writing_lecture 2

Task 2 Rewrite the following by putting the short sentences into compound or complete sentences, or sentences with participial, prepositional, or other phrases: 1. Xu comes from a working-class family. He enrolled in college last fall. 2. The dean issued a bulletin. It said the library would remain open on weekends. 3. Last night was a wide night. The thunder roared. The wind blew a gale. The rain fell in night. 4. There are icicles on the trees. The temperature must have fallen considerably during the night.
To Americans, industriousness, thrift, and ambition are positive values. We encourage our children to be competitive, to get ahead, to make money, to acquire possessions. In games and in business alike the aim is to win the game, the trophy, the contract. We go in for laborsaving devices, gadgets, speed, and short-cut. We think every young couple should set up a home of their own, and we pity the couple who must share their home with a parent, let alone with other relatives. Actually, of course, not all Americans hold all these values, and those who do may hold other, and at times contradictory, values that affect their ways of behaving. In the main, however, the collective expectation of our society is that these are desirable goals, and the individual, whatever his personal inclination, is under considerable pressure to conform.
Complete Sentences and Sentence Fragments
• Attributes and adverbials, though they are not essential elements of a sentence, help to make the meaning clear or complete: He came to the classroom very early. Dr. Smith is a well-known professor of physics. • A complete sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period. This simple rule is important for Chinese learners to remember, for in Chinese writing commas may be used to separate complete sentences.
Types of sentences
• Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative, and Exclamatory Sentences (use) • Simple, Compound, Complex, and CompoundComplex Sentences (structure) • Loose, Period, and Balanced Sentences (from a rhetorical point of view) • Short and Long Sentences
Task 1 Read the following, point out the mistakes and make necessary corrections: 1. Our host entertained us with many interesting stories of adventure, he had been a member of an exploration team working in the Arctic. 2. When I woke up I saw him asleep in bed, I had not heard him when he came back. Because I had been sleeping soundly. 3. Liu always did his work a little better than his fellow workers, that was why he got higher pay than others. 4. Lin looks like Li, however, they are not related.
5. No student could answer that question, even Yao, who was usually quick in answering questions, was silent. 6. The old man hunched forward. His head tilted at an angle. His eyes half closed, looking very sleepy. 7. Their work was well planned, everybody worked with great enthusiasm, thus, they over fulfilled their quota. 8. Mark Train, a well-known American writer, whose experience as a pilot on an steamboat was no doubt an important factor that helped him to become a famous writer.
Simple, Compound, Complex, and CompoundComplex Sentences
• Three fine streams of hot water spouted from holes in the jacket of the radiator. (simple) • I looked to see if he was teasing me, but his face was serious. (compound) • But as I reflected on it further, I realized that the green banana had been there all along. (complex) • If you ever see them doing anything wrong, you have my permission to whip their butts, and when they get home I’ll whip them some more! (compound-complex)
Complete Sentences and Sentence Fragments
• A grammatically complete sentence is one that contains at least a subject and a predicate verb; if the verb is transitive, there must be an object; if the verb is a link-verb, there must be a predicative or complement: He came. She wrote a letter. Dr. Smith is a professor.
Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative, and Exclamatory Sentences
A declarative sentence makes an assertion or a statement. An interrogative sentence asks a question. An imperative sentence expresses a command or a request. An exclamatory sentence expresses a strong feeling or emotion, such as surprise, pain, or joy.
Faulty:
It was raining hard, they could not work in the fields.
Improved:
It was raining hard; they could not work in the fields. It was raining hard. They could not work in the fields. It was raining so hard that they could not work in the fields. They could not work in the fields because it was raining hard. It was raining hard, so they could not work in the fields. As it was raining hard, they could not work in the fields.