2. Active Voice
• In a sentence using
active voice, the subject
of the sentence performs
the action expressed by
the verb.
• Ex.
–The child kicked the ball.
–Sally mailed the letter.
–They have conducted the
experiments.
3. Passive Voice
• In a sentence using
passive voice, the
subject is being acted
upon by the verb.
• Ex.
–The ball was kicked by
the child.
–The class was taught by
the professor.
–Her purse was stolen.
4. Repetition
• The duplication, either
exact or approximate, of a
word, phrase, clause,
sentence, or grammatical
pattern.
• Ex.
– I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody too?
Then there's a pair of us-
don't tell!
They'd banish us you
know.
– "Words, words, words."
(Hamlet)
5. Anaphora
• Repetition of the same word or
group of words at the beginning of
successive clauses
• Ex.
– We shall fight on the beaches, we
shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in
the streets, we shall fight in the
hills…” Churchill
– And needy nothing trimm'd in
jollity,
And purest faith unhappily
forsworn,
And gilded honour shamefully
misplac'd,
And maiden virtue rudely
strumpeted,
6. Epistrophe
• Ending a series of lines, phrases,
clauses, or sentences with the
same word or words.
• Ex.
– What lies behind us and what
lies before us are tiny compared
to what lies within us." —
Emerson
– Hourly joys be still upon you!
Juno sings her blessings on
you. [. . .]
Scarcity and want shall shun
you,
Ceres' blessing so is on you.
— Shakespeare, The
Tempest (4.1.108-109; 116-17)
7. Inversion
• Figure of speech in which a language's usual word order is
inverted
• Ex.
o Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to
conquer. (Winston Churchill
o Gracious she was. By gracious I mean full of graces
o In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
8. Anastrophe
• A rhetorical term for the
inversion of the normal
order of the parts of a
sentence.
• Ex.
– "Told you, I did. Reckless is
he. Now matters are worse."
– After great pain a formal
feeling comes –
The nerves sit
ceremonious like tombs.
Emily Dickinson
9. Chiasmus
• Grammatical structure in which the
first clause or phrase is reversed in
the second, sometimes repeating the
same words.
• Ex.
– “And so, my fellow Americans, ask
not what your country can
do for you: ask what you can do
for your country.”
John F. Kennedy
– It's not the men in my life
it's the life in my men.
– By day the frolic, and the dance by
night
10. Asyndeton
• Deliberate omission of
conjunctions between a
series of related clauses
• Ex.
– I came, I saw, I
conquered.
– "He was a bag of bones,
a floppy doll, a broken
stick, a maniac."
(Jack Kerouac, On the
Road, 1957)
11. Polysyndeton
• Deliberate use of many
conjunctions; opposite of
asyndeton
• Ex.
–The meal was huge – my mother
fixed okra and green beans and ham
and apple pie and salad and all
manner of fine country food – but
no matter how I tried, I could not
consume it to her satisfaction.
–“And each dark tree that ever grew,
Is curtained out from Heaven’s wide
blue;Nor sun, nor moon, nor wind,
nor rain,
Can pierce its interwoven bowers…”
12. Meter
•Basic rhythmic
structure of a verse or
lines in verse
•Described with feet
(monometer, dimeter,
trimeter, etc.)
13. Enjambment
•The continuation of the sense and
therefore the grammatical construction
beyond the end of a line of verse or the
end of a couplet
•Ex.
–i carry your heart with me (i carry it
in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling
–I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
Commonly are; the want of which vain dew
Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have
That honourable grief lodged here which burns
Worse than tears drown.
14. Caesura
•A rhythmic break or pause
in the flow of sound which is
commonly introduced in
about the middle of a line of
verse
•Ex.
–"Sing, o goddess, the rage ||
of Achilles, the son of Peleus."
–Know then thyself II,
presume not God to scan;
• The proper study of
Mankind II is Man.
•Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
15. Listing
• Writing a series of words or
phrases together, one after the
other and in a sentence, as if it
were a list
• Ex.
– Apples, pears, and bananas
– POLONIUS
The best actors in the world,
either for tragedy,
comedy, history, pastoral,
pastoral-comical,
historical-pastoral, tragical-
historical, tragical-
comical-historical-pastoral,
scene individable, or
poem unlimited
16. Loose Sentence
• A type of sentence in which
the main idea (independent
clause) comes first,
followed by dependent
grammatical units such as
phrases and clauses
• Ex.
–I found a large hall,
obviously a former garage,
dimly lit, and packed with cots.
–The wildcat looked briefly
at the two humans, seemed to
sneer with a raised lip, and
stalked off back into the
woods.
Editor's Notes
*
* Makes the writing more interesting and lively. Way to remember: Active= actually doing something *
* The agent performing the action may appear in a "by the..." phrase or may be omitted. Makes the writing flat/boring. Better used with scientific writing. All passive sentences have to be verbs, but not all sentences with to be verbs are passive. Way to remember: Passive= not taking actual action; letting someone or something else act on you *
* Anaphora is repetition but repetition isn't always anaphora. Also used for emphasis and to create rhythm. Way to remember: Repetition has root 'repeat'
* Used to emphasize the repeated word or words as well as create a rhythm. Way to remember: A in anaphora repeats, and it starts with A, the first letter of the alphabet.
* Used to emphasize the repeated word or words as well as create a rhythm. Way to remember: E in epistrophe repeats and it ends with E, which begins the word end.
*
*
* A conjunction is a part of speech is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So Quickens the pace of the Way to remember: Prefix A means without, so without conjunctions
* For special emphasis – to highlight quantity or mass of detail, or to create a flowing, continuous sentence pattern; has the tendency to intentionally slow the reader down. Way to remember: Poly means many, so many conjunctions
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* A loose sentence (also called a cumulative sentence) is a type of sentence in which the main idea ( independent clause ) is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases.
