What do you think of Angell using an 81 word sentence followed by a 57 word sentence in his first paragraph?
Why might he do that? What is there to be gained?
Do you think it's effective?
What, in the sentences themselves, is the writer doing and what is being communicated? Pay particular attention to the longer one.
Note that he continues to use long sentences until the final paragraph. Then he doesn't. Why?
Answer any of the above in your comment. Or more than one if you wish.
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10 comments:
Long sentences are hard for me to understand; its complicated structure confuses me to identify a subject and a predicate, and which part modifies what.
I’m not sure what he gains by these, but it seems he has so much to say that the words are pouring out without stopping. I feel urgency and his strong emotion.
And when he uses a short sentence, because the use of long sentences is excessive, it’s more effective. His point comes clear.
...I’ll think about more...
His essay gives me some confusing when I find a question mark last of his sentence-Does he actually asked something about? I have to go back and carefully read again his question, and I realize what he wants. Only after few lines I totally forget what the write asked me about, however, I really can’t forget what takes place in New York in 2001.
He offers me some time to think about the horrible 9/11 terror.
Reading these extreme long sentences, the reader was pulled into a strong emotional world of sadness, tragedy and anger; however, the reader has to make stops, because, his (her) breath is being taken away for somehow...
Woken up from a long terrible traveling in the time, in his last paragraph, facing the reality, the writer states and confirms his fears for the futur. Thus, short sentences are clear, brief and precise.
And, interestingly enough, Angell is near the end of his life (age 86) and so it doesn't matter to him personally. He is a believer in the ideal of the American democracy (as are many of us) and despairs its possible loss.
Ben's Comment on Long Sentences:
Long sentence structure in the middle of our article but should be expressed clealy enough, and not frequently are all long sentences which still acceptable for me. I Don't suggest a very long sentence is being created in the first sentence of the paragraph. This type of structure will make the reader no patience to read continueously.
It is absolutely effective because it makes readers to reread and rethink the meaning of those words. Surely, it is hard to understand for us sometimes, but please remember, the writer wrote this article for New Yorker, not for ESL students.
If I had only read Angell's paper once it might be easy for me to misjudge his use of grammar. His language is complex to my under-educated mind. I needed to read and re-read to make sure I fully understood his punctuation and sentence structure. I'm also taking into consideration the mans' age. I do alot of reading and there have been books written so long ago that I just don't understand the language it's written in.
Slang and a turn of phrase change from generation to generation. I just assume he's writing as a man of his age and education. He writes perfectly. I couldn't find fault with any of it.
If anything, Angell's complexity is truly a sign of age, and the loss of a certain kind of classical education. Remember that long ago few had the ability to decipher such writing, but the few that did had a pretty rigorous education.
Because more of us are literate than ever before (but not equally; probably fewer than 10% of readers could handle Angell easily) it is easy to imagine that more people could read such difficult text. The number of good, frequent readers with a large vocabulary is just as few as it has always been!
I guess I really challenged you all here!
The 81 long sentence presents an allusion which hints of a series of disaster images, but they are hard to link to a tragedy because people enjoy a peaceful life too long ( since nineteen- nineties) to think of peril, for example, tall buildings go up to sky, tipped X-winged planes stuff among them, and a disaster drawing if kids combine the buildings and planes together. These images that even Pantagon strategists and op-ed cogitators couldn't figure out. So, the long sentence images how hard to link the tragedy to a long time peace.The following 57 word sentence is also an allusion that images how difficult situation that young country suffered like an old one suddenly.For example, the escaped survivors of 9/11 from out of a monstrous cloud look like a ghostly Kabuki ancestor. The mid- twenties firemen experience an aged history just minutes. The image reminds them how difficult to adjust as an aged country.
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