Note 8
January 24, 2022•315 words
1b) They sailed and trailed and flew and raced and crawled and walked and were carried, finally, home.
John Knowles, Indian Summer, 4
Knowles uses deliberately incorrect punctuation with 'and' between the verbs in a list. This syntax tends to emphasize the large number of actions 'they' did before they reached home. As readers, this allows us to focus on/realize the great number rather than the actions themselves.
2a)All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural address, January 20, 1961
The use of a repeated structure 'Nor' emphasized the length of 'all this'. Its continuous use of larger time frame, 'first 1000 days, life of administration, lifetime on this planet' is used to make it clear that 'it' will go on for long. However, the use of 'but' gives an break to the long sentences prior and emphasizes that action should be taken now.
Find an online advertisement containing visuals and 2-5 sentences. Copy the copy (see definition #3 here) to your blog and add a hyperlink to the full advertisement. Answer the following guiding question in 300 - 500 words:
The advertisement makes use of the imperative verbs tense to urge you to have a drink, rather than ask you which has more of a persuasive effect establishing an assertive tone. The author also adds a collective pronoun of 'let's' (let us) to provide a sense of togetherness, and it reaches out to you as the reader specifically as it creates a feeling that 'you' individually are part of the us, providing a sense of community to the drink. The phrase call it 'coke' or 'coca-cola'...
How is syntax used to persuade the reader?