Tài liệu Ace the toefl essay part 6 doc

40

Ace the TOEFL Essay (TWE)

Semicolons

Semicolons link ICs. Plus, they link sentence fragments in block language.

Block language is used more with technical writing, but the occasion may

be there within certain term papers.

Independent Clauses

To link two ICs with a semicolon suggests some sort of a causal relation￾ship. The first clause acts as a cause, whereas the second clause is the

effect.

I ate; I got sick.

She has her life; I have mine.

They went their way; we went ours.

The old man died first; his wife died within a month.

The superstructure itself could be diagrammed like this:

General Statement: Specific Statement

If we wanted to change the pattern of the sentences, we could rewrite

them thus:

Because I ate, I got sick.

Since she has her life, I have mine.

Because they went their way, we went ours.

Because the old man died, his wife died.

This does not mean that all sentences fit into this category, but it’s a

good strategy to use when working with the semicolon in superstructures

that contain only two clauses. This involves writing style and the ability to

change your sentence structure.

Semicolon with a Series of Independent Clauses

Again, this is more common in technical structures, but academic writ￾ing requires the use of it, especially in term papers. In term papers, it’s

often necessary to work with series in quotes, especially if you include

TOEFL Internals flowed 7/13/07 3:35 PM Page 40