Project 2- Sentence Combining

Project 2- Sentence Combining

For this assignment, you will be asked to apply various strategies for creating more thoughtful and intricate sentences. You will first have to analyze the sentence structure and variety used by the author in a given reading selection. You will then create a draft of a response to a given prompt. You will then have to revise the draft paying close attention to the way in which your sentences have been structured. In the revised draft, you will have not only to apply a variety of constructions to your sentences, but will also have to provide explanations of the thought processes behind your choices.

Part 1 (40 Pts): Read the following passage fromChuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. In Microsoft Word, identify (select the text and highlight in color) ten sentences according to the following criteria:

two that contain more than 25 words
one that contains fewer than 10 words
two that contain interrupters such as appositives or other kinds of parenthetical elements set off by commas, dashes, or parentheses
two that use nontraditional word order (anastrophe or hyperbaton more generally, i.e., not SVO or SVC order)
one that begins with a coordinating or subordinating conjunction
one that joins independent clauses in a nontraditional way (comma splice or a dash)
one of your choice that you find to be stylistically notable

Then, for each sentence you identify, select the text again and useMicrosoft Word’s Comment function toidentify the sentence by number of words, function, and structure and answer the following questions as appropriate:

Long sentences often convey complexity and lend weight to an idea. What exactly (in terms of content) does Palahniuk want to convey complexity about and/or lend weight to in the long sentences you have selected? How do the long sentences accomplish (or not accomplish) this goal?

Long sentences that are successful should express their meaning clearly. Usually, such clarity is achieved by some kind of parallel or repeated structure that helps to keep a reader on track. Discuss the use (or lack of use) of such a strategy and its implications for clarity in the long sentences you select.

Short sentences often convey emphasis (especially when placed within a section of the text that contains a number of long sentences), finality, immaturity, erraticism, rapidity, and/or excitement. Does Palahniukhave one or more of these goals in mind in the short sentence you have selected? If so, discuss how his use of the short sentence helps to achieve this goal (or these goals); if not, speculate on what Palahniukgoal might be instead and explain how the short sentence helps to manifest this goal.

Sentences that contain appositives or some other kind of parenthetical element are separated from the rest of the sentence by commas, parentheses, or dashes. Which of these options does Palahniukchoose in the sentence you select and why do you think he does so?

Sentences that contain appositives or some other kind of parenthetical element are used to add information and/or to achieve sentence structure variety. Which of these goals do you think Palahniukwishes to attain in the sentences you select? (You may say both goals.) What makes you say so?

Sentences that contain a nontraditional word order generally force a reader to slow down and say, “Look at me.” (Because of the unusual syntax, these sentences literally take the reader longer to process cognitively.) In the sentences that you select, specify the unusual word order (contrast it with normal order) and explain why Palahniukmight want the reader to slow down at this particular place in the text. Also, does the nontraditional order “work” for you in terms of aesthetics, stylish innovation, rhythm, and/or elegance? Why or why not?

Are the selected sentences that begin with a conjunction (either coordinating or subordinating) or that join two independent clauses with commas (comma splice) or dashes clear and satisfactory in terms of flow? Why or why not?

Begin Excerpt:

Excerpt: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

This week the insomnia is back. Insomnia, and now the whole world figures to stop by and take a dump on my grave.

My boss is wearing his gray tie so today must be a Tuesday.

My boss brings a sheet of paper to my desk and asks if I’m looking for something. This paper was left in the copy machine, he says, and begins to read:

“The first rule of fight club is you don’t talk about fight club.”

His eyes go side to side across the paper, and he giggles.

“The second rule of fight club is you don’t talk about fight club.”

I hear Tyler’s words come out of my boss, Mister Boss with his midlife spread and family photo on his desk and his dreams about early retirement and winters spent at a trailer park hookup in some Arizona desert. My boss, with his extra-starched shirts and standing appointment for a haircut every Tuesday after lunch, he looks at me, and he says:

“I hope this isn’t yours.”

I am Joe’s Blood-Boiling Rage.

Tyler asked me to type up the fight club rules and make him ten copies. Not nine, not eleven. Tyler says, ten. Still I have the insomnia, and can’t remember sleeping since three nights ago. This must be the original I typed. I made ten copies, and forgot the original. The paparazzi flash of the copy machine in my face. The insomnia distance of everything, a copy of a copy of a copy. You can’t touch anything, and nothing can touch you.

My boss reads:

“The third rule of fight club is two men per fight.”

Neither of us blinks.

My boss reads:

“One fight at a time.”

I haven’t slept in three days unless I’m sleeping now. My boss shakes the paper under my nose. What about it, he says. Is this some little game I’m playing on company time? I’m paid for my full attention, not to waste time with little war games. And I’m not paid to abuse the copy machines.

What about it? He shakes the paper under my nose. What do I think, he asks, what should he do with an employee who spends company time in some little fantasy world. If I was in his shoes, what would I do?

What would I do?

The hole in my cheek, the blue-black swelling around my eyes, and the swollen red scar of Tyler's kiss on the back of my hand, a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy.

Speculation.

Why does Tyler want ten copies of the fight club rules?

Hindu cow.

What I would do, I say, is I’d be very careful who I talked to about this paper.

I say, it sounds like some dangerous psycho killer wrote this, and this buttoned-down schizophrenic could probably go over the edge at any moment in the working day and stalk from office to office with an Armalite AR-180 carbine gas-operated semiautomatic.

My boss just looks at me.

The guy, I say, is probably at home every night with a little rattail file, filing a cross into the tip of every one of his rounds. This way, when he shows up to work one morning and pumps a round into his nagging, ineffectual, petty, whining, butt-sucking, candy-ass boss, that one round will split along the filed grooves and spread open the way a dumdum bullet flowers inside you to blow a bushel load of your stinking guts out through your spine. Picture your guy chakra opening in a slow-motion explosion of sausage-casing small intestine.

My boss takes the paper out from under my nose.

Go ahead, I say, read some more.

No really, I say, it sounds fascinating. The work of a totally diseased mind.

And I smile. The little butthole-looking edges of the hole in my check are the same blue-black of a dog’s gums. The skin stretched tight across the swelling around my eyes feels varnished.

My boss just looks at me.

Let me help you, I say.

I say, the fourth rule of fight club is one fight at a time.

My boss looks at the rules and then looks at me.

I say, the fifth rule is no shoes, no shirts in the fight.

My boss looks at the rules and looks at me.

Maybe, I say, this totally diseased fuck would use an Eagle Apache carbine because an Apache takes a thirty-shot mag and only weighs nine pounds. The Armalite only takes a five-round magazine. With thirty shots, our totally fucked hero could go the length of mahogany row and take out every vice-president with a cartridge left over for each director.

Tyler’s words coming out of my mouth. I used to be such a nice person.

I just look at my boss. My boss has blue, blue, pale cornflower blue eyes.

The J and R 68 semiautomatic carbine also takes a thirty-shot mag, and it only weighs seven pounds.

My boss just looks at me.

It’s scary, I say. This is probably somebody he’s known for years. Probably this guy knows all about him, where he lives, and where his wife works and his kids go to school.

This is exhausting, and all of a sudden very, very boring.

And why does Tyler need ten copies of the fight club rules?

What I don’t have to say is I know about the leather interiors that cause birth defects. I know about the counterfeit brake linings that looked good enough to pass the purchasing agent, but fail after two thousand miles.

I know about the air-conditioning rheostat that gets so hot it sets fire to the maps in your glove compartment. I know how many people burn alive because of fuel-injector flashback. I’ve seen people’s legs cut off at the knee when turbochargers star exploding and send their vanes through the firewall and into the passenger compartment. I’ve been out in the field and seen the burned-up cars and seen the reports where CAUSE OF FAILURE is recorded as “unknown.”

No, I say, the paper’s not mine. I take the paper between two fingers and jerk it out of his hand. The edge must slice his thumb because his hand flies to his mouth, and he’s sucking hard, eyes wide open. I crumble the paper into a ball and toss it into the trash can next to my desk.

Maybe, I say, you shouldn’t be bringing me every little piece of trash you pick up

Part 2 (10 Pts): Below, write a paragraph describing a favorite book, play, film, song/CD/music video, or piece of art. Don’t think too much about style at the moment: just write. If this prompt does not inspire you, feel free to write about another topic or to use an excerpt from writing you have already composed.

Part 3 (40 Pts): Now it’s time to think more about style. Revise the paragraph from Part 2, composing (if necessary) and identifying(select the text and highlight in color) ten sentences according to the following criteria (which are not the same as Part I):

one that contains more than 25 words
one that contains fewer than 10 words
one that contains an interrupter such as an appositive or other kind of parenthetical element set off by commas, dashes, or parentheses
two that use nontraditional word order (anastrophe or hyperbaton more generally, i.e., not SVO or SVC order)
one that begins with a coordinating or subordinating conjunction
one that joins independent clauses in a nontraditional way (comma splice or a dash)
one that comprises a question (may be a rhetorical question)
one that is a fragment
one of your choice that you find to be stylistically notable

[See questions in Part 1 and two additional questions below.]

Why do you choose to use a question in the location in the text where you placed it? (Reasons often posited for the use of questions are inviting a reader to help construct the next idea [but not necessarily for rhetorical questions] or appealing to the reader more generally, sentence variety, transition or announcement of new topic, and authorial commentary.) Do you think your use of a question is effective? Why or why not?

Why do you choose to use a fragment in the location in the text where you placed it? (Reasons often posited for the use of fragments are emphasis, sentence variety, transition, and response.) Do you think your use of a fragment is effective? Why or why not? (Recall that a successful fragment is supposed to express a complete idea itself. How does your fragment do so?)

Part 4 (10 Pts): Write a brief description of what you have learned from reading Palahniuk’s style and how it has impacted your own style in Parts 2 and 3, especially with respect to your use of varying sentence structures.