STALKEROID: lam's rhetorical analysis

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Have you ever wondered how you reach a conclusion after a rambly post? Ever forgotten what your argument was in the middle of a sentence? Have you ever asked yourself about grammar, sentence structure, or where a comma goes? These are questions of semantics and syntax, tools that writers absolutely must use.

Here is where I am showcasing some seriously great usage of words. In the following posts, I will pick out details that explain how people write and what the purpose of given techniques in juxtaposition with the actual plot of the mentioned characters.

I do not claim to own or hold any influence in the writings of the following authors, and each person is entitled to his or her rights to tell me to take down their posts.

Just a btdubz, don't forget to check out Cookie's thread reviews and Char's character analysis! Is TI great or what?!

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[atrb=border,0,true] 000. Back story: Hunter Vega is Tabitha's manager. Tabitha, who has been through quite a few bumps in the road, has Adam, her most important past love interest, with them on the trip. Even with this obstruction, she finds herself falling for Hunter. Hunter is also Rockie Vega's younger brother, complicating matters a bit. Tabitha and Hunter both have intolerant older siblings. Rockie finds out about Hunter and Tabitha and is clear of her disapproval, but that doesn't stop these two kids. If you don't know about Tabitha's life, she lacks a prominent father figure -- biologically, of course, since she has Samson Fletcher to fill in that spot -- and is filling in the hole with men. What she has with Hunter is great at the beginning, but it is sure to burn out. 001. "It amazed her how different he was from Rockie; they were definitely the epitome of yin and yang." Here is an allusion to the known philosophy of yin and yang. We all understand that the East Asian idea was that there had to be a balance between good and evil, and one could not exist without the other. Such importance applies to the relationship between Rockie and Hunter, the Vegas in the industry. Tough and at times cruel, Rockie has proven to be a resilient member of the group of friends Tabitha becomes involved with. Hunter is, by definition, her opposite. During the short relationship he shares with Tabitha, he is nothing but sweet to her. 002. "Though he had yet to kiss her, touch her, anything, they had done a lot of bonding." Here is an example of an antithesis. There is a point presented (he and Tabitha were not physically progressive) and shot down. The effect is caused by a conjunctive adverb ("though") that indicates a clear-cut relationship along with a transition. Soma's technique here is weakening the end of the sentence, creating a top-heavy effect. The reader's focus falls on the fact that the two had not kissed, touched, anything. The omission of a conjunction between "her" and "anything" also holds significance. This asyndeton speeds up the sentence, making the end cut more effective. The periodic construction is extremely beneficial to the organization of Soma's paragraph. 003. "To prove to them that Tabby was not that type of person and that she was a good person, even if the compliments he threw her way didn't work so well." Soma's fragment begins with an infinitive. Note that most sentences that begin with infinitives typically add a pedantic air to the rest of the sentence. Soma's effect creates a structure that draws the reader's attention to this flow of thought. The point made here is that Tabitha is not what she is rumored to be. Although Hollywood makes her out to be something she's not, Hunter sees past it, and he wants everyone to understand what she is to him. Sweet, yeah? <3 004. "As much as she hated to admit it, she understood why Rockie didn't want her to be with her brother." In direct relation to what Soma said, the sentence hits the audience with quite a shocker. The prepositional phrase is used to make the reader think about how much she dislikes the fact that she understands why Rockie disapproves. Since everyone knows at this point that Rockie says, "No way!" to their union, Alexa is utilizing the prepositional phrase, a conditional modifier, to show the ideas that line up. [/style][style=width: 450px; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; text-align: center; color: #000000; line-height: 80%; float: right; position: bottom; top: -40px; left: -58px; margin-bottom: -100px;]rights belong to alexa and soma of TI

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[atrb=border,0,true] 000. Here's the back story: Dominic and Mikaela are not like other couples. And by couple, I mean that they are... well, their feelings for each other are apparent. As we all know, though, this relationship is CRAYZAY complicated. What is interesting about them is the fact that they have chemistry within the writing AND outside -- Cookie and Dani have proven to be quite a dynamic duo. If you want more information on Mikaela and Dominic, I highly recommend reading their past threads. Of course, you won't get the whole experience: there are numerous IC moments that are notable. However, keep your eye out for these two. What a pair and, according to my choice of the week, what great writing. 001. "Barely a glance was cast his way, barely a word exchanged, except in the occasional instance when their characters might interact on set." Here's a brilliant introduction. Dani has always been pretty proficient at writing these. With a back story, though, it is all the better. Dominic and Mikaela are going through some... issues. Dominic is obviously pretty much head-over-heels for Mikaela, but since they're not there just yet, they've resorted to some game of jealousy tennis. In this sentence, Dani uses a form of repetition. Why? Well, if you deconstruct just what the word "barely" does, you can see how it corresponds with the relationship that Dominic and Mikaela have. Intentionally or not, Dani has conjured the bare connotation. He is left with nothing, nothing at all. The repetition is a simple reinforcement, yes, but on top of their background plot, it is extremely effective as a tool. Dominic is stripped bare because of his feelings for Dominic. Now that Dani has used the word "barely" twice, we can all nod and say, "Aww." 002. "Knowing that Mikaela continued to have intimate relationships with other men was agonizing, like a bucket of salt being dumped on the lacerations that had been cut into his heart." At the beginning of this sentence stands a gerund that is being utilized to modify Dominic's state of mind. Considering it is modifying a noun/pronoun, it is a participle. A participle phrase evokes movement and description. On top of that, Dani layers a simile on her sentence to further add movement. The simile feels like a quick but smooth cut, just as she says. The way she structures the movements beside each other makes the sentence hold its own pace. What's not to love? Besides, she's mentioning Dominic's heart. How could anyone look at his face and not want to love him for eternity? 003. "Yet no much how he begged and pleaded - yes, because he was at the point of pleading for her attention; pride was no longer a factor - she still refused to talk to him or give him the time of day." The use of a conjunction at the beginning of a sentence is a change in the tide. Here, Dani is describing the way Dominic feels rejected and turned around. By using yet, she is literally turning her point. The transition is seamless; I wouldn't have caught it, but I am looking for these tools. By presenting a point then opposing it, Dani basically shifts the reader's thought backward, as if she were redirecting a person down a street. The separation of thought also makes the reader stop to take down the information that is given. She is weakening Dominic to Mikaela, a point that needs a while to be registered. Anyone who knows Dom's history is aware that his walls are hard to break down. Now that they're down and open, he's being turned around and sent away. 004. "When people picked at him, Dominic didn’t curl up into the fetal position or cry in a corner after admitting defeat." A subordinating conjunction is used to present a condition to alter the base clause. In the same sentence with a negative, this tool is a killer. Cookie gives the image of Dominic being bothered (weakened, per say), then she denies Dominic's weakness. This is a way of showing how well Mikaela knows Dominic. In the following sentence, the two are compared. In juxtaposition, one could be shocked that the two actually weren't created by the writers to be together. The odds that the two ended up so comparable was luck. Oh, the magic of TI! 005. "For years she did nothing but battle with her confused feelings of love and hatred, guilt and vengeful satisfaction." "For years" almost adds a weight to the top of this sentence. By beginning it this way, Cookie is throwing it out there that this game of love-and-hide has been going on for a long time, longer than most of us can go back and understand in the relationship between Dominic and Mik. When "love" is used beside hatred, guilt, and vengeful satisfaction, there are so many charged emotions that the reader has to swallow these thoughts. It seems like there is a guilty pleasure in all of the times the two have fought, which is what their relationship is: painful bliss. 006. "It was useless, however, because Dominic was bigger and stronger than her." A conjunctive adverb is like a knife when used in the middle of the sentence. As the reader scans the words, he or she is interrupted by the abrupt word, "however." When Dominic approaches Mikaela, she tries to escape his grasp. It is clear that she does not want to make any contact with him, which she displays by opposing him. Cookie builds Mikaela's strength with this act of rebellion and uses the conjunctive adverb to shift that thought. Even if Mikaela is powerful, she is no match for her male counterpart. 007. "On top of that Mikaela seemed to make a habit out of bringing up other men whenever Dominic was around." The prepositional phrase, "on top of," is known as, well, a ranting phrase. When we discuss arguments we have with people, we typically say, "On top of that, she stole my hairnet." We stack ideas to further our point. While Dani vents about the injustices Dominic has experienced, she stacks the ideas. There are numerous reasons why Dominic has a right to be angry with Mikaela, yes. The interesting part of all of it is this: Mikaela is mad at Dominic right now. She's ignoring him. He's trying to get her attention. Dani's smooth beginning of her post is getting a person to look at both sides and think, wow, Dom is being a little bit soft right now. 008. "But Mikaela saw right through him. She didn’t want him. So he took it out on her, wanting to make her hurt as much as he did." Short sentences are bullets. In a paragraph, too many can be elementary. Two in quick succession can be jarring. Dani's writing is almost sing-songy when she describes the cold version of Mikaela, the one who is ignoring Dominic and knowingly grinding his gears. The two sentences, short in length and to-the-point, are as quipped as the lashes in Dominic's heart. The following conjunction is a support as to why this sad fact is so important. To Mikaela, Dominic is invisible. Because of this, he is taking it out on her. His actions are justified because of the stack of transgressions committed by Mikaela and the fact that she had the nerve to ignore him. 009. "But she couldn’t shake the jealousy and the pain it caused. She couldn’t shake the anger he felt when she treated him badly." The parallelism used here is paired with clear repetition of the same idea. The anger is what she is causing by making him jealous. By making him feel pained, she feels better. Yet a part of her feels so connected to him that his emotions are linked to her own. With the parallelism, there is some serious brilliance here. The sentences are parallel, the ideas are parallel to each other, and the characters are parallel. 010. "Mikaela was tired. She was tired of running, tired of fighting, tired of pretending, and physically tired of struggling against Dominic." This sentence made me feel out of breath. With the extended repetition, Cookie emulates the exhausted feeling Mikaela is experiencing. All of the events prior to this are thrown into this symbol: instead of Dominic trying to control her, he subdues her to make her stop hurting him physically. Figuratively, he is trying to make her stop lashing out, to calm down and trust him in a way that she had never trusted Ethan. This sentence ties the symbolism together into a neat little package. 011. "All of it was frustrating and confusing, and Dominic’s mind toyed with him by engaging in endless rounds of the torturous “she loves me, she loves me not” game." In these simple words, Dani sums up the entire point of the thread. The "en" "in" "en" adds a flow in the sentence that seems to quicken the pace. By pacing sentences, Dani actually builds suspense and intense anticipation that leaves a reader on the edge of his/her seat. Hopefully, this thread is continuing. I won't claim to be impartial; Dani and Cookie are one of the greatest roleplaying pairs I have encountered. If you haven't read some Dom/Mik threads, pick up some archived threads and prepare to be blown away. [/style][style=width: 450px; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; text-align: center; color: #000000; line-height: 80%; float: right; position: bottom; top: -40px; left: -58px; margin-bottom: -100px;]rights belong to Cookie and Dani of TI

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[atrb=border,0,true] 000. Back story: Ryland and Raynold (um, adorable names for a couple!) are friends. In the middle of this thread, I was thinking that Raynold was slam-dunking his cute butt into a terrible, permanent friend zone. Ryland is boy crazy, though, and craves attention. What Raynold gives her is just that; he thinks she's beautiful and interesting and fun. The two are adorable, to say the least. After this thread, they go on to become a couple, which is an interesting process that reminds me of a teenager's courtship. If you have time, go on and look at this! 001. "Ryland tended to be a more careful type of person, although when influenced she could be quite the badass and party animal..." Dayna is using a conjunctive adverb to connect and divide these two thoughts. By doing this, she is characterizing Ryland. Her personality is ruthlessly clear in Dayna's writing, which is a true luxury to readers. We understand that Ryland can be careful, but she is impressionable and excitable. The antithesis is nicely done. 002. "It was something usual for him to tramp hither and thither." My heart actually found itself swelling at this sentence. Dayna and Neg's chemistry throughout the thread clings to the humor and awkwardness of the relationship between Ryland and Raynold. While Ryland is unfathomably oblivious to the boy's feelings for her, he is incredibly observant of her actions and jealous of her involvement with a famous writer. The two are very different, which comes up in the writing later. "Hither and thither" is a use of a colloquialism. It is so informal that it can make the reader laugh at the dissonance is shows within the typically formal writing that Neg uses. She avoids contractions, which makes the informal blast all the better. 003. "Ryland, a young and pretty blonde girl, opened the front door with a happy smile upon her face." The appositive here is almost impersonal, showing that Ryland has pretty simple features. She is young, pretty, and blonde, which are features that Raynold notices when he sees her. Even so, he truly likes her company and shows that she is aesthetically appealing in his eyes. She's a cheerful young woman in bright colors. This just reminds me of a teenage dream. 004. "She was passive, though, so she really didn’t give much of a shit." The use of a conjunctive adverb in the middle of this sentence cuts the ideas in half and sticks them back together again -- almost like glue. Then, Dayna adds "shit," another colloquialism. The cuss word actually made me laugh out loud because it was in the midst of such serious writing. 005. "She looked like a real sun with her long blonde hair, with this outfit and with her shining smile. Suddenly, Ray felt like a person who was at the wrong place – with his old jeans and black Joy Division t-shirt he seemed like a depressing dark cloud next to the shining girl." The simile here characterizes Ryland as a sunny, bright person. She is also vivacious, like a big ball of vitamin D. The following juxtaposition that Neg uses to explain how Raynold looks beside his crush is brilliant. The description includes connotations that seem grimy or gritty; Raynold has that feel to him, considering he's some hipster guy who hates politics and most mainstream topics. 006. "However, they lived in a presentable home, and that was what Ray liked most in them." Neg's construction here presents a turning point in the description of Ryland's home. She and her twin lived in a presentable home, even if it wasn't large or extravagant. Dayna goes on to explain that Ryland and her sister choose to remain in a small residence because they don't feel the need to buy out a huge home and leave it behind. "However," a transitional word, is used to connect ideas in this paragraph. 007. "As he spoke to her she run her fingers along the bottom of her shirt, feeling the uneven stitching in the fabric, enjoying the rough feeling against her fingers." The prepositional phrase is stretched out, making the sentence seem longer. Longer sentences are stereotypically hard to hold together. They're like rubber bands; the idea can be thinned and lost throughout the words. Dayna's technique here is flawless for the situation. She's showing that Ryland is losing a bit of interest with what Raynold is saying because she doesn't really talk politics. The way the sentence is constructed conveys the point perfectly. 008. "Suddenly, a cushion hit her in the face and she grabbed the pillow, spitting the hair that had flown into her mouth out and she took the opportunity to take a tight grip on the cushion and smack him in the side of the head with it a couple of times, practically on top of him as she was gaining her revenge." Beginning with an adverb is always exciting. It generates a movement, which is exactly what happens in this excerpt. Note that numerous verbs are used: "hit," "grabbed," "spitting," "flown," "took," "smack," and "gaining." This generates movement and allows the reader to follow along with an image in mind. 009. "Giving her a time to think about his suggestion he joked, “I’m thirsty and you’re such an awful hostess.” He shook his head in disapproval and then quickly added. 'Just saying.'" The periodically constructed sentence uses "giving" as an absolute. It alters Raynold as a subject, allowing more description to be added. He gives her time to think about the suggestion while he moves onto another topic. The amount of action and thought in this blurb is fantastically done. 010. "If she had noticed Ray’s nervousness that was probably something she would have told him." The "if" clause presents yet another condition to rely on. This is another sentence that characterizes Ryland and the relationship she has with Raynold. She is very blatantly oblivious to the feelings he has for her. He has been checking her out and all, but she avoids looking into it because she simple doesn't take note of the long gazes and jealousy. 011. "Raynold didn’t want to look like a complete asshole in Ryland’s eyes and even if she wasn’t such a close friend of him, she was quite good hostess and he couldn’t say no. However, he was too confused to even be careful of where he was walking and he almost broke his head at the door when he was going out of the kitchen." Neg pulls off another seamless transition with the word, "however." With transitions, here's a piece of advice: "though," "although," "indeed," and "accordingly" are the most commonly used. To diverge from these is to accomplish something amazing, especially if it's made a habit. In these two sentences, Neg quietly shifts the subject from Raynold's ideas on Ryland's opinion on him to the environment around him. 012. "She let go of the door knob and pulled him into a tight hug, standing on her tip toes as she wrapped her arms around his neck, ”Have fun at your thing.” She told him, right next to his ear." Ryland's abrasiveness is absolutely riveting. I want to know where she gets the balls to be so confident! The sentences are also filled with action instead of thought, going along with the fact that she loves attention and boys. She likes relationships, but she doesn't exactly think through it all. She's the adventurous type. The tools used in this thread clearly define who Ryland is, and it leaves Raynold as he should be: mysterious, unsolved, and cripplingly unique. I really do enjoy their dynamic, and the obvious chemistry between Neg and Dayna is nicely displayed within the action-reaction of their posts and the characterization that they bounce back and forth. I hope this couple lasts! [/style][style=width: 450px; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; text-align: center; color: #000000; line-height: 80%; float: right; position: bottom; top: -40px; left: -58px; margin-bottom: -100px;]rights belong to dayna and neg of TI

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Let us discuss sentence construction!

There are two types of constructions that writers rely on: loose construction and periodic construction. If you ever get stuck on how to start a sentence, this is what you should be reading. If you want to see a good example of writing with a mixture, I have to give a round of applause to Dani. She does an incredible job of combining the two.

Let's start with loose construction. Loosely constructed sentences begin with nouns, pronouns, and article adjectives. Though some people believe that loosely constructed sentences are elementary, that is only the case when they are not mixed with periodically constructed sentences. The reason is that loosely constructed sentences lack the suspense that is brought forth by periodically constructed sentences. Here are a few examples of loosely constructed sentences in Char and Elle's thread:

Washington was breath-taking with its beauty, and the Starbucks was by far the best she'd ever had in its good, old origin.

She was in character and he straightened to catch onto his.

Directors absolutely loathed ruining a perfect shot for the sake of an air-headed actress.

As you can see, these sentences begin with a noun and are used to describe the setting or the subjects. To show you the huge difference between these and there more complex counterparts, let us delve into the art of periodic construction.

Periodic construction is used to further an argument and to unify paragraphs. Also, they are extremely beneficial in keeping people interested in what they read. In Into the Wild, as my class has learned, Jon Krakauer uses both of these types to yo-yo his audience between sadness and admiration. The mixture is intense and directs movement and characterization in our writing.

Periodic construction comes into play when we utilize conjunctive adverbs, infinitives, prepositional phrases, absolutes, and subordinating conjunctions to begin our sentences. As pointed out in some earlier dialectical posts I have done above, this can create a top-heavy affect by building suspense through the sentence and giving the point at the very end. Here are some examples from the thread:

Of all the movies he'd been in, this had been the movie that seemed the most in his own mind set, an easy pick.

Despite the flow of their character's dialogue, Andrea wasn't entirely certain how much longer she could uphold the act.

After celebration and carefully scripted key words, the group stood up, the school bell ringing in the distance, and the others began to walk off set, and Hunter pulled their intertwined hands.

And, as much as she hated to admit it, she knew that her chemistry with Tavin could be amazing if only they could move past their previous encounters.

In these sentences, the objective of the sentence is withheld by details that the reader could easily skip over just to get to the point. This suspense of a periodically constructed sentence is frustrating at times, especially when the thread is as emotionally charged as this, but that's what it's made for. Without the variation, the words would be mechanical, not transparent. With a mixture of the two, a writer can create a well-unified sentence. In two weeks, I will be discussing such unification! Stay tuned!