Sentence Styles and Structure

Posted by Amelia Bassett in Writing Resource | 4 comments

G’day mate! Welcome to the first of many Writer’s Resource columns by yours truly. I seem to spend just as much time researching language for no other reason than to broaden my knowledge, and I love it! My strengths lie in diction, sentence style and structure, grammar, description, narration and punctuation. I am in no way new to writing; I know my business and you can find me on twitter and fanfiction.net under PerAmore91. I’ve been a beta on and off for the last three years and I love it even more than I did when I first started. Currently, I stand as a personal beta on fanfiction, as well as a beta at Project Team Beta and Emergency Beta Services. There is nothing more satisfying than helping someone understand where they went wrong, and how they can fix their mistakes without me having to do it every time.

So without further ado, I present to you,

Sentence Styles and Structure.

Too often I find words unceremoniously strewn together to form a sentence that should simply not exist. I regret to inform you that no matter how great a plot may be, it can all fall apart within the first few paragraphs if structure is lacking. One of my most precious memories was the day that I learned the various sentence styles, that when used effectively can stimulate elaborate, rhythmic, poetic, and overall pleasing works of fiction.

Although there are three basic types of grammatical sentences that we all use on a daily basis, Simple, Compound and Complex, in this column I will be outlining five further sentence styles that I feel are neglected by many aspiring authors, as they appear in Thomas S. Kane’s ‘The Oxford Guide to Writing’. I must admit that the nerdy literary side of me is itching to stand on her soapbox and tell you all about them.  But in order to ensure that I don’t bore you all to tears, I will place the desired literary effect in front of each style so that you are not reading incessantly.

Before I begin, it is important to note two things. Firstly, that these following five sentence styles are not mutually exclusive, a good writer can call upon any of them at any time, and usually does. Secondly, none of them are inherently better than the other. In fact, whilst some are suited to one effect, they may be completely unsuited to another. A skilful writer can draw upon the appropriate sentence style to achieve the desired result.

The Segregating Style

In order to create a grammatically simple sentence, expressing a single idea, a segregating style is used. Do not confuse this with one idea statements. ‘This would be monotonous. Monotonous is bad.’

As an example, we can look at an excerpt from Beverly Nichols.

“He writes, at most, 750 words a day. He writes and rewrites. He polishes and repolishes. He works in solitude. He works with agony. He works with sweat. And that is the only way to work at all.”

Here we can see that through using a series of short, uncomplicated sentences, even though some of them may not be simple in the grammatical sense, the end result is a simple, attractive paragraph that is able to pique the reader’s interest. However, when using this type of sentence, remember that the segregating style is not used to combine ideas. For that we can use the freight-train!

For practice, analyse a particular event and write a brief paragraph (approximately 100 words) using this style.

The Freight-Train Style

On multiple occasions I have found myself wanting to link a series of attitudes, actions, perceptions and feelings, directly related to an event involving the character, or even the experience that is taking place inside the character’s mind. When I was introduced to the freight-train style of writing, I could practically hear the halleluiah chorus.

The freight-train style is used to link short, independent clauses to make longer sequential statements. This is particularly useful when trying to convey mental experience. That is, the feelings and experiences involved in the event, as opposed to an abstract reflection. I realise, of course, that most of us write in past participle, however I can’t ignore Hemingway when he puts forward such a sad and sweet example of freight-train.

“Maybe she would pretend that I was her boy that was killed and we would go in the front door [of a small hotel] and the porter would take off his cap and I would stop at the concierge’s desk and ask for the key and she would stand by the elevator and then we would get in the elevator and it would go up very slowly clinging at all the floors and then our floor and the boy would open the door and stand there and she would step out and I would step out and we would walk down the hall and I would put the key in the door and open it and go in and then take down the telephone and ask them to send a bottle of capri biana in a silver bucket full of ice and you would hear the ice against the pail coming down the corridor and the boy would knock and I would say leave it outside the door please.” A Farewell to Arms – Earnest Hemingway

Although the above passage is fairly long, too long some might say, I still believe that this is an important sentence style to know how to use and then through brilliant literary devices, we can develop our writing further.

Thomas Kane, does state however that a deficiency of the freight-train sentence is that it lacks a clear shape. “Being open ended, it has no necessary stopping place; one could go on and on adding clauses.” We can solve this problem through the Triadic Sentence.

The Triadic Sentence

When dealing with a sentence that lacks a clear structural principle, we can break down the sentence into three distinct units, called a triad.

This is a very simple form of sentence that will take no more than mere minutes, if not seconds to learn.

“Her showmanship was superb; her timing sensational; her dramatic instinct uncanny.” Robert Coughlan

The Cumulative Sentence – The one you are most likely to find in description.

The cumulative sentence begins with a general notion or overall picture, and then proceeds to fill in the details:

Two neat slim bodies, the girl unsmiling and her eyes astare, elbows and knees tight, hands clenched in her lap, immaculate to the throat in lacy white, and the young man with grin and straw hat both aslant jaunty in the bench arm, one leg crossed, natty in his suit and tie complete with stickpin, his arm around her with fingers outspread possessively upon her shoulder William Gibson

Similar to the freight-train style, there is a possibility that through the use of the cumulative sentence, an open ended sentence could be created with no defined stopping place. It is possible however to overcome this through artful construction. Although some writers and readers may know, have you ever stopped to think about what exactly the purpose of a dash, one of these ‘-‘ is?

By reading the passage below, the purpose of the dashes should become clear.

When they sat for a photograph together – two neat slim bodies, the girl unsmiling and her eyes astare, elbows and knees tight, hands clenched in her lap, immaculate to the throat in lacy white, and the young man with grin and straw hat both aslant jaunty in the bench arm, one leg crossed, natty in his suit and tie complete with stickpin, his arm around her with fingers outspread possessively upon her shoulder – it was a portrait not only of contrasts, but of a nation’s lower middle class coming out of its cocoon. William Gibson

Through the use of the two dashes, the sentence becomes a frame enclosing the details, a pattern nicely suited to what the sentence is about. You could remove the inner details and still have a complete sentence, but it is through the details that the description is built.

The  Balanced Sentence

The final sentence style that I will be outlining today is known as the balanced sentence. Not only is it pleasing to our eyes and ears, it gives shape to the sentence. An essential part of any good piece of writing. Kane states that by playing key terms against each other, it opens up their implications. In order to achieve this type of sentence, one must create a sentence consisting of two parts roughly equivalent in both length and significant and divided by a pause.

For example:
Visit either you like; they’re both mad. -Lewis Carroll
Children played about her; and she sang as she worked. -Robert Brooke

Well I do so hope I still have some of you left reading!

I have tried to simplify this where possible, but realistically you will only accomplish these sentence styles through practicing and polishing. I swear by these styles and trust me, once you get the hang of it, you won’t believe how easy they are to filter into your writing! Thank-you for reading and good luck in your future endeavors. If you’re after any further advice, please don’t hesitate to contact me. (Twitter being the fastest and easiest medium of correspondence)  I hope to hear from you soon!

All my love,
PerAmore91