Sentence Shuffle #6

[hiddenjewel]

What is the purpose of SS#6 - Same diagram, New idea?

Thanks.

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

Some sentences are just brilliantly constructed. Their very syntactical lay out show symmetry, balance, and the right emphasis on the right word at the beginning, in the middle and at the end.

Let me give you three famous examples:

1. "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,[1] promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

2. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

3. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

I could have mentioned others: Shakespearean quotes, Jane Austen quotes, Charles Dickens quotes, the list is endless, but the point is: some people know how to craft good sentences.

So we study those sentences. AND IF ...or rather when... those sentences have (in addition to amazing content) an inherent amazing syntactical structure, then we like to imitate that too.

It may be that some day, one of your students needs to give a short speech in acceptance of a position, in honor of someone dear to you, or because he or she is going into politics at some level. In that case, his diagramming and imitation background--perhaps especially in step 6. same diagram, different words... may help him to craft am amazing and memorable sentence which is so structured as to say JUST what he wants it to say, with just the style and force with which he wants to say it.

This is the same reason that we pull students through the torture of imitating poetry in our poetry series. The harder you have to work (in terms of restraints on grammatical word order, meter, rhyme, and other figures) when you are a student, the better your skills for coming up with just the right phrase to say just the right thing in just the right way will be.

Does that help?

Lene

[hiddenjewel]

Thanks. I think I understand a little better now.