THE SENTENCE
longer write like Thomas Jefferson or Samuel Johnson, we
can still use parallelism and balance as ways of organizing
some aspects of experience and knowledge, and as means of
attaining economy, emphasis, and variety in our sentences.
For Practice
The following sentences all exhibit balanced construction.
Some exhibit a simple one-to-one balance; others are more com-
plicated. Identify the general pattern of each, /
; and so on.
was enjoying the privilege of studying at the world's finest uni-
versities; Negroes at home were revolting against their miserable
Stanley Sanders
As for me, am no more yours, nor you mine. Death hath cut us
asunder; and God hath divided me from the world and you from
me. Sir Walter Raleigh
For aristocrats and adventurers France meant big money; for most
Englishmen it came to seem a costly extravagance.
Geoffrey
Then she shrieked shrilly, and fell down in a swoon; and then
women bare her into her chamber, and there she made overmuch
Sir Thomas Malory
Heaven had now declared itself in favour of France, and had laid
bare its outstretched arm to take vengeance on her invaders.
David Hume
The more we saw in the Irishman a sort of warm and weak fidelity,
the more he regarded us with a sort of icy anger.
G. K. Chesterton
Building ceases, births diminish, deaths multiply; the nights
lengthen, and days grow shorter. Maurice Maeterlinck
In a few moments everything grew black, and the rain poured down

4. Centered structure: the main clause occupies the middle of the
sentence and is both preceded and followed by subordinate
constructions.
The four patterns may be mixed in varying degrees and fre-
quently are. Even so, it is probably true that most subordinate
sentences follow one pattern or another.
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THE SENTENCE
The Loose Sentence
At its simplest the loose sentence contains a main clause plus
a subordinate construction:
We must always be wary of conclusions drawn from the ways of
the social insects, since their evolutionary track lies so far from
Ours. Robert
The number of ideas in loose sentences is easily increased by
adding phrases and clauses, related either to the main con-
structions or to a preceding subordinate one:
found a large hall, obviously a former garage, dimly lit, and
packed With COtS.
knew had found a friend in the woman, who herself was a lonely
soul, never having known the love of man or child.
Emma Goldman
As the number of subordinate constructions increases, the
loose sentence approaches the cumulative style (discussed on
pages It is impossible to draw a line between loose
and cumulative sentences. Indeed, cumulative sentences (or
rather, most of them) are a special variety of the loose style.
The difference is relative, depending on the length and weight
of the subordinate constructions. In the cumulative sentence
these take over, becoming more than the main

loose structure, where the absence of a clear stopping place
may tempt you to ramble on and on.
The Periodic Sentence
Periodic sentences reverse the pattern of loose structure, be-
ginning with subordinate constructions and putting the main
clauses at the end:
there is no future for the black ghetto, the future of all Negroes
is diminished. Stanley Sanders
Given a moist planet with methane, formaldehyde, ammonia, and
some usable minerals, all of which abound, exposed to lightning
or ultraviolet radiation at the right temperature, life might start al-
most anywhere. Lewis Thomas
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THE SENTENCE
There is no one formula for the periodic sentence. Often,
however, the opening subordinate constructions are adverbial
clauses, as in the example by Stanley Sanders, or participial
phrases, as in that by Lewis Thomas.
Whatever kinds of subordination it uses, the periodic style
is emphatic. Delaying the principal thought increases its im-
portance. To the degree that more and more subordinate
clauses and phrases are accumulated at the beginning, further
postponing the main clause, the sense of climax increases
(within limits, of course; too long a delay will cause confu-
sion). Here is an instance of effectively postponing the main
point:
Paralyzed by the neurotic lassitude engendered by meeting one's
past at every turn, around every corner, inside every cupboard, go
aimlessly from room to room. Joan Didion
The periodic style is also more formal and literary than the

On the other hand, convoluted structure is formal, and it
can tax readers' attention, especially as the interrupting ele-
ments grow longer and more complicated:
Even the humble ambition, which long cherished, of making
sketches of those places which interested me, from a defect of eye
or of hand was totally ineffectual. Sir Walter Scott
The life story to be told of any creative worker is therefore by its
very nature, by its diversion of purpose and its qualified success,
by its grotesque transitions from sublimation to base necessity and
its pervasive stress towards flight, a comedy. H. c. Wells
These are good sentences, carefully articulated and precise;
but they are not easy to read. They demand attention; readers
must recognize when a construction is suspended and when
it is resumed and be able to put the pieces together. Used
sparingly, the long convoluted sentence has the virtue of the
unusual: it draws attention to itself and, more important, to
what it says, and it can challenge and stimulate the reader. A
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