complex” part).
Ex: “The singer bowed while the audience applauded,
but she sang no encores.”
Independent + Independent + Subordinate (Dependent)
Clause
Practice
Simple, Compound, Complex, or Compound-Complex?
“Even Perry, though he was contemptuous of any
exhibition or piety, felt ‘upset’ when he heard Willie-Jay
sing ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’”
Complex
Practice
Simple, Compound, Complex, or Compound-Complex?
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“The land is flat, and the views are awesomely
extensive.”
Compound
Practice
Simple, Compound, Complex, or Compound-Complex?
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“Though he wore rimless glasses and was of but
average height, standing just under five feet ten, Mr.
Clutter cut a man’s-man figure.”
Complex
Practice
Simple, Compound, Complex, or Compound-Complex?
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“They left the highway, sped through a deserted
Holcomb, and crossed the Santa Fe Tracks.”
Simple!
Practice
Simple, Compound, Complex, or Compound-Complex?
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“As it turned out, the choice was between Dick and
nothing, for when Perry’s bus reached Kansas City,
on the evening of November 12, Willie-Jay, whom
he’d been unable to advise of his coming, had already
left town.”
Compound-Complex
Periodic Sentence
A sentence where the main clause, the main idea, comes at the end of the
sentence.
They can be a powerful persuasive tool, because the reader will read the
evidence before reading the conclusion, and will therefore read with an open
mind before agreeing or disagreeing with the conclusion.
Ex: Considering the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime
rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful springs, I am
willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the privilege of living in Canada.
Cumulative Sentence
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Also called “Loose Sentences,” they are sentences
where modifiers “accumulate” after the main clause
(subject + verb).
I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the
privilege of living in Canada, considering the free
health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate,
the comprehensive social programs, and the
wonderful springs.
Cumulative or Periodic?
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“Though he wore rimless glasses and was of but
average height, standing just under five feet ten, Mr.
Clutter cut a man’s-man figure.”
Periodic
Cumulative or Periodic?
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“Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the
highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the
Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional
happenings, had never stopped there.”
Periodic
Cumulative or Periodic?
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“He and Perry drove along the main street of Olathe
until they arrived at the Bob Sands establishment, an
auto-repair garage, where Dick had been employed
since his release from the penitentiary in mid-August.”
Cumulative
Cumulative or Periodic?
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“As they narrated to each other their unholy adventures, their tales of
terror told in words of mirth; as their uncivilized laughter forked upwards
out of them, like flames from the furnace; as to and fro, in their front, the
harpooners wildly gesticulated with their huge pronged forks and dippers;
as the wind howled on, and the sea leaped, and the ship groaned and
dived, and yet steadfastly shot her red hell further and further into the
blackness of the sea and the night, and scornfully champed the white bone
in her mouth, and viciously spat round her on all sides; then the rushing
Pequod*, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse,
and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material
counterpart of her monomaniac commander’s soul” (Melville 246).*Pequod
– The name of the whaling ship in the novel Moby Dick.
Periodic