Sentenced to death by grammar, I'm a good beta I swear~
Well I've kinda made this post ~mainly~ for revision purposes, because I have my LAST EXAM on Monday WOO. I know I said I'd be back on the 6th, But I'm crawling back 2 days early If you'll have me, because I miss you guys. ♥
But despite this being revision for me, it IS English language technical writing structure stuff and I thought it might be helpful for people who write ff in English and it's not their first language and they want to improve their writing. HOPEFULLY it might be of some use to you guys. There's a lot of terminology that you really don't need to know haha but if you get the over all concept and can pick out the things in your work, you can know where to add stuff and take it away etc~ I just like to help ^-^ Revision is a great excuse to be on LJ! So without further ado~
The most common and easiest way to add variety to a piece of work would be through your use of sentences, which I think is something that comes naturally when you’re writing in your own language, but it’s more difficult when writing in a different one.
So sentences, there are sentence types and sentence functions. The basic form of a sentence is SVO (subject, verb, object) “Kame groaned at the magazine” it’s good to be able to express the same idea in a sentence in multiple different ways. By re-ordering the the basic SVO.
“Kame groaned at the magazine” - subject, verb, object
“ Upon Seeing the magazine, Kame groaned.” - verb, object, subject (verb)
“The magazine made Kame groan.” - Object, subject, verb
Obviously not every sentence is SVO, you add in adjectives, compliments, adverbials, take away objects subjects and verbs, double up on one/a few and just make a fruit punch type mixture of a sentence. That was just generally an easy way to explain :P The possibilities go on, but doing this will produce varied, interesting writing with effective changes in rhythm(:
Varying sentence types within the text as a whole also varies the writing and does well in changing the rhythm. I’ll start with types rather than functions becaaauussseee, I cba to find my notes on functions right now XD
I need to learn and be able to identify all of these, but obviously you don’t but I hope that if you can identify them too then you can see where the variation is in your work and consciously add some variation if you have to(:
If we go ahead and define a clause as a “unit of meaning” (so expressing one idea per clause,) it’ll be easier to explain sentence types.
Simple sentences :D
These only have one clause which would be the ‘main clause’ and can leave quite an impact on your reader if used sparingly and along with longer sentences such as compound or compound-complex ones(:
This is an extract from “The Kite Runner” which I think shows what I’m on about pretty darn well(: (it’s a good book okay… :P)
“ I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan- the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past- and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran.”
“In the end, I ran” would indeed be the simple sentence, but I hope you kinda get what I mean by it leaving an impact, I mean I only ever read that book once and I remember that bit by heart, haha.
Compound sentences~
A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction. Which are: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet and So. The great thing about coordinating conjunctions is I always remember them because they spell out “FANBOYS” XDDD (You obviously don’t have to remember them but whatever XD)
A compound sentence implies that each clause within it has equal importance, so~
“[KAT-TUN sang at their concert,] and [ they met the fans] and [they had fun]” three [clauses], three different ideas, joined by two coordinating conjunctions, and each clause seems to be of equal importance. obviously varying CCtions will help . I haven’t because I’m lazy XD
Complex sentence >:)
I think the most difficult thing about sentences is how similar compound, complex and compound-complex sentences are, BUT we plod on.
A complex sentence has a [main clause] with one or more subordinate clauses (which are easy to spot because they don’t make sense by themselves) A complex sentence always has a subordinating conjunction such as because, since, after, although, or when or a relative pronoun such as that, who, or which.
It’ll be about time for an example then wouldn’t it? (;
“Although exhausted, [Koki wanted to do the encore], and make everyone happy”
Last but not least, the mother of all sentences, Compound-complex sentences >:(
These frustrate me to no end (haha,) and have one or more main clauses and at least one subordinate clause.
“It was almost the end of the day, and as a result Ueda’s class, ignoring his entreaties, continued to gossip”
-Main clauses
-coordinating conjunction
-embedded subordinate clause.
I LOVE EMBEDDED SUBORDINATE CLAUSES. Actually I use them WAAAYYY too much. But they can be very effective as they can help give a more personal approach to a piece of writing, they can sound evaluative in some cases. But mainly they let the reader inside the head of the character you’ve created bringing them close to the character and then it’s much easier to manipulate the readers emotions through the use of this character they have become attached to. :D
Well that’s types done, functions are something different. We have:
1. Declarative sentences: These state an idea, but not in the ‘one clause’ kind of way because sentence functions are defined by the whole sentence rather than parts of it. And in general, they end with a full stop.
“Jin had always thought that Junno’s jokes were not funny.” Add another clause and it is still a declarative sentence.
“Junno’s jokes were not funny, Jin had always thought this.” So it’s quite obvious to see that most pieces of writing are mainly made up of declarative sentences, so don't worry if you think there are way to many in your piece(;
2. Exclamatory sentences: These usually reflect strong emotions, so shouting and such~ They end with an exclamation mark, mostly.
“Woah Nakamaru, you have got some skills!”
“Jin learn to tweet properly!”
3. Interrogative sentences: They ask a question. As you would expect, they end with a question mark, and rhetorical questions count as well(:
“No, but you wouldn’t ever do that now would you?”
4. Imperative sentences:These give orders or directions, and so end with a full stop or an exclamation mark most of the time. Imperative sentences often omit the subject and focus more on the verb, because the subject is often already understood. They are often found in recipes and such.
So rather than “Now you need to stir the sauce until it is bubbling lightly.” It’d be more common to see the subject “you” omitted. “Stir the sauce until it’s lightly bubbling.” Or words to that effect(:
Um yeah, that’s about it for sentences, I’m sorry this is a bit more ‘revision-ish’ because I have to remember everything but I think if you can identify and create them too it’ll be easier for you to spot in your work.
Something else I have to revise and it very important in writing as a whole is cohesion and cohesive devises.*cheers sarcastically* These are basically techniques used to connect different parts of a piece of writing~ the more cohesion, the more tightly structured a piece is likely to be(:
Well there is repetition (which everyone knows) but there is also Collocation, which is a cohesive device that involves the repetition of words that are already linked because of their meanings and connotations. It also helps to build ~ semantic fields ~
So if you were to read an article about a ...wedding, say, then you’d find words like, ceremony, dress, commitment, marriage and anything else you can think of that link to the concept of a wedding repeated throughout.
This can also be achieved by linking parts of your work back to a pinnacle part of your story, not always in an obvious way like “and this reminded him of that time” but in a more subtle way maybe by using the repetition of a theme or motif.
If I were to bring in an example to really crack this explanation it’d be using the repetition of themes and motifs throughout the work so as they subtly point toward something significant within the story. Like if on a day something really changed the characters life it was a grey dull dark day, you may repeat the idea of a grey sky or a dull atmosphere in the story to point back to that time in the characters life that they can't stop thinking of, making it seem like it effects everything they do and also keeps the reader thinking of it. And that my friends is lexical cohesion :D
There’s also grammatical cohesion, which is easier to show with examples so YAY XD
• First anaphoric referencing, this is usually done within a couple sentences and it’s referring backwards, forcing the reader to remember a subject previously mentioned.
“Koki was late home, but he still found time to take care of his animals before sleeping”
• Second cataphoric referencing. Can be seen as more effective because even though for a short period of time, creates a small sense of anticipation and references ‘forward’ if you like(:
“He heard a tap at the window, loud enough to be heard, but quiet enough to leave Kame wondering if he had really heard it. He was here, Jin.”
Okay, well I'm done. I really hope that these techniques help anyone who's managed to find the time to read this ^-^
I've tried to cover the main bits that effect writing as a ~whole~ just encase I don't do this again, but if you guys actually find this helpful then I'd be happy to do another on some other things, even after I've finished my exam and don't ever need to worry about it again, because I love y'all ^-^
OH- here is a link to the other post I've made which is about tenses for those of you who want to try and get your head around them tenses await you here
If I didn't quite explain something well enough and you don't get it, please just tell me in the comments and I'll try to explain in a different way in the comments for you ^-^
So yeah, erm bai >.< xx
But despite this being revision for me, it IS English language technical writing structure stuff and I thought it might be helpful for people who write ff in English and it's not their first language and they want to improve their writing. HOPEFULLY it might be of some use to you guys. There's a lot of terminology that you really don't need to know haha but if you get the over all concept and can pick out the things in your work, you can know where to add stuff and take it away etc~ I just like to help ^-^ Revision is a great excuse to be on LJ! So without further ado~
The most common and easiest way to add variety to a piece of work would be through your use of sentences, which I think is something that comes naturally when you’re writing in your own language, but it’s more difficult when writing in a different one.
So sentences, there are sentence types and sentence functions. The basic form of a sentence is SVO (subject, verb, object) “Kame groaned at the magazine” it’s good to be able to express the same idea in a sentence in multiple different ways. By re-ordering the the basic SVO.
“Kame groaned at the magazine” - subject, verb, object
“ Upon Seeing the magazine, Kame groaned.” - verb, object, subject (verb)
“The magazine made Kame groan.” - Object, subject, verb
Obviously not every sentence is SVO, you add in adjectives, compliments, adverbials, take away objects subjects and verbs, double up on one/a few and just make a fruit punch type mixture of a sentence. That was just generally an easy way to explain :P The possibilities go on, but doing this will produce varied, interesting writing with effective changes in rhythm(:
Varying sentence types within the text as a whole also varies the writing and does well in changing the rhythm. I’ll start with types rather than functions becaaauussseee, I cba to find my notes on functions right now XD
I need to learn and be able to identify all of these, but obviously you don’t but I hope that if you can identify them too then you can see where the variation is in your work and consciously add some variation if you have to(:
If we go ahead and define a clause as a “unit of meaning” (so expressing one idea per clause,) it’ll be easier to explain sentence types.
Simple sentences :D
These only have one clause which would be the ‘main clause’ and can leave quite an impact on your reader if used sparingly and along with longer sentences such as compound or compound-complex ones(:
This is an extract from “The Kite Runner” which I think shows what I’m on about pretty darn well(: (it’s a good book okay… :P)
“ I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan- the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past- and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran.”
“In the end, I ran” would indeed be the simple sentence, but I hope you kinda get what I mean by it leaving an impact, I mean I only ever read that book once and I remember that bit by heart, haha.
Compound sentences~
A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction. Which are: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet and So. The great thing about coordinating conjunctions is I always remember them because they spell out “FANBOYS” XDDD (You obviously don’t have to remember them but whatever XD)
A compound sentence implies that each clause within it has equal importance, so~
“[KAT-TUN sang at their concert,] and [ they met the fans] and [they had fun]” three [clauses], three different ideas, joined by two coordinating conjunctions, and each clause seems to be of equal importance. obviously varying CCtions will help . I haven’t because I’m lazy XD
Complex sentence >:)
I think the most difficult thing about sentences is how similar compound, complex and compound-complex sentences are, BUT we plod on.
A complex sentence has a [main clause] with one or more subordinate clauses (which are easy to spot because they don’t make sense by themselves) A complex sentence always has a subordinating conjunction such as because, since, after, although, or when or a relative pronoun such as that, who, or which.
It’ll be about time for an example then wouldn’t it? (;
“Although exhausted, [Koki wanted to do the encore], and make everyone happy”
Last but not least, the mother of all sentences, Compound-complex sentences >:(
These frustrate me to no end (haha,) and have one or more main clauses and at least one subordinate clause.
“It was almost the end of the day, and as a result Ueda’s class, ignoring his entreaties, continued to gossip”
-Main clauses
-coordinating conjunction
-embedded subordinate clause.
I LOVE EMBEDDED SUBORDINATE CLAUSES. Actually I use them WAAAYYY too much. But they can be very effective as they can help give a more personal approach to a piece of writing, they can sound evaluative in some cases. But mainly they let the reader inside the head of the character you’ve created bringing them close to the character and then it’s much easier to manipulate the readers emotions through the use of this character they have become attached to. :D
Well that’s types done, functions are something different. We have:
1. Declarative sentences: These state an idea, but not in the ‘one clause’ kind of way because sentence functions are defined by the whole sentence rather than parts of it. And in general, they end with a full stop.
“Jin had always thought that Junno’s jokes were not funny.” Add another clause and it is still a declarative sentence.
“Junno’s jokes were not funny, Jin had always thought this.” So it’s quite obvious to see that most pieces of writing are mainly made up of declarative sentences, so don't worry if you think there are way to many in your piece(;
2. Exclamatory sentences: These usually reflect strong emotions, so shouting and such~ They end with an exclamation mark, mostly.
“Woah Nakamaru, you have got some skills!”
“Jin learn to tweet properly!”
3. Interrogative sentences: They ask a question. As you would expect, they end with a question mark, and rhetorical questions count as well(:
“No, but you wouldn’t ever do that now would you?”
4. Imperative sentences:These give orders or directions, and so end with a full stop or an exclamation mark most of the time. Imperative sentences often omit the subject and focus more on the verb, because the subject is often already understood. They are often found in recipes and such.
So rather than “Now you need to stir the sauce until it is bubbling lightly.” It’d be more common to see the subject “you” omitted. “Stir the sauce until it’s lightly bubbling.” Or words to that effect(:
Um yeah, that’s about it for sentences, I’m sorry this is a bit more ‘revision-ish’ because I have to remember everything but I think if you can identify and create them too it’ll be easier for you to spot in your work.
Something else I have to revise and it very important in writing as a whole is cohesion and cohesive devises.*cheers sarcastically* These are basically techniques used to connect different parts of a piece of writing~ the more cohesion, the more tightly structured a piece is likely to be(:
Well there is repetition (which everyone knows) but there is also Collocation, which is a cohesive device that involves the repetition of words that are already linked because of their meanings and connotations. It also helps to build ~ semantic fields ~
So if you were to read an article about a ...wedding, say, then you’d find words like, ceremony, dress, commitment, marriage and anything else you can think of that link to the concept of a wedding repeated throughout.
This can also be achieved by linking parts of your work back to a pinnacle part of your story, not always in an obvious way like “and this reminded him of that time” but in a more subtle way maybe by using the repetition of a theme or motif.
If I were to bring in an example to really crack this explanation it’d be using the repetition of themes and motifs throughout the work so as they subtly point toward something significant within the story. Like if on a day something really changed the characters life it was a grey dull dark day, you may repeat the idea of a grey sky or a dull atmosphere in the story to point back to that time in the characters life that they can't stop thinking of, making it seem like it effects everything they do and also keeps the reader thinking of it. And that my friends is lexical cohesion :D
There’s also grammatical cohesion, which is easier to show with examples so YAY XD
• First anaphoric referencing, this is usually done within a couple sentences and it’s referring backwards, forcing the reader to remember a subject previously mentioned.
“Koki was late home, but he still found time to take care of his animals before sleeping”
• Second cataphoric referencing. Can be seen as more effective because even though for a short period of time, creates a small sense of anticipation and references ‘forward’ if you like(:
“He heard a tap at the window, loud enough to be heard, but quiet enough to leave Kame wondering if he had really heard it. He was here, Jin.”
Okay, well I'm done. I really hope that these techniques help anyone who's managed to find the time to read this ^-^
I've tried to cover the main bits that effect writing as a ~whole~ just encase I don't do this again, but if you guys actually find this helpful then I'd be happy to do another on some other things, even after I've finished my exam and don't ever need to worry about it again, because I love y'all ^-^
OH- here is a link to the other post I've made which is about tenses for those of you who want to try and get your head around them tenses await you here
If I didn't quite explain something well enough and you don't get it, please just tell me in the comments and I'll try to explain in a different way in the comments for you ^-^
So yeah, erm bai >.< xx