The Need to Combine Sentences
Sentences have to be combined to avoid the monotony that would surely result if all sentences were brief and of equal length. (If you haven't already read them, see the sections on Avoiding Primer Style and Sentence Variety.) Part of the writer's task is to employ whatever music is available to him or her in language, and part of language's music lies within the rhythms of varied sentence length and structure. Even poets who write within the formal limits and sameness of an iambic pentameter beat will sometimes strike a chord against that beat and vary the structure of their clauses and sentence length, thus keeping the text alive and the reader awake. This section will explore some of the techniques we ordinary writers use to combine sentences.
Compounding Sentences
A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses. That means that there are at least two units of thought within the sentence, either one of which can stand by itself as its own sentence. The clauses of a compound sentence are either separated by a semicolon (relatively rare) or connected by a coordinating conjunction (which is, more often than not, preceded by a comma). And the two most common coordinating conjunctions are and and but.(The others are or, for, yet, and so.) This is the simplest technique we have for combining ideas:
Meriwether Lewis is justly famous for his expedition into the territory of the Louisiana Purchase and beyond, but few people know of his contributions to natural science.
Lewis had been well trained by scientists in Philadelphia prior to his expedition, and he was a curious man by nature.
Notice that the and does little more than link one idea to another; the but also links, but it does more work in terms of establishing an interesting relationship between ideas. The and is part of the immediate language arsenal of children and of dreams: one thing simply comes after another and the logical relationship between the ideas is not always evident or important. The word but (and the other coordinators) is at a slightly higher level of argument.
Subjects: When two or more subjects are doing parallel things, they can often be combined as a compounded subject.
Working together, President Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis convinced Congress to raise money for the expedition.
Objects: When the subject(s) is/are acting upon two or more things in parallel, the objects can be combined.
President Jefferson believed that the headwaters of the Missouri reached all the way to the Canadian border.
He also believed that meant he could claim all that land for the United States.
President Jefferson believed that the headwaters of the Missouri might reach all the way to the Canadian border and that he could claim all that land for the United States.
Notice that the objects must be parallel in construction: Jefferson believed that this was true and that was true. If the objects are not parallel (Jefferson was convinced of two things: that the Missouri reached all the way to the Canadian border and wanted to begin the expedition during his term in office.) the sentence can go awry. Click here to review the principles of parallelism.
Verbs and verbals: When the subject(s) is/are doing two things at once, ideas can sometimes be combined by compounding verbs and verb forms.
He studied the biological and natural sciences.
He learned how to categorize and draw animals accurately.
He studied the biological and natural sciences and learned how to categorize and draw animals accurately.
Notice that there is no comma preceding the "and learned" connecting the compounded elements above.
In Philadelphia, Lewis learned to chart the movement of the stars.
He also learned to analyze their movements with mathematical precision.
In Philadelphia, Lewis learned to chart and analyze the movement of the stars with mathematical precision.
OR — In Philadelphia, Lewis learned to chart the stars and analyze their movements with mathematical precision.
(Notice in this second version that we don't have to repeat the "to" of the infinitive to maintain parallel form.)
Modifiers: Whenever it is appropriate, modifiers such as prepositional phrases can be compounded.
Lewis and Clark recruited some of their adventurers from river-town bars.
They also used recruits from various military outposts.
Lewis and Clark recruited their adventurers from river-town bars and various military outposts.
Notice that we do not need to repeat the preposition from to make the ideas successfully parallel in form.
Subordinating One Clause to AnotherThe act of coordinating clauses simply links ideas; subordinating one clause to another establishes a more complex relationship between ideas, showing that one idea depends on another in some way: a chronological development, a cause-and-effect relationship, a conditional relationship, etc.Notice that in the second sentence, above, Sacagawea's name is a parenthetical element (structurally, the sentence adequately identifies her as "a pregnant, fifteen-year-old Indian woman"), and thus her name is set off by commas; Charbonneau's name, however, is essential to the meaning of the sentence (otherwise, which fur-trader are we talking about?) and is not set off by a pair of commas. Click here for additional help identifying and punctuating around parenthetical elements.
Using Participial Phrases to Connect IdeasA writer can integrate the idea of one sentence into a larger structure by turning that idea into a modifying phrase.
The expeditionary force was completely out of touch with their families for over two years.- They put their faith entirely in Lewis and Clark's leadership.
- They never once rebelled against their authority.
- Completely out of touch with their families for over two years, the men of the expedition put their faith in Lewis and Clark's leadership and never once rebelled against their authority.
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