diagramming a sentence

Started by Chris-Smutny · started 2020-06-10 01:25 · last activity 2020-07-05 06:11 · 1 reply

The first sentence has 3 of the indicator words "when" "must" and "if". This confused me when i tried to diagram it the first time. I saw that you didn't diagram the first section of the sentence that starts with "when" . How am I supposed to know that was the section not to diagram?

Replies

  1. Brett-Lindsay · 2020-07-05 06:11

    I thought about that for a while, too, but then it seemed like the "when" was a bit like an overriding condition of the whole situation, a bit like a "given" in math. So, everything after it must take the initial condition (set in a city the book reviewer knows well) into account. It might be a good idea to read through the questions like Mehran suggests before attempting any diagramming: read each sentence, pause long enough to digest it and understand the logical connections before reading the following sentence. Once you've done that and have a general idea of the stimulus, then and only then diagram.

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