Theocratic Aid To Kingdom Publishers

Lesson 41

VARY YOUR SENTENCE STRUCTURE!

Of all human creatures that have lived on the earth no two look exactly alike. Their facial expressions and characteristics are different. They do not dress the same. What if all persons were of the same size, had features that appeared the same, manifested the same traits, and wore identical clothing? Carry it farther, and consider what it would be like if there were only one kind of lower animal, and one type and color of flower. What would be the result? Dull, drab monotony. But look at the creation of Jehovah God, and what do you see? Variety! God has chosen to use many kinds of animals, trees, and flowers, of various sizes and colorings for each kind, to give beauty and interest to his creation. No two things in the visible creation are exactly alike. And the servants of the Creator cannot violate the law of variety and at the same time avoid monotony. The principle extends to the power of speech.

Attaining variety in sentence structure is an essential to good writing or speaking. Previous lessons have dis-

cussed different types of sentences, and shown the advantages and uses of those discussed. Each has its use. None should be neglected; none should be overworked. Simple, complex, compound, compound-complex, all should be drafted into service for sake of variety. Not only the structure, however, but also the length of sentences must vary. Some persons have acquired the habit of using all short, simple sentences. Others are inclined to convey their thought, or try to, in a series of long, drawn-out sentences, expressing in seventy or eighty words what might be stated with greater clarity and force with half as many. Such speakers and writers invariably tack onto the end of these rambling, marathon sentences a dependent clause or two. Thus they deny this strong end position to important material deserving emphasis and waste it on lesser matters.

One should be moderate in all things. Too much of anything is too much. The wise speaker avoids overuse of long or short sentences by including a variety of both in his talk. Short, well-constructed sentences are especially effective for injecting vigor and sparkle into a talk, or for flashing out suddenly an important thought that the speaker desires to impress on the listener's mind. They are particularly advantageous at the beginning of a talk or at the conclusion, where, in a crisp, persuasive style, the speaker summarizes the material presented in the body by a few swift sentences and attempts to move his listeners to action. In the lecture "Fighting for Liberty on the Home Front" the speaker, by use of concise statements, brought forcefully to the attention of the audience the consequence to Christians of Hitler's deal with the Vatican in 1933:

"Immediately thereafter [Hitler] proceeded to wipe out Jehovah's witnesses in Germany. He dissolved their meetings and offices. They were even arrested for celebrating the Lord's supper together. Off with them to the prisons and concentration camps! To the beheading block! Up against a wall before a firing squad! Said the Nazi concordat

signer: 'I will not tolerate that Jehovah's witnesses should besmirch the Roman Catholic Church.' "

Each of the sentences in this quoted statement is considered short, for, according to many grammarians, short sentences are composed of twenty words or less. The average English sentence is made up of approximately thirty words, while long sentences consist of fifty or more words. But short sentences, as in the foregoing quotation, would soon lose force and power and become irksome if persisted in. Hence mix in long sentences. They have certain values of their own. Long sentences lend weight and momentum to the flow of thought, and are valuable where detail or pleasing rhythm is desired. For effective speech mix long and short sentences. This will aid measurably in overcoming monotony, and in making the composition easy to listen to and smooth-flowing.

Previous lessons mentioned loose sentences and periodic sentences. Both are good, but too many of either is undesirable. Why? The loose sentence is the type generally used in everyday conversation. It is informal. But it is also unemphatic. Also, there is danger that this type of sentence may become careless and slovenly in construction, if clauses and phrases are not well placed, because the main thought is placed first and qualifications of detail are secondary. It is a snare for careless modifiers, misplaced modifiers. The periodic sentence, on the other hand, is emphatic; it is formal. It is needed for putting across vital points, but it is unbecoming to commonplace utterances or detail. So use loose sentences to give naturalness and conversational style to speech, and inject periodic sentences for force when it is needed. Mixing the two adds variety.

The two previous lessons showed means of gaining emphasis in sentence structure. Repetition, transposition, balance, climax, and other aids were presented. But one would not want these emphatic structures all the time. They would weigh the talk down and make it seem studied and unnatural. Furthermore, repeated use of them would cause

emphasis to give way to monotony. The reason they are emphatic is that they are out of the ordinary. Overuse would rob them of their good qualities. Hence, to avoid weariness and fatigue in the mind of the hearer or reader there must be a skillful interweaving of periodic, loose, short, and long, as well as other emphatic, sentences. The wise Kingdom publisher will use sparingly the more emphatic structures, holding them till their full strength and power is needed. So doing, the more common sentence structures will predominate in his talk and he will thereby have an appealing and conversational style of presenting the gospel to the common people in their homes.