Week 8 Harkins

How to Write a Sentence

Thus far, in my experiences with Stanley Fish and his teaching of how to read and write sentences, I have learned a lot. Coming into the reading, I already knew a lot about the parts of speech and the construction and diagrams of sentences. However, Mr. Fish has helped enlighten me to non-abstract reasons why sentences are constructed and written the way they are. His frank way of speaking and numerous examples help to life to his teaching.

1) Subordinating and additive sentence styles at two ways to communicate thoughts. The subordinating is used when one wants to give a specific order and hierarchy to what they are saying, giving it a much more formulated and formal feel. The additive style, on the other hand, has a more stream-of-consciousness flow to it, having each peace merely added to the rest rather than put into a specific place within it.

2) I found Gertrude Stein’s sentence very confusing. Without the traditional punctuation and capitalization, I found myself becoming lost in her words and not being able to follow her train of thought at all. For me, this was much more a detriment to my understanding than a bolster.

3) Little fishes swimming in the stream, the wind rustling through the leaves, the old tree bowing with age over the water, the picture captured his mind, everything bringing calm and peace, nothing disturbing his time of solitude, relaxing.