Sentence Clarity and Combining - 西安财经学院外国语学院首页Sentence Clarity and Combining - the school of foreign languages of Xian Institute of Finance and Economics home page.ppt

Sentence Clarity and Combining A workshop brought to you by The Purdue University Writing Lab Sentence Clarity Why do we need to be concerned with sentence clarity? To communicate effectively to the reader To make writing persuasive To show credibility and authority as a writer Common clarity problems Misplaced modifiers Dangling modifiers Passive voice Misplaced Modifiers a word or phrase that causes confusion because it is located within a sentence so far away from the word(s) to which it refers Misplaced Modifiers Consider the different meanings in the following sentences: The dog under the tree bit Carrie. vs. The dog bit Carrie under the tree. Misplaced Modifiers Sometimes misplaced modifiers are used for comic effect: The other day I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas Ill never know. -- Groucho Marx How might you correct the following sentence? Jennifer called her adorable kitten opening the can of tuna and filled the food bowl. Better: Opening the can of tuna, Jennifer called her adorable kitten and filled the food bowl. How might you correct the following sentence? Portia rushed to the store loaded with cash to buy the birthday gift. Better: Portia, loaded with cash, rushed to the store to buy the birthday gift. Misplaced Modifiers Some one-word modifiers often cause confusion: almost just nearly simply even hardly merely only Explain the meaning of each sentence: Almost everyone in the class passed the calculus exam. Everyone in the class almost passed the calculus exam. Which sentence indicates that everyone in the class failed the exam? Explain the meaning of each sentence: John nearly earned $100. John earned nearly $100. Which sentence indicates that John earned some money? Dangling modifiers a word or phrase that modifies another word or phrase that has not been stated clearly within the sentence often occur at the beginnings and ends of sentences often indicated by an -ing verb or a to + v