EFFECTIVE

SENTENCES
CHAPTER # 6
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL WRITING

PROF: REVAZ TABATADZE PH.D.

 PRACTICAL ACTIVITY # 1 - Rewrite the
sentences to avoid unnecessary wordiness.
1. The principal will give a talk to the parents at the PTA meeting about how
important it is for their children to get to school on time.
2. I would like to say that no playwright has ever used language as effectively as
Shakespeare.
3. Mozart, who was a musical prodigy, is best known for his operas.
4. The jewelry store sold me a watch that was stolen.
5. The meeting that was scheduled for 3 p.m. was cancelled because Mr.
Rushton, the consultant who was giving the presentation about the results
on our computer security, was arrested for creating computer viruses that
were very destructive.
Coordination
Coordinating conjunctions include
and, but, or, nor, for, yet, and so,
and you can combine clauses or phrases in a way that makes them
equal.
■ The audience was young, friendly, and responsive; so it cheered for
each speaker.
■ Either we hang together or we hang separately.
■ A tornado ripped through our town but fortunately it spared our
house.
Subordination
Subordinate conjunctions such as
because, since, while, before, during, after, and instead of
can link dependent clauses to the main independent clause in a way that
shows logical relationship.

■ Millicent swam 400 laps today because she was feeling unusually strong.
■ Arthur collapsed on the sofa after the dance was over.
■ Once they had reached the lakeshore, the campers found a level spot
where they could pitch their tent.
Relative Clauses
Nouns can often be modified by relative clauses – THAT, WHICH, WHO -
, which use a relative pronoun that substitutes for a noun and binds
ideas together.

■ Students who work hard usually succeed.

■ The books on the history of Crete that you ordered have finally
arrived.
Intentional Fragments
A fragment is a part of a sentence that is capitalized and punctuated as
if it were a complete sentence.

“Where are you going tonight?” (sentence)

“To Woodland Mall.” (fragment)
“What for?” (fragment)
“To buy some shoes.” (fragment)
The following passage includes one or more
fragments. Identify each and explain its function.

“He [Richard Wagner] wrote operas; and no sooner did he have the
synopsis of a story, but he would invite—or rather summon—a crowd
of his friends to his house and read it aloud to them. Not for criticism.
For applause. When the complete poem was written, the friends had to
come again, and hear that read aloud. Then he would publish the
poem, sometimes years before the music that went with it was
written.”
Practical activity # 3
Using coordination and subordination, rewrite the following passages
to reduce words and/or improve smoothness.

1. He played the piano. He played the organ. He played the French

horn. He did not play the viola.
2. The weather was icy cold and windy. Lee was wearing only a T-shirt
and athletic shorts.
3. Life on Venus may be possible. It will not be the kind of life we know
on Earth. Life on Mars may be possible. It will not be the kind of life
we know on Earth.
Word Order in Independent Clauses
What other tools do you have to create more interesting prose? One
powerful technique is to vary word order in a sentence. Most
independent clauses follow a similar arrangement. First comes the
subject, then the verb, and finally any other element needed to convey
the main message.
Barney blushed. (subject, verb)
They built the dog a kennel. (subject, verb, indirect object, direct
object)
Samantha is an architect. (subject, verb, subject complement)
Inverted Order
To invert a sentence, move to the front the element you want to
emphasize. Sometimes the rest of the sentence follows in regular
subject then-verb order; sometimes the verb precedes the subject.

Lovable he isn’t. (subject complement, subject, verb)

This I just don’t understand. (direct object, subject, verb)
Tall grow the pines in the mountains. (subject complement, verb,
subject)
Expletives
An expletive fills a vacancy in a sentence without contributing to the
meaning. English has two common expletives, there and it. Ordinarily,
there functions as an adverb, it as a pronoun, and either can appear
anywhere in a sentence.

Normal order: A fly is in my soup. He seeks his happiness.

Expletive construction: There is a fly in my soup. (expletive anticipating

subject) It is his happiness he seeks. (expletive anticipating object)
Indicate which of these sentences follow normal order, which are inverted,
and which have expletive constructions. Rewrite so that all will be in
normal order.

1. Dick Lewis is a true friend.

2. It was her car in the ditch.
3. May I go to the movie with you?
4. There are many dead fish on the beach.
5. The instructor gave the class a long reading assignment.
6. The Willetts have bought a new house.
7. It is Marianne’s aim to become a lawyer.
 Positioning of Movable Modifiers
Modifiers after Main Statement (Loose)

Sentences that follow this arrangement, frequently called loose

sentences, occur more commonly than either of the others. They
mirror conversation, in which a speaker first makes a statement and
then adds further thoughts. Often, the main statement has just one
modifier.
1. The men struggled to the top of the hill,
2. thirsty, 2. drenched in sweat, 2. and cursing in pain
3. as their knapsack straps cut into their raw, chafed shoulders.
4. with every step.
Modifiers before Main Statement (Periodic)
Sentences that delay the main point until the end are
called periodic. In contrast to loose sentences, they
lend a formal note to what is said, slowing its pace,
adding cadence, and making it more serious.
1. When the public protests,
2. confronted with some obvious evidence of the damaging results of
pesticide applications, it is fed little tranquilizing pills of half truth.
(clause and phrase as modifiers)
Modifiers within Main Statement
(Interrupted)
Inserting one or more modifiers into a main statement creates a
sentence with interrupted order. The material may come between the
subject and the verb or between the verb and the rest of the predicate.
The young girl, wearing a tattered dress and looking anything but well-
off herself, gave the beggar a ten-dollar bill. (phrases between subject
and verb)

The evolutionists, piercing beneath the show of momentary stability,

discovered, hidden in rudimentary organs, the discarded rubbish of the
past. (one phrase between subject and verb, another between verb
and rest of predicate)
 Identify each sentence as loose, periodic, or
interrupted.
1. Victoria, rejected by family and friends, uncertain where to turn next, finally decided to
start a new life in Chicago.
2. When told that she had to have her spleen removed, the woman gasped.
3. The first graders stood in line, talking and giggling, pushing at one another’s caps and
pencil boxes and kicking one another’s shins, unmindful of the drudgery that awaited
them within the old schoolhouse.
4. Good health, warm friends a beautiful summer evening—the best things cannot be
purchased.
5. A customer, angry and perspiring, stormed up to the claims desk.
6. Stopping just short of the tunnel entrance, the freight train avoided a collision with the
crowded commuter train stalled inside.
7. The new kid hammered away at the fading champ, determination in his eyes and glory in
his fists.
Parallelism
Parallelism presents equivalent ideas in grammatically equivalent form.
Dressing them in the same grammatical garb calls attention to their
kinship and adds smoothness and polish. The following sentence pairs
demonstrate the improvement that parallelism brings:
Nonparallel: James’s outfit was wrinkled, mismatched, and he needed
to wash it. (words and independent clause)
Parallel: James’s outfit was wrinkled, mismatched, and dirty. (words)
Nonparallel: Oscar likes reading books, attending plays, and to search
for antiques. (different kinds of phrases)
Parallel: Oscar likes reading books, attending plays, and searching for
antiques. (same kind of phrases)
Nonparallel: Beth performs her tasks quickly, willingly, and with
accuracy. (words and phrase)
Parallel: Beth performs her tasks quickly, willingly, and accurately.
(words)
After determining whether each of the following sentences is in
active or passive voice, rewrite the passive sentences as active
ones.

1. Mary’s parents gave her a sports car for her sixteenth

birthday.
2. Fires were left burning by negligent campers.
3. The new ice arena will be opened by the city in about two
weeks.
4. Harry left the open toolbox out in the rain.
5. Corn was introduced to the Pilgrims by friendly American
Indians.