Loose, Balanced, Parallel, and Periodic Sentences

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Loose, Balanced, Parallel, and Periodic Sentences

• With a special appearance by Dangling Modifier!

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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 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 (p.798) 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 (p.1005) 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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Examples

• 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.

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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 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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Balanced Sentences

• DefinitionA sentence made up of two parts that
  are roughly equal in length, importance, and
  grammatical structure a paired construction.
• A balanced sentence that makes a contrast is
  called antithesis.

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Examples

• "Sleeping on a Seely is like sleeping on a
  cloud."(advertising slogan for Seely mattresses)
• "Buy a bucket of chicken and have a barrel of
  fun."(advertising slogan for KFC)
• "If youve got the time, weve got the
  beer."(advertising slogan for Miller beer)
• "Vision without action is daydream action
  without vision is nightmare."(Japanese proverb)

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Parrallel

• DefinitionSimilarity of structure in a pair
  or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
  Also called parallel structure.
• By convention, items in a series appear in
  parallel grammatical form a noun is listed with
  other nouns, an -ing form with other -ingforms,
  and so on. Failure to express such items in
  similar grammatical form is called faulty
  parallelism.

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Examples

• "When you are right you cannot be too radical
  when you are wrong, you cannot be too
  conservative."(Martin Luther King, Jr.)
• "New roads new ruts."(G. K. Chesterton)

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Dangling Modifier

• A modifier does exactly what it sounds like it
  changes, alters, limits, or adds more info to
  something else in the sentence. A modifier is
  considered dangling when the sentence isn't clear
  about what is being modified. For example, "The
  big" doesn't make sense without telling what is
  big which leaves "big" as a dangling modifier
  but, "the big dog" is a complete phrase.

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Fixing them Up!

• Hoping to excuse my lateness, the note was
  written and given to my teacher.
• Problem Here, it seems as though we have a
  subject- my. However, my is part of the modifier
  and not the subject itself.
• Correction We need a subject that is modified
  by hoping to excuse my lateness, since obviously
  the note didn't have those hopes.Hoping to excuse
  my lateness, I wrote a note and gave it to my
  teacher.

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Retry What types of sentences are these?

• The lightening flashed outside, rain pelted down
  and suddenly a face appeared in the window!
• Periodic
• Brown Chickens lay brown eggs and white chickens
  lay white eggs
• Balanced

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• I won a gold medal after practicing for weeks and
  weeks
• Loose
• Inside the classroom I saw pencils moving, pages
  turning, and students learning!
• Parallell