Semicolon Streetlight (Yellow) SV;_____, SV.

Pattern # 1 in Ann Longknife and K.D. Sullivan's Art of Styling Sentences

Pages: beginning of book to page 11.

A sentence, if you will, is a road, a road comprised of a clear subject and a ‘fighting verb.’ For review, much of your writing can be enhanced if you can pick the strongest subject and pair it with the strongest verb.

SV. SV. SV. is akin to a thumping bass-line at a Paul Brandon rave at Pipeline; nonetheless, it possesses none of the flow and nuances that the semicolon allows. After all, the period serves as a “red light,” telling the reader to STOP.

The yellow light of the semicolon announces to the reader that you have two related sentences and that you are willing to cross the intersection to increase flow and subtlety.

On that note, remember that the two paired sentences need to make sense together. You cannot have the following illogical construction:

“I enjoy shopping at Hot Topic Ala Moana; Bill Clinton engaged in an illicit affair with Monica Lewinsky. “
(The two roads of the sentence above create a non sequitur, because there is no established relationship between the two sentences).

"Playing on my Nintendo Wii one afternoon, the phone rang; the treaty of Ghent was signed in 1814." (also non sensible)

The power of the semicolon is that it allows us to construct flowing sentences, often with a modifying phrase:


SV; ______, SV.

Whatever goes into that blank can be as descriptive and flavorful as you want—as long as that material does not become a complete sentence.

Andy’s toupee (S) flew off (V) his bald head; fluttering, flying, careening into the sky like a wounded bird, the toupee (S) sailed off (V) into the distance. (notice a previous pattern?)

versus

Andy’s toupee flew off his head. It sailed off into the distance. (less descriptive, less flavorful)

Later in this course, and higher-level English courses, the

SV; _____, SV construction can help us with complex thesis statements that build upon ALL previous patterns.

Nestled within a relatively nondescript area near Ala Moana, Ichiriki nabe restaurant (S) conveys (V) a warm sense of comfort; as the first shoyu-laced drops of nabe hit one’s gullet, instant gratification (S) occurs (V).

versus

Ichiriki is a comfortable restaurant where I like to eat. It is a delicious place for Japanese food.

or

Despite the Hawaii State Superferry's perceived environmental impacts, the Hawaii State Government should continue to do its utmost to support the ferry; after all, the ferry offers a viable means of alternative transportation for interisland visitors.

versus

The Superferry's a good idea; the government should keep on supporting it.

Verbals (Participle Phrases)

Pattern # 12 in Ann Longknife and K.D. Sullivan's Art of Styling Sentences

Pages: 71-75.

I like verbals, aka participle phrases prior to or after an SV; they allow for a variety and make the sentences more active.

In general, there are the -ing phrases, the -ed phrases, and the -to verb phrases that can begin or end the SV pattern.

Participle phrase, SV.

SV, participle phrase.

These patterns allow the writer to combine elements in a spicier, peppier way, rather than having the rigamorole and steady bass beat of SV. SV. SV. SV.

Remember one of the Harry Potter Secrets: Strong writing varies up between hip hop and classical. Imagine Darude, perhaps: he enjoys sampling some ethereal tones with a heavy bassline.

Instead of "I was afraid of driving recklessly. So, I decided to really slow down and pay attention to the speed limit," you can smooth the sentence out. The use of "So" is just too jarring, since "so" traditionally belongs as a coordinating conjunction along with the other members of FANBOYS (for / and / nor / but / or / yet / so):

SV, and SV.

Here's how you can use a verbal to smooth it out: "In order to avoid driving recklessly, I slowed down, beginning to pay more atention to the speed limit." You could also use the -ing construction: "Driving recklessly, I recognized the need to slow down; as such, I began to be more mindful of the speed limit."

Be careful with this pattern. Most of all, you don't want to have what is known as the dreaded "dangling modifier," where the main subject of your sentence doesn't mesh up with the initial participle phrase.

Here's an example:

Playing Nintendo Wii's "No More Heroes" was a disaster, the controller's nunchuku not being adequately plugged in.

This sentence above "dangles," because the controller's nunchuku has NO WAY to play the Nintendo Wii: the main subject of the sentence is not clarified.

Here's the revision: Playing Nintendo Wii's "No More Heroes" proved to be disastrous; after all, I had forgotten to plug the nunchaku into the main Wii-mote. Consequently, I could not even begin the initial hack-and-slash tutorial.

The use of the "I" in "I had forgotten" makes the sentence clearer, because it makes certain who the exact subject was—the very person playing the game in the first place.

Supplemental links to follow, HERE

The Raw Power of Verbs

Action Verbs, Beginner

Action Verbs, College and Resumes

Sentences are actually much stronger when they prefer "action verbs" more than weaker, helping verbs known as the auxiliary verbs. Allow me to revise that:

Sentences exude much more power and action, eschewing the use of auxiliary verbs.

As early as junior high school and high school, we largely begin to code in uncertainty into our sentences, primarily because we are afraid of retribution on the part of our 'scary' English instructors:

I believe that the main character feels that way because that's what the book said so. At least, that's my opinion.
I think that the U.S. government needs to do more to stimulate the economy.
In my opinion, I feel that the narrator is too wimpy.

Notice that each of these patterns have a weak SV structure at the beginning—almost everything you write or give forth in communication is an opinion; as such, "I believe," "I think," "In my opinion," "I feel"—such phrases are redundant, because they inevitably reveal themselves to say to the reader, "I have an opinion, so don't hit me over the head because of them." Also notice that there's no real expansion to those opinions; these days, it isn't enough to just provide such opinions, but it's equally important to expand upon them powerfully.

Woody Allen often speaks with a lack of confidence in his films, but that's Woody Allen's schtick—when that level of uncertainty gets coded into writing, it betrays uncertainty and deference to the audience.

The main character feels an intense sense of passion for the woman at the floral shop: he demonstrates his ardor when he buys her several flowers from her own shop.
The U.S. economy should create an economic stimulus package by sending out rebate checks to the lower and middle classes, stopping at the $85,000 mark—those who fall into a 'richer' bracket need not have a rebate.
The narrator exudes a lack of courage: he simply has no spine.

By carefully using action verbs and by giving even a stronger expansion, one might conclude that the principle difference between high school writing and college writing is a confidence in verbs and a willingness to expand.

The Brute Simplicity of S-V.

S-V.

Pattern #19 in Ann Longknife and K.D. Sullivan's Art of Styling Sentences

Pages: 103-07.

Subject - Verb is the essential building block of all sentence structure, simply because a Subject and Verb is all that you need to craft a sentence.

On that note, the shortest sentence in the English language, one presumes, is "I am." That's a pretty intense sentence, because essentially, you are announcing to the world that you exist, in paper and in real life.

My main point for today's blog is that you can achieve greater efficiency in your assignments when you really choose THE MOST EFFECTIVE SUBJECT and pair it with the MOST EFFECTIVE VERB.

Sometimes, writers don't always pair these together rather well, as in the following example: "This sucks." "This" is a vague, demonstrative pronoun, which makes the reader really wonder what the subject is referring—"He sucks" is better, but we don't especially know who the male subject is, either. "Sucks" is too slangy and also provides a vague sense of the subject—why does he suck? What are the conditions for his suckiness?

If sentence structuring were similar to music, SV would be the bass thump at a techno-house club: SV. SV. SV. SV. SV. SV. SV. SV.

The SV pattern is effective in making short, dramatic pauses and bass thumps.


The Spartans firmly planted their spears in the ground, firmly jutting their death-shears into the sand, calmly awaiting the sea of the Persian flanks to crush down upon them. The Immortals shrieked.

"The Immortals shrieked" would be a 'bass-thumpin' example of how to create a short, clipped sentence after a relatively longer one.

Your textbook also has a famous sentence, taken directly from the Bible: "Jesus wept."

This sentence is indeed a provocative one; after all, if one truly believes in the existence of a triumvirate God, then this act itself is God weeping for Lazarus—essentially, God is weeping for most of humanity. The power of the short simple sentence is that it has the power to FORCE the reader to critically expand their knowledge of the subtext behind the sentence.

Simpler, other samples: Wired, Very Short Stories.

My gassy uncle farted.

One of my favorites: "Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time"
- Alan Moore

Clones cloned clones.

"There, there, they're there," said the nanny.

Samurai eviscerate. Ninja evade. Shoguns crush. Farmers weep.

I drank; I puked; I regretted.

The madness festered—the insane asylum erupted into chaos.

Words madden, then inspire.

Sentence Structure Blog

Sentence Structure allows us to become more creative. Many students are fixated so much on grammar, that they begin to worry and to repress their writing, whereas with sentence structure, the whole point is to experiment and to fail, and to fail again, and to become successful through failure and experimentation. Perhaps this is a vital link between the humanities and sciences: that everything that we do is an experiment and a hypothesis, and the only point worth making is that the effort is everything, not necessarily the product.

In my English 100 classes this semester, I plan on using this blog as a companion site that can correspond with Ann Longknife and K.D. Sullivan's The Art of Styling Sentences (AOSS). I will also experiment on my own with funny sentences so as to demonstrate the utility of these sentences. You might also be interested in a simple, online handout that exposes all of the structures for your employ: Handout Link

ANY and ALL of my students could ask questions or post on this blog if you want to, but the only real edification is for you to experiment and to play with sentence structures.