In this session, we will cover sentence structure and modifiers. You will include concepts such as bound modifiers, free modifiers, and cumulative syntax.

1. Advanced Writing
Session Two
A Course Designed By Nima Yousefi

2. Concepts to cover this session
• Free Modifiers
• Bound Modifiers
• Cumulative Syntax
• Sentence Structure

3. “On offering to help the blind man, the man who then stole his
car, had not, at that precise moment, had any evil intention,
quite the contrary, what he did was nothing more than obey
those feelings of generosity and altruism which, as everyone
knows, are the two best traits of human nature and to be
found in much more hardened criminals than this one, a simple
car-thief without any hope of advancing in his profession,
exploited by the real owners of this enterprise, for it is they
who take advantage of the needs of the poor.” (97 words)
Blindness - Jose Saramago

4. Cumulative Sentence =
Base Clause + Modifying Phrase

5. Modifying Phrase
Bound Modifier: A modifier
that is bound to what it
m o d i fi e s b y a re l a t i ve
pronoun such as that, which,
or who.
Free Modifier: A modifier
that can be placed in any
syntactic position relative
to the base clause.

6. This is the house that Jack built.
This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rat that ate the malt
that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cat that killed the rat
that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

7. This is the horse and the hound and the horn
that belonged to the farmer sowing his corn
that kept the rooster that crowed in the morn
that woke the judge all shaven and shorn
that married the man all tattered and torn
that kissed the maiden all forlorn
that milked the cow with the crumpled horn
that tossed the dog that worried the cat
that killed the rat that ate the malt
that lay in the house that Jack built.

8. This is the horse and the hound and the horn
that belonged to the farmer sowing his corn
that kept the rooster that crowed in the morn
that woke the judge all shaven and shorn
that married the man all tattered and torn
that kissed the maiden all forlorn
that milked the cow with the crumpled horn
that tossed the dog that worried the cat
that killed the rat that ate the malt
that lay in the house that Jack built.
Bound Modifiers

9. For our continued influxes of feeling are modified and directed by our thoughts,
which are indeed the representatives of all our past feelings; and, as by
contemplating the relation of these general representatives to each other, we
discover what is really important to men, so, by the repetition and continuance of
this act, our feelings will be connected with important subjects, till at length, if we
be originally possessed of much sensibility, such habits of mind will be produced,
that, by obeying blindly and mechanically the impulses of those habits, we shall
describe objects, and utter sentiments, of such a nature, and in such connexion
with each other, that the understanding of the Reader must necessarily be in
some degree enlightened, and his affections strengthened and purified.
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads - William Wordsworth

10. The boy sat down at the table.
The boy was young.
The boy was out of breath from running.
He sat down quickly.
He sat down dramatically.
He plopped into his chair.
The table was covered with steaming dishes of food.
The table was made of heavy oak.
The boy looked around the room.
The boy who was young and who was out
of breath from running sat down at the
table whose heavy oak surface was
covered with dishes of food that were
steaming, plopping into his chair in a way
that was quick and dramatic and then
looked around the room.

11. Free Modifiers
Participial Phrases ( Verb turned into an adjective)
Gerund Phrases (Verb turned into a noun)
Infinitive Phrases (Verb drained of its power)
Prepositional Phrases

12. Participial Phrases
The boy fainted, exhausted by his long run.
The boy fainted, fainting as if he had been shot.
The boy fainted, slumping to the ground.
The boy fainted, stricken with grief.
The boy fainted, lost for the rest of the race.
The boy fainted, his face turning a sickly white.

13. Gerund Phrases
Eating ice cream too fast makes my forehead hurt.
Eating ice cream too fast is what I always try to avoid.
His eating ice cream proved to be his undoing.

14. Infinitive Phrases
The boy wanted to faint.
Fainting is the problem to be overcome.
To faint or not to faint was the question.

15. Prepositional Phrases
The boy fainted after finishing the race.
The boy fainted as his shocked parents watch.
The boy fainted in front of his parents.
The boy fainted with no warning.

16. Common Prepositions Than Begin
Prepositional Phrases
Across
After
As
At
For
From
In
In Front of
Under
Until
Up
With
Because of
Before
Between
By
On
Over
Through
To
Together with
In regard to
Like
Near
Of

17. The room was fragrant with the smell of punch, a tumbler
of which grateful compound stood upon a small round
table, convenient to the hand of Mr. Mould; so deftly
mixed that as his eye looked down into the cool
transparent drink, another eye, peering brightly from
behind the crisp lemon-peel, looked up at him, and
twinkled like a star.
Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens

18. The boy sat down at the table.
The boy was young.
The boy was out of breath from running.
He sat down quickly.
He sat down dramatically.
He plopped into his chair.
The table was covered with steaming dishes of food.
The table was made of heavy oak.
The boy looked around the room.
Out of breath from running, plopping
into his chair, quickly, dramatically, the
young boy sat down at the table, its
heavy oak surface covered by steaming
dishes of food, only then looking around
the room.

19. Misplaced Modifiers!
Having eaten lunch, the bus left the station.
Be Careful!
Misplaced Modifier: A modifying phrase
that, because of its placement, is unclear
about what it modifies.

20. 1. Start from a relatively short and simple base clause and then
build the longer sentence around it.
2. Almost any relative clause can be boiled down to a modifying
phrase.
Let’s Get Started

21. This room looks like a disaster area …
This room looks like a disaster area, its walls
pocked with holes, holes that suggest the room
had been the site of a violent fight, a fight in which
sledgehammers had been the weapons of choice.

22. They sat down, the young man cautiously, as if he
might decide not to sit at all, the young woman
hurriedly, as if this were something she wanted to
finish as quickly as possible.
They sat down …

23. “The control of these
fundamental protective
systems and the channeling
of them into team play and
individual effort that possess
logic and reason acceptable
to the individual’s culture
represent the mental hygiene
of athletic endeavor.”
This is the mental hygiene of
athletic endeavor, controlling
these fundamental protective
systems, channeling them
into team play and individual
effort, both possessing
logic, both acceptable to the
individual's culture.
Original Paraphrased

24. "It is encouraging to note the
progress made by beekeeping to
meet the challenging times,
particularly in connection with
t h e d i f fi c u l t p ro b l e m o f
pesticides as they relate to the
keeping of bees in the highly
cultivated areas where bees are
needed for pollination."
Beekeeping is making encouraging
p r o g r e s s , r e s p o n d i n g t o
c h a l l e n g i n g t i m e s , f a c i n g
challenges such as the difficult
problem of pesticides, the
problem being to keep bees in the
highly cultivated areas where bees
are needed for pollination.
Original Paraphrased

25. Take Away Lessons
Cumulative Syntax
Bound Modifiers
Free Modifiers
Prepositional Phrases
Gerund Phrases
Participial Phrases
Infinitive Phrases

26. E.L. Doctorow
“Writing is a socially acceptable
form of schizophrenia.”