Appreciating the writer's craft

Since it is usually the case that pupils do often find these types of questions
more difficult, you may read over the 'How sentences are structured' FIRST

ANSWERS
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How sentences are structured

In simple terms, any normal English sentence should conform to the following basic rules

o it should start with a capital letter

o it should end with a full-stop
o it should make sense
o it should have a subject
o it should contain a verb
o it should normally begin with a subject
o the subject should normally be followed by the verb
Put simply, if any of these rules does not apply, then the 'sentence' in question is worthy of
discussion!
Of course, you might correctly ask

What is the subject of a sentence?

What is a verb?

The answers are that

The subject of a sentence is 'who' or 'what' the sentence is about; put another way, the
subject is the most important person or thing the sentence is about.

The subject of the sentence does something, has something done to him (or her, or it),
or exists in a certain way.

The verb tells us what the subject does, what is done to the subject, or what state the
subject is in

Look at the following examples!

Bridget sang gorgeously (subject does something)

Bridget received a letter (subject 'receives' action of the verb)

Bridget is gorgeous (subject is something, exists in some way, lives in a certain state)

Here are some examples of very normal, ordinary, English sentences. These ones fit the main
definitions referred to above.

Eric (subject) reads (verb) his book. (does something)

The opera (subject) was wonderful (verb). (is something)

When I was younger, I (subject) travelled (verb) a lot. (did something)

The nights (subject) are fair drawing in (verb). (something exists)

Eric (subject) was stung (verb) by a wasp (had something done to him)

BUT, BUT, BUT

Writers can deliberately leave out things like subjects and verbs for
effect. This sometimes helps to focus ideas on the 'action' of a sentence if
it is the subject which is omitted: the words around such 'sentences' - the
context - will have already informed the reader who or what the subject is.

Writers deliberately repeat expressions for effect (e.g. At first, they

were happy. At first, they were completely satisfied. At first, everything
was perfect. That was at first).

Writers deliberately repeat words like conjunctions ('and' and 'but'), to

suggest a build-up of ideas, or to indicate the number of things which
happen at the one time. This means a sentence becomes unusually long.

Writers deliberately use a technique known as a rhetorical question,

where they ask a question not to find an answer, but to provoke thought in
the reader; or because it is way of them indicating to the reader that they
themselves might be uncertain of something. This shows that they are
trying to work out something themselves.

Writers can deliberately begin sentences with conjunctions like 'but', to

emphasise strongly a change of direction in an argument or indicate a
distinct point of opposition in a line of thought.

Writers deliberately use list forms in sentences, whether it be individual

words or expressions or phrases, again to indicate a build-up of
information, or to stress a particular line of argument.
o

eg. For a long time women's magazines had been a puzzle to him.
All of them - whether for the young or middle-aged, cheap or pricey
- seemed identical in their triviality: no politics, no economics,
no sociology, no history, no analysis. Everything was reduced
to the golden rule of four: food, relationships, disease and
looking good.

There are other possibilities, but hopefully these will give you food for
thought for the moment!

Now go back to EXTRACT 3