Writing with Focus Postponing Adjectives

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Writing with FocusPostponing Adjectives
Postponing adjectives Review A Review B
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Postponing adjectives
Adjectives often come before the noun they modify.
The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and
the retiring fogs revealed a resting army
stretched out on the hills.
The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and
the retiring fogs revealed a resting army
stretched out on the hills.
Adjective
Noun
Look what happens when Stephen Crane places the
adjective later in the sentence.
The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and
the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out
on the hills, resting.
In this sentence from The Red Badge of Courage,
Crane draws focus to the adjective by postponing
it.
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Postponing adjectivesAdjectival phrases
A group of words may also act together as an
adjective, forming an adjectival phrase. Later in
the same paragraph, Crane postpones an entire
participial phrase
A river, amber-tinted in the shadow of its banks,
purled at the army's feet.
A group of words may also separate an adjective
or adjectival phrase from the noun it modifies.
The men there seemed to be in conventional moods,
altogether unaware of the impending annihilation.
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Postponing adjectivesParticipial phrases
A participle is a verb form that can be used as
an adjective.
Present Participle
speak
ing
paint
ing
en
Past Participle
paint
ed
k
o
sp
The woman speaking drew a crowd.
The painted wall was still sticky.
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Postponing adjectivesParticipial phrases
A participial phrase consists of a participle and
its complements and modifiers.
Participle
Complement
Jan, painting the wall, stood on a ladder.
Participle
Modifier
Spoken slowly, the poem made more sense.
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Postponing adjectives
Notice that a comma is placed before a postponed
adjective or adjectival phrase when it comes at
the end of a sentence. Commas enclose a phrase in
the middle of a sentence.
Grammar Guy Says...
The men there seemed to be in conventional moods,
altogether unaware of the impending annihilation.
A river, amber-tinted in the shadow of its banks,
purled at the army's feet.
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Postponing adjectivesCombining sentences
Postponed adjectives can also bring two sentences
together.
Crane could have expressed these ideas separately
1.
He thought that all the regiment was fleeing.
2.
It was pursued by these ominous crashes.
Instead, Crane wrote the sentence this way.
He thought that all the regiment was fleeing,
pursued by these ominous crashes.
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Postponing adjectives
Revise each of the following sentences by
placing the adjective or adjectival phrase in
boldface directly after the noun it modifies.
Delete any words as necessary.
1. The shattered mirror fell out of its frame in
a thousand pieces.
2. A brown and sickly cloud hangs over the
refinery on warm days.
3. My brother does not know about the surprise
party. He will be arriving home at noon.
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Postponing adjectives
Revise each of the following sentences by
placing the adjective or adjectival phrase in
boldface directly after the noun it modifies.
Delete any words as necessary.
1. The mirror, shattered, fell out of its frame
in a thousand pieces.
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Postponing adjectives
Revise each of the following sentences by
placing the adjective or adjectival phrase in
boldface directly after the noun it modifies.
Delete any words as necessary.
2. A cloud, brown and sickly, hangs over the
refinery on warm days.
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Postponing adjectives
Revise each of the following sentences by
placing the adjective or adjectival phrase in
boldface directly after the noun it modifies.
Delete any words as necessary.
3. My brother, arriving home at noon, does not
know about the surprise party.
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Postponing adjectives
On Your Own

• Revise each of the following sentences by placing
  the adjective or adjectival phrase in boldface
  after the noun it modifies. Delete any words as
  necessary.
• 1. The sizzling platter of fajitas arrived at
  our table.
• 2. Two bullet-fast and screaming fighters flew
  overhead.
• 3. The train finally arrived. It was delayed
  three hours.
• The custodian pushed his broom along the hall.
  He was whistling a tune from a Broadway musical.
  
• E-mails from adoring fans poured in. They
  numbered more than anyone could have time to
  answer.

End of Section
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Postponing adjectives
Possible Answers

• Revise each of the following sentences by placing
  the adjective or adjectival phrase in boldface
  after the noun it modifies. Delete any words as
  necessary.
• 1. The platter of fajitas, sizzling, arrived at
  our table.
• 2. Two fighters flew overhead, bullet-fast and
  screaming.
• 3. The train, delayed three hours, finally
  arrived.
• The custodian, whistling a tune from a Broadway
  musical, pushed his broom along the hall.
• E-mails from adoring fans poured in, more than
  anyone could have time to answer.

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Review A
For each of the following sentences, identify
which noun the underlined adjective or adjectival
phrase modifies.
1. A reef, castlelike, rose from the ocean floor.

• Dark thunder clouds, dingy and menacing, hung
• in the sky.

3. Alison said nothing throughout dinner,
insulted by being seated with her much younger
cousins.
4. Commander Soto saw that a mass of wires had
spilled from the shattered panel, twisted
together like a nest of snakes.
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Review A
For each of the following sentences, identify
which noun the underlined adjective or adjectival
phrase modifies.
1. A reef, castlelike, rose from the ocean floor.

1. Dark thunderclouds, dingy and menacing, hung in
   the sky.

3. Alison said nothing throughout dinner,
insulted by being seated with her much younger
cousins.
4. Commander Soto saw that a mass of wires had
spilled from the shattered panel, twisted
together like a nest of snakes.
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Review B
Write a paragraph in which you describe a
dramatic situation. In two sentences, postpone
adjectives to draw attention to a particular
aspect of your description.
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Review B
Write a paragraph in which you describe a
dramatic situation. In two sentences, postpone
adjectives to draw attention to a particular
aspect of your description.
possible answer
At first it seemed as if the wall of sandbags
would hold back the flood. The crews of
townspeople, exhausted from their work, went home
to move their belongings to higher ground. But
the river kept rising. Water began to spill over
the tops of the carefully stacked bags, now
irrelevant in the face of nature.
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The End