The moon went over the sky and the surf roared on the rocks. The roosters crowed the first call. The surf subsided to a whispering surge against the reef. The moon dropped toward the sea. The roosters crowed again.
The moon was near down to the water when Pepe rode on a winded horse to his home flat. His dog bounced out and circled the horse yelping with pleasure. Pepe slid off the saddle to the ground. The weathered little shack was silver in the moonlight and the square shadow of it was black to the north and east. Against the east the piling mountains were misty with light; their tops melted into the sky.
LIMIT EACH IDEA OR ACTION TO A SINGLE SENTENCE.
In this selection John Steinbeck is saying something simple: Mama
and the children have retired, night is passing, and , as morning approaches,
Pepe rides into the farmyard. The simplicity of the action calls for simplicity
in sentence structure. This simple structure give us one action
at a time: " The moon went over the sky," "the surf roared on the rocks,"
"The roosters crowed." Most of the sentences are quite brief. Only two
sentences have internal punctuation, and there are no unnecessary words
or phrases. Each event stands out boldly, creating a total effect of extreme
simplicity.
VARY THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF THE SIMPLE SENTENCE.
The simplicity of Steinbeck's simple sentences does not bore the reader
because the author introduces variety by (1) changing sentence length,
(2) pairing short sentences, and (3) mixing description with action.
Note the difference in length between the five shorter sentences in the
second paragraph and the first sentence and last two sentences of the selection.
Note, also, that the descriptive sentences are longer than the action sentences.
Action words like crowed have a kind of built in descriptiveness;
words like was do not, and therefore need to be supported by words
like silver, black, or other purely descriptive words.
ASSIGNMENT : Write a paragraph describing an exciting event or natural occurrence, mixing some description with the action, but always fitting the sentence to the simplicity or complexity of the events you use. Keep in mind the sentence variations you have learned. Be sure the action flows from sentence to sentence. If you can't think of a topic, try one of these:
a. meeting a famous person
b. your first date with the man/woman you've been wanting
to go out with for weeks!
c. you witness a particularly heated argument between
two of your closest friends
d. a three alarm fire