Syntax

Question 1
Analyse the writers’ use of passive verb construction and repetition in the following examples (italics mine):

1) We are made kind by being kind.
Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind, 77

2) They sailed and trailed and flew and raced and crawled and walked and were carried, finally, home.
John Knowles, Indian Summer, 4

1. Passive verb construction is when the writer combines a form of the the verb, with a past principle of the main verb. In this example it is 'made' and 'being'. This shows the result of a previous action, and how they're related.
   Additionally, repetition of the word 'kind' is used. Indicating its importance.

2. Repetition of the word 'and' is used. Emphasizing the amount of things they did, as the constant repetition of and makes it seem as if its never ending.

Question 2
Analyse the speaker’s use of parallelism and sentence length in the following example:

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

a. Parallelism refers to using similar words, clauses, phrases, sentence structure, or other grammatical elements to emphasize similar ideas in a sentence. In this sentence grammatical elements such as word order are repeated in. parts of the sentence to create parallelism. Every part is started of wil the idea of it not being finished, and them followed with the time. Different sentence lengths are used. The paragraph is started with a shorter sentence, and then a longer one. This might emphasize the idea of it never being finished, as it is just getting longer.

Question 3
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:

How is syntax used to persuade the reader?

Advertisement:
https://www.marketingmag.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Coke1.jpg

In this coke advertisement, to advertise the name labeled bottles, different forms of syntax is used to persuade the reader. For example parallelism is used throughout the sentences. As in every part friend is the last word, and instead the word right before it is altered. This gives emphasis on the idea, as every part is almost identical, but still alters it just with 1 word in every part. Persuading the reader as it repeats itself, highlighting the idea. The use of a compound sentence is used to indicate different, but still similar, ideas in 1 sentence. This is by the use of several commas. This makes the advertisement more persuasive, as the compound sentence engages the reader more.

Additionally, an imperative sentence is used at the beginning of the advertisement, where it is telling the reader to ‘share a coke with a friend’. This might intrigue the reader to read the rest of the advertisement, as they could be questioning why the imperative sentence is telling them to do a certain thing. Therefore, the imperative sentence makes the advertisement more persuasive. Additionally, it also gets the message of the advertisement across clearly, as it starts simple and straightforward which readers prefer.