In this session, we will cover Balanced Sentences and parallel structures. Then we will move to explore certain rhetorical schemes which enhance the production of language.

1. Advanced Writing
Session Four
A Course By Nima Yousefi

2. Think of Some Memorable
First Sentences in Fiction

3. 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, Pride and Prejudice
(1813)
Call me Ishmael. —Herman
Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
Happy families are all alike; every
unhappy family is unhappy in its own
way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
(1877; trans. Constance Garnett)
It was a bright cold day in
April, and the clocks were
striking thirteen. —George
Orwell, 1984 (1949)
I am an invisible man. —Ralph
Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

4. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

5. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

6. Concepts to cover this session
Parallelism
Balanced Sentences

7. "We are all prompted by the same
motives, all deceived by the same
fallacies, all animated by hope,
obstructed by danger, entangled by
desire, and seduced by pleasure."
Samuel Johnson - The Rambler (1750)

8. Space Exploration
Speech
At Rice University
- John F. Kennedy

9. Traditional classrooms can foster boredom; televised classes, isolation;
correspondence classes, distance.
Clausal Series
Assume nothing, appropriate nothing, assign, ascribe, associate nothing,
repeat not a word until you ascertain the truth of it for yourself.

10. Rain ————— trees, ————— earth, ————— the trunk,
————— ground, ————— down, and ————— its goal to
merge with the aquifer.
Phrasal Series
The lake is —————, —————, and —————.
Aerobic exercise helps one —————, improve —————,
and —————.

11. Rain drips through the trees, in no hurry to meet the earth, trickles down
the trunk, seeps into the ground, percolates down, and reaches its goal
to merge with the aquifer.
Phrasal Series
The lake is crystal clear, dead calm, and freezing cold.
Aerobic exercise helps one lose weight safely, improve muscle
tone, and reduce stress.

12. She wanted to ——————, ———— for all the reasons that were so
clear to her.
Exercises
His coat was ——————, —————— beyond all hope of repair.
I returned to my studies with ——————, —————— that was
eventually to result in my graduating with highest honors.

13. She wanted to be loved, loved for all the reasons that were so clear to her.
Exercises
His coat was tattered, tattered beyond all hope of repair.
I returned to my studies with new dedication, dedication that was
eventually to result in my graduating with highest honors.

14. Schemes

15. I came, I saw, I conquered.
"He was ten inches long, thin as a curve, a muscled ribbon, brown as
fruitwood, soft-furred, alert' - Annie Dillard
"I have done. You have heard me. The facts are before you. I ask for your
judgement" - Aristotle
Schemes of Omission
to omit the conjunctions that usually link the final items in a
series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses
Asyndeton -

16. to omit one or more words that are obviously necessary but must
be inferred to make a construction grammatically complete
Schemes of Omission
"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact
man." - Francis Bacon
"I prefer the specific detail to the generalization, images to ideas, obscure
facts to clear symbols, and the discovered wild fruit to the synthetic jam." -
Vladimir Nabokov
Ellipsis -

17. to repeat a word or phrase at the beginning of successive
sentences, clauses, or phrases
Schemes of Repetition
"I should have gone for the throat. I should have lunged for that streak of
white under the weasel's chin and held on, held on through mud and into the
wild rose, held on for a dearer life." - Annie Dillard
"I'm perfectly aware that I'm in prison, that I'm a Negro, that I've been a rapist,
and that I have a Higher Uneducation." - Eldridge Cleaver
Anaphora -

18. Schemes of Repetition
to repeat a word that ends one phrase, clause, or sentence at
the beginning of the next
Anadiplosis -
"Information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not truth,
truth is not beauty, beauty is not love, love is not music and music is the
best." – Frank Zappa
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate.
Hate leads to suffering.” - Yoda as he warns Anakin Skywalker in "Star Wars:
Episode I – The Phantom Menace"

19. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going”
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter Thompson
"The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal
look like he's the victim and make the victim look like he's the criminal." -
Eldridge Cleaver
Chiasmus - to repeat a grammatical structure and the words it contains, but
reverse the order of the key words in the second phrase, clause,
or sentence
Schemes of Repetition

20. "Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea." -
Chief Seattle
to repeat the same word or phrase at the beginning and end of
a clause or sentence
Schemes of Repetition
Epanalepsis-
"History is ours and people make history." — Salvador Allende

21. "They loved football, they ate football, they slept football."
"the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth"
"government of the people, by the people, and for the people"
Schemes of Repetition
to repeat the same word or phrase at the end of successive
phrases, clauses, or sentences
Epistrophe -

22. "Never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few."
- Winston Churchill
"He is asked to stand, he wants to sit, and he is expected to lie: -
Winston Churchill
Schemes of Repetition
a form of parallelism that stresses corresponding words, phrases,
clauses, and sentences of equal length and similar structure
Isocolon -

23. "Poverty and isolation produce impoverished and isolated minds"
- William Gass
Schemes of Repetition
to repeat words with the same root but different forms or
endings
Polyptoton -

24. "This is a story about love and death in the golden land, and begins with
the country. It is the season of suicide and divorce and prickly dread,
whenever the wind blows." - Joan Didion
"When you are old and gray and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire ...."
- William Butler Yeats
Schemes of Repetition
to repeat conjunctions between coordinate words, phrases,
or clauses in a series
Polysyndeton -

25. Take Away Lessons
Parallel Structures
Schemes of Repetition
Schemes of Omission

26. Winston S. Churchill
“Broadly speaking, the short words are
the best, and the old words best of all.”