Introduction to Syntax and Syntactic Schemes

Syntax: The order of words and grammatical structure of a sentence

ex. "Passive voice" The sentence is constructed in such a way that the subject of the discussion os the recipient of the action.
--The race was won by the walk-on freshman.
--The walk-on freshman won the race.
When discussing complex issues or developing ideas more fully, passive voice can lead to lengthy, awkward, unclear sentences.

SO-we will be looking at how to make sentences clear and effective -- combining sentences, expanding sentences, and intentionally using grammar to develop our ideas

We will also be intentionally using syntax to create rhythm, poetry, musical devices as we write.  You do this, generally, by repeating words, phrases, and grammatical structures so that the meaning of your discussion is reflected by and developed by your word order.

This is especially important when writing something that will be spoken to an audience. Many of our texts will be political addresses.

Let's start with a very basic form of syntactic scheme that almost always makes you sound amazing: Parallel Structure