CONTROL YOUR  SENTENCE PREDICATION

A little nervous chill ran through his back as he saw Paulie Dahler get up to hit. On Gelberg's second toss Paulie stepped in and sent the ball sailing into the air. A panic seized Marty as he saw it coming at him. He took a step nervously forward, then backward, then forward again, trying as hard as he could to judge the ball. It smacked into his cupped palms, bounced out and dribbled toward the curb. He scrambled after it, hearing them shouting at him, and feeling himself getting more scared every instant. He kicked the ball with his sneaker, got his hand on it, and straightening himself in a fever of fright, heaved it with all his strength at Ray-Ray on first. The moment the ball left his hand he knew he had done the wrong thing. Paulie was already on his way to second; and besides, the throw was wild. Ray-Ray leaped into the air, his arms flung up, but it was way over his head, bouncing beyond him on the sidewalk and almost hitting a woman who was jouncing a baby carriage at the door of the apratment house apposite.

With his heart beating the same way it did whenver anyone chased him, Marty watched Paulie gallop across the plate. He sniffled his nose, which was beginning to run again, and felt like crying.

Narrow the focus with the predicate. The subject controls the direction of the sentence, but the predicate particularizes the meaning started by the subject. Once the writer names something, he/she follows the naming with information about it. A name by itself is an unfinished carrier of meaning. A predicate narrows the focus of meaning. When you write man, the reader doesn't have a very good idea of what you are talking about. But when you write The man hesitated before the manager's door, uncertain of his reception, the reader gets a much better idea of what you mean by man. The sentence progressively particularizes the notion of the subject man. The first sentence of the unit selection little nervous chill develops meaning as follows:

Subject	Predicate
A little nervous chill	.
did what? is what?	ran
where?	through his back
how?	.
when?	as he saw Paulie Dahler get up to hit
to whom?	.
why?	.

Use expressive verbs. The verb is the center of anything we say about the subject. Expressive verbs particularize action and give the reader a more specific or concrete description than a general verb. Talk is a general verb. Chatter, gossip, prattle, jabber are expressive verbs. These expressive verbs give specific, definite qualities to the action and help the scene come to life. Mark the verbs used in the unit selection and note how specific and therefore how expressive they are.

ASSIGNMENT

Write a short description of a happening that made you feel particularly religious and/or spiritual. Do not specifically state the impression that this event created in you. Let your description suggest that impression. Don't say, "I felt really spiritual when ...." Rather describe the event so well that the reader will have the same feeling that you did. Use expressive verbs to recreate your main impression for the reader.