7.1. Tone and Style http://www.ck12.org
Sentence Order
The elements in an English sentence have a standard orcanonical position.Writers should understand this order of
elements because choosing to adhere to it or break it will draw readers’ attention to different elements of a sentence.
Thecanonical orderof elements in an English sentence is:
TABLE7.3:
Subject Verb Other elements (indirect and di-
rect objects, adverbials, etc.)
The teacher offered the students a solution to the prob-
lem during class.Generally, thesubjectis the doer or themain character, and theverbexpresses theaction, state, ordescription.
Other elementsmay include people or things affected by the action, adverbials (references to time, place, manner,
etc), and so on.
While it is true that English writing favors elements in the canonical order, this does not mean you should only
write in this order. It means that this sequence should only be broken when there is a clear reason for doing so
(adding emphasis, placing old information first, etc.). The canonical order is a principle and not an absolute rule
of writing.
Review Questions
Rewrite the sentences below and redistribute sentence elements according to the cannonical order.Hint:You should
start new sentences with the underlined elements.
- Finally, in a very apologetic tone,thedirectorspoketous.
_____
- After running for two hours and exercising for another two at the gym last night,Rachelcollapsed.
_____
- With words of encouragement after a long and difficult year,theteacheraddressedthestudents.
_____
The following lessons will help you determine how to shift the order of sentence elements to write cohesive sentences
and add emphasis when needed.