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KISS Grammar
Level 6.2 Style -- Focus, Logic,
and Texture
"Parallel construction" denotes parallel
ideas expressed in parallel (identical) grammatical constructions. Perhaps
the most famous example of parallel constructions is Lincoln's "government
of the people, by the people, for the people." KISS introduces students
to parallel constructions in Level
3.1.2 (Subordinate Clauses). But students should probably do at least
one exercise on parallel constructions every year after they do KISS Level
3.1
For now, the primary exercise on focus
is the MIMC (Main Idea in Main Clause) on "Alicia." In this exercise, students
are given two topic sentences, one of which focuses on "Alicia won." The
other emphasizes that "Alicia had to overcome many difficulties." Seven
supporting sentences are constructed as compound main clauses. The students
are to revise these to support one of the two topic sentences--by subordinating
one clause in each of the seven sentences. Both arguments can be supported
in this way, using the same "facts." This exercise not only shows how subordinate
clauses affect focus; it also shows how the same “facts” can be manipulated
to support different arguments.
Most of the exercises on logic that
were originally in this section have been moved to the levels on clauses,
verbals, appositives, or post-positioned adjectives. The "Tense, Number,
Logic, and Prep Phrases" exercises were made for a review section after
KISS Level One. The exercies on "The Logic of Subordinate
Clauses" are more important. Many students would be helped by doing one
of these every year after they complete KISS Level 3.1, where they are
introduced.
"Texture" includes focus, logic, general
variety in sentence construction, vocabulary, etc. For now, KISS exercises
on texture present students with two short translations of the same text.
The students can analyze both, and the class can then discuss the differences
between the two.
A green background in the right
(grade-level) column indicates that the exercise is in the printable
version.
| Parallel
Subordinate Clauses |
| Tense,
Number, Logic, and Prepositional Phrases |
| Comparing
Two Versions of the Same Text |
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Aesop's
"The Hare and the Tortoise"
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| Two
Translations of a Passage from Plutarch's "Dion" |
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Have the students discuss the syntactic differences between the
two translations.
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| Comparing
Two Students' Papers |
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