Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): As you scribble a sentence, you father a thought. You then sit down for hours before your computer to develop it into a piece of writing. Your initial sentences often vary in form between complex-compound, between statements, commands, questions and exclamations. Such sentences are often casual and loose.
A loose sentence does not finish with the completion of its main clause, since it contains one or two more subordinate clauses or a few modifiers to elaborate the main idea.
In the words of journalist Harold Evans, “In writing, you begin by announcing the main idea with an independent clause that is simple and straightforward, then you add subordinate or modifying elements after the subject and the predicate.”
Such sentences, though a little longer, are acceptable as well as necessary, but grammar gurus breathe down your neck insisting on shorter sentences.
There is an example of a loose but a fine sentence which shows the craftsmanship of Hemingway who always experimented with style.
The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck – The Old Man and The Sea, Ernest Hemingway.
The main idea of the sentence is – The old man was thin. The author purposely wrote a loose sentence to describe the old man.
Yet, a succession of loose sentences causes boredom, and you do not want to become a lifeless writing metronome that only gives off ticking.
Expressing your thought in a sentence is as difficult as finding your soul mate. It requires years of practice to vary sentence structure and style to become an artistic prose writer.
Avoid frequent loose sentences
An unskilled writer sometimes constructs a whole paragraph consisting of two clauses, the second instructed by a conjunction or a relative. Such writers use connectives like and, but, and, less frequently who, which, when, where and while. Nevertheless, occasional loose sentences prevent a style from becoming monotonous and give the reader certain relief. It should not be overused, says William Strunk JR and EB White.
An author uses loose sentences to add a number of ideas by adding phrases and clauses, related either to the main construction or to a preceding subordinate clause.
Since the number of subordinate clauses upturns an idea, the loose sentence adds drought to the thought of an author. Therefore, its frequent use is better avoided.
“Her collection of Dali’s art, which includes paintings, sculptures, posters, glass, jewellery, and knickknacks, impress even the most discerning experts.”
The writer has expressed two ideas through the above sentence, but has fallen into the trap of writing an ungrammatical sentence.
The author should have written “impresses,” since it represents a singular subject “her collection of Dali’s art.”
One idea the writer expresses is “her collection of Dali’s art includes paintings, sculptures, posters, glass, jewellery and knickknacks.” Another idea is “they impress even the most discerning experts.”
This is the reason that loose sentences are common in easy and unstudied writing.
Difficult to write periodic sentences
A loose sentence, also called a cumulative, is opposite to a periodic sentence which is well-structured and difficult to write, which many grammarians call a suspended sentence.
In such arrangements, you keep the main clause or its predicate close to your chest and disclose it only at the end. In this way, you hold your reader in suspense till the last word.
There are six words from Macbeth: The queen, my lord, is dead. The bard could have written: My lord, the queen is dead. But it would have lost the suspense that lies in “my lord” in the middle of the sentence.
Jonathan Swift also added music to his prose through periodic sentences. Let’s see how he opened his thought at the end of a sentence.
Their notions relating to the duties of parents and children differ extremely from ours – Gulliver’s Travels.
The main idea of the sentence lies in the last four words: differ extremely from ours.
