Loose and Periodic Sentences

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Loose and Periodic Sentences

• AP Language and Composition

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From a rhetorical point of view, sentences are
loose, periodic, or balanced.

• I. loose sentence and periodic sentence
• 1. A loose (cumulative) sentence puts the main
  idea before all supplementary information in
  other words, it puts first things first, and lets
  the reader know what it is mainly about when he
  has read the first few words. The reverse
  arrangement makes a periodic sentence the main
  idea is expressed at or near the end of it, and
  it is not grammatically complete until the end is
  reached. The reader does not know what it is
  mainly about until he finishes reading it. (A
  Handbook of Writing Ding Wangdao)

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a. She decided to study English though she was
interested in music.b. Although she was
interested in music, she finally decided to study
English.

• The main idea of both sentences is the fact that
  she decided to study English. This idea is put at
  the beginning of the first sentence and at the
  end of the second, thus making one a loose
  sentence and the other a periodic one. Besides,
  the first part of the first sentence is complete
  in structure, but that of the second is only an
  adverbial clause and cannot be called a sentence
  without the second part.

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2. The definition offered in the Websters New
World Dictionary

• Loose sentence a sentence in which the
  essential elements, in the main clause, come
  first, followed by subordinate parts, modifiers,
  etc., as in a compound sentence.
• Periodic sentence a sentence in which the
  essential elements, in the main clause, are
  withheld until the end or separated as by
  modifiers or subordinate clauses.

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3. The definition in English Professor Yu Dayin

• Loose sentence a loose sentence is one that may
  be brought to a grammatical close before the end
  is reached.
• Periodic sentence a periodic sentence is one
  that is not grammatically complete until the end
  is reached. For example,
• You cannot make great progress in English without
  good study habits.
• Without good study habits, you cannot make great
  progress in English.

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A. You cannot make great progress in English
without good study habits.B. Without good study
habits, you cannot make great progress in English.

• Sentence a and sentence b are semantically same,
  but different in structure. Sentence a is a loose
  sentence, but sentence b the periodic sentence.
  The main idea is put at the beginning of the
  first sentence followed by the supplement and
  explanation and at the end of the second
  sentence, thus making one a loose sentence and
  the other a periodic one.

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II. The difference between the two types of
sentences

• Loose sentences are easier, simpler, more
  natural and direct periodic sentences are more
  complex, emphatic, formal, or literary.
• 1. He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet,
  powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you
  with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head
  forward, and a fixed-from-under stare which made
  you think of a charging bull. His voice was deep,
  loud, and his manner displayed a kind of dogged
  self-assertion which had nothing aggressive in
  it.

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• It seemed a necessity, and it was directed
  apparently as much at himself as at anybody else.
  He was spotlessly neat, appareled in immaculate
  white from shoes to hat, and in the various
  Eastern ports where he got his living as
  ship-chandlers water-clerk he was very popular.
• Most of the sentences are compound and
  compound-complex, and all of them, except the
  second half of the last sentence, are loose in
  structure.

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• 2. 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
• This is the sentence with which Jane Austen
  begins her Pride and Prejudice. Its a periodic
  sentence because the last word being the most
  important, and because many words are piled up
  before the key word.

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III. The methods of making loose sentences and
periodic sentences

• 1.Preposing or postposing the adverbial clause
• (1) Loose ( postposition) The world wont end
  even if we fail again and again.
• Periodic (preposition) Even if we fail again and
  again, the world wont end.
• (2) Loose ( postposition)Bill had cleaned the
  room before Tom returned.
• Periodic (preposition)Before Tom returned, Bill
  had cleaned the room.

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• 2.Preposing or postposing the adverbial phrase
• (1) Loose ( postposition)Bill started to write
  his composition early in the morning.
• Periodic (preposition)Early in the morning, Bill
  started to write his composition.
• (2) Loose ( postposition)We feel much honored
  to have you come to visit our country.
• Periodic (preposition)To have you come to visit
  our country, we feel much honored.

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• 3. Preposing or postposing the ppl(participle)
  phrase
• (1) Loose ( postposition) She came up
  shouldering a spade.
• Periodic (preposition)Shouldering a spade,
  she came up.
• (2) Loose ( postposition) He came back,
  utterly exhausted.
• Periodic (preposition) Utterly exhausted, he
  came back.

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• 4. Preposing or postposing the prepositional
  phrase
• (1) Loose (postposition)Tom was cutting a
  piece of metal with great care.
• Periodic (preposition)With great care, Tom
  was cutting a piece of metal.
• (2) Loose (postposition) This was done without
  my knowledge and without my consent.
• Periodic (preposition)Without my knowledge
  and without my consent, this was done.

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• 5. Preposing or postposing the apposition
• (1) Loose (postposition) Tom became fond of
  Bill, a cheerful, hard-working apprentice.
• Periodic (preposition) A cheerful,
  hard-working apprentice, Tom became fond of Bill.
• (2) Loose (postposition) He read all kinds of
  books, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign.
• Periodic (preposition) Ancient and modern,
  Chinese and foreign, he read all kinds of books.

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• 6. Preposing or postposing the adjective or
  adjective phrase
• (1) Loose (postposition) She took down what he
  said, conscientious and eager.
• Periodic (preposition) Conscientious and
  eager, she took down what he said.
• (2) Loose (postposition) Bill was cleaning the
  lathe full of energy.
• Periodic (preposition) Full of energy, Bill
  was cleaning the lathe.

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IV. The rhetorical function of loose sentence and
periodic sentence

• 1. loose sentence
• (1) loose sentence gives prominence and emphasis
  and comes straight to the point
• She was offered a professional contract after
  winning the Olympic gold medal for figure
  skating, according to the newspaper reports.

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• The most valuable information--she was offered a
  professional contract--appears at the beginning
  of the sentence and the other information
  follows, which is in accordance with our thinking
  practice. For example,
• The moral imperative to get involved is
  applicable in the tiniest and the largest of our
  daily considerations, in everything from helping
  a neighbor all the way to caring about the state
  of the world.

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• Loose sentences fit writing in a flat way most.
  Stephen Leacok, the Canadian writer, described a
  mothers hard work in a ten-year-old boys voice.
  He adopted many loose sentences which implies the
  boy lingering between the mature and the naïve
  mind and sets off the mothers endless hard work

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• Well, we had the loveliest day up among the hills
  that you could possibly imagine, and Father
  caught such big specimens that he felt sure that
  Mother couldnt have landed them anyway, if she
  had been fishing for them, and Will and I fished
  too, though we didnt get so many as Father, and
  the two girls met quite a lot of people that they
  knew as we drove along, and there were some young
  men friends of theirs that they met along the
  stream and talked to, and so we all had a
  splendid time.

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2. periodic sentence

• causes anticipation and suspense in readers
  because the important information readers are
  eager to know is postposed until the end of the
  sentence.
• Though Jim Thorpe had brought great glory to his
  nation, though thousands of people cheered him
  upon his return to the United Stages and attended
  banquets and a New York parade in his honor, he
  was not a citizen.

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• The two though.concessive clauses push Jim
  Thorpes personal achievements and the craze from
  the American people towards him to the climax.
  When readers finish reading the two clauses, they
  will wait for the answer to be disclosed
  however, the writer only uses five words - he was
  not a citizen - to bring to a sudden end to the
  sentence. During the course, readers follow the
  anticipation-suspense-suddenness track and this
  is the charm of periodic sentences. Please
  compare

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• There was a lamp burning on the table in the
  empty room and a little cat lying near the
  lamp.(loose)
• On the table burned a lamp in the empty room, and
  near it lay a little cat.(periodic)
• The key wordsa lamp and a little catare
  withheld at the end of the sentence b, so the
  suspense and anticipation comes up.

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• periodic sentences can focus on expressing the
  sadness and happiness of the writer and
  strengthen the power of the words.
• The one absolute, unselfish friend a man may have
  in this selfish world, the one that never deserts
  him, the one that never proves ungrateful or
  treacherous, is his dog.
• ( A Tribute to the Dog--George Graham West
• The writer uses three parallel construction
  sentences and three repeated ones push the noble
  personality of this friend up to the top.
  However, the answer isonly three wordsis his
  dog.

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V. Balanced sentence

• When a sentence contains two or more parts of
  the same form and grammatical function, it is one
  with parallel construction
• Let us be ruthless in our criticism, cruel
  to personal vanities, indifferent to age, rank or
  experience if these stand in our way.
• --Norman
  Berthune

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• It does not do to live in memories, in regrets
  for the good old days, or in sadness about
  friends who are dead. Ones thoughts must be
  directed to the future, and to things about which
  there is something to be done.
• --Bertrand
  Russell
• The feeling of the nation must be quickened the
  conscience of the nation must be roused the
  propriety of the nation must be startled the
  hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its
  crimes against God and men must be proclaimed and
  denounced.
• --Frederick
  Douglass

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• Such parallel sentences are emphatic and
  forceful. When a sentence contains two parallel
  clauses similar in structure but contrasted in
  meaning, it is a balanced sentence.
• On hearing the news, he was angered, and I was
  saddened.
• In Platos opinion man was made for philosophy
  in Bacons opinion philosophy was made for man.
  
• --Thomas Babington Macaulay

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• In a word, a balanced sentence is one in which
  sentence elements (words, phrases, clauses) of
  equal importance are set off against each other.
  Thus it is particularly effective for comparisons
  and contrasts, as well as for emphatic
  statements. Study the following examples
• The President wanted an increase in taxes to
  reduce the national debt the Congress wanted a
  reduction in taxes to stimulate business.

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• Thus, good sentences are more than grammatically
  correct. They are varied in length in word order
  and in their rhetorical patterns. As you read
  essays, consider the sentence structure of each
  selection. As you write essays, apply the
  techniques for attaining sentence variety.

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Short and Long Sentence

• Short sentences are usually emphatic, whereas
  long sentences usually express complex ideas
  because it may contain many modifiers.
• Short sentences are suitable for the presentation
  of important facts and ideas, and long sentences
  for the explanation of views and theories, or the
  description of things with many details.

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Look at the following passage which makes good
use of short sentences

• Our city is on the threshold of a great era. Of
  this we can be sure. We must be willing to
  workand to spend in order to fulfill the promise
  of the future. We need a large police force for
  public protection. We need a modernized fire
  department. We need an enlarged library. We need
  to improve our water supply. For all these needs
  there is but one solution. We must see that the
  bond issue is approved by the voters in the
  November election.

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• Here each short sentence puts forward an
  important suggestion. If the points were grouped
  into two or three longer sentences, there would
  not be the force and clarity of these short
  sentences.

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The following passage describes how a man saved
a drowning girl

• He crouched a little, spreading his hands under
  the water and moving them round, trying to feel
  for her. The dead cold pond swayed upon his
  chest. He moved again, a little deeper, and
  again, with his hands underneath, he felt all
  around under the water. And he touched her
  clothing. But it evaded his fingers. He made a
  desperate effort to grasp it.

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• He laid her down on the bank. She was quite
  unconscious and running with water. He made the
  water come from her mouth, he worked to restore
  her. He did not have to work very long before he
  could feel the breathing begin again in her she
  was breathing naturally. He worked a little
  longer. He could feel her live beneath his hands
  she was coming back. He wiped her face, wrapped
  her in his overcoat, looked round into the dim,
  dark gray world, then lifted her and staggered
  down the bank and across the fields.

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• The many short sentences in the above passage
  vividly describe the mans rapid movements and
  make the reader feel the tension the man was
  experiencing at the moment.
• Long sentences are common in legal, political and
  theoretical writing, which depends on
  modification for accuracy.

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• Art, in the sense here intendedthat is, the
  genetic term subsuming painting, sculpture,
  architecture, music, dance, literature, drama,
  and filmmay be defined as the practice of
  creating perceptible forms expressive of human
  feeling. I say perceptible rather than
  sensuous forms because some works of art are
  given to imagination rather than to the outward
  senses. A novel, for instance, usually is read
  silently with the eye, but is not made for
  vision, as a painting is and though sound plays
  a vital part in poetry, words even in poetry are
  not essentially sonorous structures like music..

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• The writer is trying to define such abstract term
  as art and feeling, and it is necessary for
  her to use so many words to make the definitions
  accurate and prevent misunderstanding.
• In fiction long sentences are sometimes used to
  describe a person, a thing or a scene.

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• Mrs. Chalmers was kind of fat and her hair was
  pretty blond and her complexion was soft and pink
  and she always looked as though she had been in
  the beauty parlor all afternoon. She always said
  My, youre getting to be a big boy to Peter
  when she met him in the elevator, in a soft
  voice, as though she was just about to laugh. She
  must have said that fifty times by now. She had a
  good, strong smell of perfume on her all the
  time, too.

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• Mr. Chalmers wore pince-nez glasses most of the
  time and he was getting bald and he worked late
  at his office a good many evenings of the week.
  When he met Peter in the elevator he would say,
  Its getting colder, or Its getting warmer,
  and that was all, so Peter had no point abut him,
  except that he looked like the principal of a
  school.
• -- Irwin Shaw

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• Of the five sentences in the above passage four
  are long, and they give detailed descriptions of
  the two characters. Were they broken into many
  short sentences, the contrast between the normal
  Chalmers couple and the couple on that particular
  occasion would not be so striking.

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• Various sentence structures have been discussed.
  The basic principle is that the structure should
  fit the idea being expressed. In other words, the
  idea determines the choice of the structure, not
  the other way round.