Word by Word...Analyze Style

Please join me in congratulating NaTanya upon winning first place in English at the Arkansas State Beta Club Convention! Orlando, here we come! Wow!

Not turn in your analyisis of President Obama's speech? Please bring to class on Tuesday!

Your assignment is to read the first four chapters of The Call of the Wild and analyze Jack London's writing style utilizing five sentences of various lengths. Click here for the graphic organizer I had hoped to have prepared for you...just got electricity back last night! (I do hope you all have electricty now!)

Below are three sample sentences (source: The Literature Network):

"Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland."

• Complex sentence
• Two adverb subordinate clauses
• One participial phrase = subject-verb split

"His father, Elmo, a huge St. Bernard, had been the Judge's inseparable companion, and Buck bid fair to follow in the way of his father."

• Compound sentence
• Two appostive phrases (note punctuation)
• Infinitive phrase

Note London's use of participials within the next sentence:

"Straight at the man he launched his one hundred and forty pounds of fury, surcharged with the pent passion of two days and nights."

• Here he uses the participial phrases as a sentence opener and a sentence closing.
• What type of sentence is this one?

Please plan to continue using participial phrases to add vivid content to your sentences. Notice how much more detail this sentence conveys because of the author's purposeful use of participial phrases?

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