Writing Exercise One

Making SENSE with the Standard ENglish SentencE

Write a paragraph that narrates your trip from home to the school classroom in which every sentence follows a strict subject-verb-object (S-V-O) order.

For example, each sentence should follow this form:

I left home. I drove my car....

You can, and should, use adjectives (such as "my") and any other of the resources of our language except prepositions. Try to make your story as complete as possible while all the time recognizing that without prepositions your story cannot be very complete.

NOT acceptable are sentences like the following:

I slammed my hand on the button of my alarm clock.

The phrases "on the button" and "of my alarm clock" are prepositional. Learn to recognize the words that "pre"-position something in relation to something else. Prepositional phrases begin with "positioning" words such as: in, on, under, from, across, with, without, of, between, next to, etc. (Check out the list of the most common prepositions.)

In other words, you can't use prepositional phrases at this time. Notice how difficult it is to write this way! I could not write the previous sentence because of "in other words," and "at this time." Try to write an involved, detailed paragraph but without using any prepositional phrases. It can be done. But it is not easy.

Meta-Narrative One: Write a paragraph in which you comment on why it was so difficult to write sentences only in the form S-V-O. Be specific. Tell in detail (by quoting from your story) exactly what you mean. Meta? That's a funny sounding word. Meta simply means "after." It's a word borrowed from the Greek language. The philosopher Aristotle, over four centuries before Christ, wrote a book called The Metaphysics. What he meant by his title was that this was a book that came after the understanding of his book called Physics. Since Aristotle, the word metaphysics has come to mean the study of things more spiritual than the material world studied in physics. I am using the word meta in its original understanding. It means you are to tell the story of your story. First you write a narrative, then after that you write about the narrative. First a narrative, then a meta-narrative.

Writing the meta-narratives is an opportunity to practice the most basic skill made possible with writing. All analysis and research depend on the ability to make use of texts (anything written or spoken and transcribed) to explain something else about the world and about your view of the world. In this case, you are using something you have written before (your narrative) to explain something (the difficulty you encountered) about the world of writing in a different manner than you are used to writing. In the next meta-narratives you will explain at least one change in sentence style that you have made. In every case, you will explain exactly what you have done by quoting from the text, your narrative. The use of quoted textual examples takes practice. These meta-narratives will give you enough practice so that when you do analytical papers (such as literary papers or exams) or research papers, you will have little trouble making the quoted material an integral part of your writing.

Some comments on S-V-O order

A sentence in the form "Jack hit the ball" will be called the Standard ENglish SEntence (SENSE). Although it is the standard, it not often that we write several sentences in a row using this simple form. Not often? In fact, no one ever writes for long in this simple form. Perhaps we wrote some sentences like this when we first learned to write. But even then, we soon learned to use prepositions because we use prepositions all the time when we speak. Even beginning speakers use prepositions. But I am asking you not to use them in this first writing exercise. Why? Because not using prepositions will draw your attention to how sentences are constructed in a most direct, and possibly difficult, manner. Very quickly the basic sentence structure will be revealed: A Subject does something (Verb) to something (Object).

SUBJECT VERB OBJECT

ex: I ate my breakfast.

Writing Exercise One should be difficult because the style is too easy. We never speak or write for very long in this basic sentence form.

Although most people who try these exercises start off writing a very simple story, some do not. The following is an example of Writing Exercise One done with enthusiasm and style and with no attempt to write a simple story. Most people will not attempt what this student did, but this student enjoyed the challenge and wrote a very enjoyable, challenging story.

It was 5:45 am. My alarm was buzzing, but I kept hitting snooze. Finally, 6:00 a.m. came, and I awoke. I felt my shower, my eyeopener, calling me. My shower was done. I noticed the clock and was running late. I must hurry. Breakfast? No time! I dressed, fixed my hair and make-up. It was 6:45, and I awoke my daughter. I fed her and dressed her. Now it's time. We must leave. I warmed my car and scraped the windows. Then I grabbed my daughter and a doughnut, pop, books, purse, and left. First stop, the baby sitter. I yelled a quick "Good bye, I love you," and I was moving again. I couldn't go any faster, or I'd spill my pop. A few turns, a few lights, I stuffed my mouth as I continued my journey. Finally, 8 minutes later I was there. I found a parking place, ran the steps, found my class, and hit my seat and not a minute early. -Christa Erwin / English 101, Spring 1994

Observations: This story is much more ambitious than most students will attempt. AT THIS TIME, it is best to keep your story simple by only using basic (SENSE) sentences such as:

I awoke. I showered. I dressed. I ate my breakfast....

Go to Recent Student Examples

Go to Writing Exercise Two

Return to Joe Napora's Homepage

Return to Style Manual