Periodic+Sentence+Tutorial

AP English - Instructional Mrs. Trudy A. Miller The Periodic and the Loose Sentence

THE LOOSE SENTENCE: This sentence is a basic statement with a string of details added to it.

Basic statement: Bells rang.

Loose sentence: Bells rang, filling the air with their clangor, startling pigeons into flight from every belfry, bringing people into the streets to hear the news.

THE PERIODIC SENTENCE: In this sentence, additional details are placed before the basic statement. Delay, of course, is the secret weapon of the periodic sentence.

Basic statement: John gave his mother flowers.

Periodic sentence: John, the tough one, the sullen kid who scoffed at any show of sentiment, gave his mother flowers.

THE PERIODIC (INTERRUPTIVE): In this sentence, additional details are added inside the basic statement:

Basic statement: Love is blind.

Periodic sentence: Love, as everyone knows except those who happen to be afflicted with it, is blind.

THE COMBINATION: In this sentence, additional details are added before and after the basic statement.

Basic statement: John was angry.

Usually the calmest of men, John was suddenly, violently angry, so angry that he lost control completely.

EXPANDING THE SUBJECT, VERB, AND OBJECT

Periodic structures usually expand the subject or verb. Loose structures expand the verb or object.

Expanding the Subject:

The easiest way to start the details flowing is to think of the subject as being followed by a pause. Make yourself hear that pause. It is exactly the same kind of pause that occurs in your own conversation every day, in sentences like the following. Notice these sentences are periodic (interruptive)and they expand the subjects.

That boy, the one wearing glasses, is in my history class.

This piecrust, tough as it is, tastes pretty good.

Here's another example: The class (pause) read the assignment.

The class, a mixture of juniors and seniors in advanced math, read the assignment.

The class, usually noisy and inattentive, read the assignment.

The class, with a subdued rustle of books and papers, read the assignment.

When expanding the subject, consider these methods of expansion: description, appositive, adjective, prepositional phrase, participles, etc.

Expanding the Verb:

Expand the verb by showing how its action progresses. Any phrase that tells how or when a verb acts is related grammatically to the verb.

The class read, listlessly at first, and then with growing interest, the assignment.

The class read, after trying unsuccessfully to divert the instructor, the assignment.

Expanding the Object (or the rest of the sentence):

The class read the assignment, a full chapter.

I saw Mr. Hassenfeffer, the instructor.

The class read the assignment, a full chapter, with a dismaying number of difficult-looking statistical tables.

I saw Mr. Hassenfeffer, the instructor, flat-nosed, beady-eyes, on guard every minute.