Advanced WritingSession Four

A Course By Nima Yousefi

Think of Some Memorable First Sentences in Fiction

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

I am an invisible man. —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,

it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,

it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

Concepts to cover this session

Parallelism

Balanced Sentences

"We are all prompted by the same

motives, all deceived by the same

fallacies, all animated by hope,

obstructed by danger, entangled by

desire, and seduced by pleasure."

Samuel Johnson - The Rambler (1750)

Space Exploration Speech

At Rice University

- John F. Kennedy

Traditional classrooms can foster boredom; televised classes, isolation; correspondence classes, distance.

Clausal Series

Assume nothing, appropriate nothing, assign, ascribe, associate nothing, repeat not a word until you ascertain the truth of it for yourself.

Rain ————— trees, ————— earth, ————— the trunk, ————— ground, ————— down, and ————— its goal to merge with the aquifer.

Phrasal Series

The lake is —————, —————, and —————.

Aerobic exercise helps one —————, improve —————, and —————.

Rain drips through the trees, in no hurry to meet the earth, trickles down the trunk, seeps into the ground, percolates down, and reaches its goal to merge with the aquifer.

Phrasal Series

The lake is crystal clear, dead calm, and freezing cold.

Aerobic exercise helps one lose weight safely, improve muscle tone, and reduce stress.

She wanted to ——————, ———— for all the reasons that were so clear to her.

Exercises

His coat was ——————, —————— beyond all hope of repair.

I returned to my studies with ——————, —————— that was eventually to result in my graduating with highest honors.

She wanted to be loved, loved for all the reasons that were so clear to her.

Exercises

His coat was tattered, tattered beyond all hope of repair.

I returned to my studies with new dedication, dedication that was eventually to result in my graduating with highest honors.

Schemes

I came, I saw, I conquered.

"He was ten inches long, thin as a curve, a muscled ribbon, brown as

fruitwood, soft-furred, alert' - Annie Dillard

"I have done. You have heard me. The facts are before you. I ask for your

judgement" - Aristotle

Schemes of Omission to omit the conjunctions that usually link the final items in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses

Asyndeton -

to omit one or more words that are obviously necessary but must be inferred to make a construction grammatically complete

Schemes of Omission

"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." - Francis Bacon

"I prefer the specific detail to the generalization, images to ideas, obscure facts to clear symbols, and the discovered wild fruit to the synthetic jam." - Vladimir Nabokov

Ellipsis -

to repeat a word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences, clauses, or phrases

Schemes of Repetition

"I should have gone for the throat. I should have lunged for that streak of white under the weasel's chin and held on, held on through mud and into the wild rose, held on for a dearer life." - Annie Dillard "I'm perfectly aware that I'm in prison, that I'm a Negro, that I've been a rapist, and that I have a Higher Uneducation." - Eldridge Cleaver

Anaphora -

Schemes of Repetitionto repeat a word that ends one phrase, clause, or sentence at

the beginning of the nextAnadiplosis -

"Information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not truth, truth is not beauty, beauty is not love, love is not music and music is the

best." – Frank Zappa

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” - Yoda as he warns Anakin Skywalker in "Star Wars:

Episode I – The Phantom Menace"

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going” "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter Thompson "The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he's the victim and make the victim look like he's the criminal." - Eldridge Cleaver

Chiasmus - to repeat a grammatical structure and the words it contains, but reverse the order of the key words in the second phrase, clause,

or sentence

Schemes of Repetition

"Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea." - Chief Seattle

to repeat the same word or phrase at the beginning and end of a clause or sentence

Schemes of RepetitionEpanalepsis-

"History is ours and people make history." — Salvador Allende

"They loved football, they ate football, they slept football."

"the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth"

"government of the people, by the people, and for the people"

Schemes of Repetitionto repeat the same word or phrase at the end of successive

phrases, clauses, or sentences Epistrophe -

"Never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few." - Winston Churchill

"He is asked to stand, he wants to sit, and he is expected to lie: - Winston Churchill

Schemes of Repetitiona form of parallelism that stresses corresponding words, phrases,

clauses, and sentences of equal length and similar structureIsocolon -

"Poverty and isolation produce impoverished and isolated minds" - William Gass

Schemes of Repetitionto repeat words with the same root but different forms or

endings Polyptoton -

"This is a story about love and death in the golden land, and begins with the country. It is the season of suicide and divorce and prickly dread, whenever the wind blows." - Joan Didion

"When you are old and gray and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire ...." - William Butler Yeats

Schemes of Repetitionto repeat conjunctions between coordinate words, phrases,

or clauses in a seriesPolysyndeton -

Take Away Lessons

Parallel Structures

Schemes of Repetition

Schemes of Omission

Winston S. Churchill

“Broadly speaking, the short words are

the best, and the old words best of all.”