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A stylistic addition Variation in the structures you use when you write can dramatically improve your prose. Why? If you constantly take advantage of any specific structure (e.g. long sentences, short sentences, etc.), your writing will tend to bore. To improve the presentation of your ideas, vary the way you expose them in your writing. This page's goal improving your writing, we chose to inform you of a structure you probably don't employ often. Why? To have you employ it more often and, therefore, give you an easy way to vary the structures you use when you write. So what is this structure? Noun absolute (a.k.a. absolute phrase) A noun absolute starts with a noun or a pronoun and lags behind different kinds of words. These little phrases have a powerful ring to them, and they add a very nice sound to your writing. To introduce you to the idea of a noun absolute, tag along this little journey of knowledge: Some words (adverbs) can modify a sentence: Secretly, she stared at her father. Some groups of words (phrases) can modify a sentence: Waiting for his response, the child stared down at the ground. Some of these groups of words, serving to modify sentences, consist of a noun or a pronoun followed by either: an adjective - a word that describes a noun happy, sad, tall, short, long, etc. a present participle - a verb + "ing" going, eating, filling, thinking, etc. a past participle - a verb + "ed" (usually) gone, eaten, filled, thought, watched, etc. a prepositional phrase - a preposition + a noun with my friend, in the audience, etc. a noun - a person, place, thing, or idea car, doctor, lawyer, happiness, ball, etc. A noun followed by any of the five classes of words previously mentioned forms a structure called a noun absolute: His face pale from fear, the little boy turned and ran home as fast as he could. His face pale from fear functions as a noun absolute, which modifies the sentence the little boy turned and ran home as fast as he could. This shows an example of a noun face followed by an adjective pale functioning as a noun absolute. Now, let's look at some examples of the other kinds of noun absolutes: The decision made, we left work early. noun "decision" + past participle "made" The car filling with cigarette smoke, my father casually rolled down the passenger window. noun "car" + present participle "filling" He could hear the sound of familiar voices cheering his name, his family in the audience. noun "family"+ prepositional phrase "in the audience" The manager announced his resignation, his eyes balls of fire. noun "eyes" + noun "balls" They have a nice sound to them don't they? Real world examples Perhaps you'd like to see some real world examples of this structure used in powerful and eloquent writing. Extracted from the essay A Sudden Illness (published in the New Yorker) written by Laura Hillenbrand (the author behind the book Seabiscuit: An American Legend that was made into a 120 million dollar domestically grossing motion picture), these examples should do the job: Linc, my best friend, was driving, his arm easy over the wheel. noun "arm" + prepositional phrase "over the wheel" I rode shotgun, a rose from Borden on my lap. noun "rose" + prepositional phrase "on my lap" He was as loose as he had been, his eyes slowly panning the road, his long body unfolding over the seat. noun "eyes" + present participle "panning" noun "body" + present participle "unfolding" Keep in mind Whether you currently use these or not, don't get the impression that every sentence you write should have one. Sprinkle them into your writing bit by bit so that you gradually introduce your readers to them and yourself to their use. Beware: your writing should be at a decent level if you take advantage of this structure because if it isn't, your readers may just think you're writing in incomplete sentences (a.k.a. sentence fragments). If they know you write well, they'll see it as an interesting structure you're introducing them to rather than poor writing you're subjecting them to. thesis help
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