I decided to read chapter 18 which is about sentences. This
chapter talks about how to revise your sentences for the rhetoric of the
sentences style. It states, “a writer who understands how to build sentences is
a writer who understands the key concept of sentence style: that there is a
powerful link between the shape of a sentence and the shape of a thought”
(391). And they summarize this key idea with the phrase, a sentence is the shape thought takes.
Operating assumptions
When you create sentences that are going to work for you and
to help your reader understand your meaning as you wish them to, it is a must
for many writers to re-orient the way they think about sentences. They are three
“laws” corollaries of primary mantra that every sentence is a shape thought
takes. The first is every sentence is a
delivery system which mean by that is stop thinking that a sentence is a
neutral carrier of meanings. The second is every
sentence possesses style means start focusing on what makes sentences right
rather than on what makes them wrong. The last one is every sentences composed of interchangeable parts which means you
can rearrange the parts.
I liked the section, “the
simple sentence: one statement at a time” because I always struggle with
writing sentences. I just write whatever I want to say to readers, and then it
gets longer. This long sentence gets lost and I forget what I'm talking about
and it becomes confusing. The simple sentence is kind of a single independent
clause. An independent clause is which can stand alone, such as The dog was
depressed. The simple sentences are good to use when you want to say
something clearly and forcefully. But if you have too many simple sentences in
a row, it probably means you are not adequately connecting your ideas. As you
use a simple sentence, you can find your problem with your ideas.
Since I read this chapter, I am going to revise my sentences better and come up with more expanded sentences. As I said before, I get lost in what I was going to say about something. I tend to cannot write down my thoughts within letters. It could be better if I write my thoughts in simple sentences. And then make connections between sentences that go together. I think this would be more work for my sentences in my revision of my writing project.
