Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Sources of extracts used in the text
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Reflection and Research
- Part II The Dynamics of an Essay
- Part III Language
- 7 You, your language and your material
- 8 Analytical language I: sentences
- 9 Analytical language 2: rhetorical strategies
- 10 Cohesion and texture
- 11 Conventions of academic writing
- Appendices
- Index
8 - Analytical language I: sentences
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Sources of extracts used in the text
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Reflection and Research
- Part II The Dynamics of an Essay
- Part III Language
- 7 You, your language and your material
- 8 Analytical language I: sentences
- 9 Analytical language 2: rhetorical strategies
- 10 Cohesion and texture
- 11 Conventions of academic writing
- Appendices
- Index
Summary
The world was made before the English language, and seemingly upon a different design.
robert louis stevensonDiscrimination and confusion
The quotation above expresses one writer's rueful admission that there is nothing easy or natural about getting the English language (or any other, for that matter) to constitute adequately what the world is like. The language has to be pushed and coaxed, stretched and compressed, chiselled and hammered to get it to match the reality you are trying to make sense of. It is common to talk about ‘polishing’ your language — like a diamond — as if that is all you have to do. But before that the diamond has to be mined and cut. This is the hardest part. As T. S. Eliot says:
Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish …
(‘Burnt Norton’ in Four Quartets)
When they do these things we easily become confused and, hence, what we are writing about becomes confused and not always easily understood by a reader.
In this chapter we are going to examine some of the confusions that can arise when we try to combine words into sentences. It is the province of grammar to help us discriminate between making sense and engendering confusion when we combine words.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Student's Writing Guide for the Arts and Social Sciences , pp. 161 - 185Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989