But to our purpose all languages, both learned and mother tongue, be gotten and gotten only by Imitation.

 

For without doubt Grammatica it selfe is sooner and surer learned by examples of good authors, than by naked rewles of Grammarians.

 

And surelie, one example is more valiable, both to good and to ill, than XX precepts written in Bookes.

Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster , 1570

Example and imitation, the dual foundation of the learning process -- for this excercise, we've borrowed and modified some ideas from Roger Ascham's 16th century grammar primer, The Scholemaster ("Schoolmaster"). We'd also like to acknowledge Dr. Patricia Lamb who brought this information to our attention.

The Purpose

The student chooses a text for imitation, and he or she will then use his or her own vocabulary within the syntactic structure of the sentence to be imitated. Likewise, As stated by Dr. Lamb:

"This process gives the student an understanding of the architecture of the sentence through its structural components (the parts of speech and the syntactic units which they make up). It requires the student to built an architectural replica of a particular sentence by using his or her own vocabulary. Students will find after doing a series of these imitations that they have a much clearer understanding of precisely how syntax works and how it can be made to work for them."¹

NOTE: This technique is used in writing in "parody" style. Like, "What if Mark Twain had written Death of a Salesman. The author then uses Twain's syntax style and vocabulary register to construct an approximation of how Mark Twain actually writes.

Likewise, I'm sure you've seen a story or two where the author asks "What if Hamlet had been written in Gang-speak?" The author then transposes the text style, like -

"There are things in heaven and earth, Horatio, that are not dreamt of in your philosophy"

-> "Yo, yo, Homey-ratio, lotza sh** down hee-ah dat y'all ain't got sh** on."

In this last case, the plot and meaning of Hamlet are dropped into the syntax and vocabulary frame of Gang-speak.

For more examples of this, check out these books^2,3.

The Assignment

• Choose a suitable text. It must be a famous author with a distinctive style. Such authors would include: Hemmingway, Shakespeare, James Joyce, John Milton, Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Fenimore Cooper, Jack Kerouac. ***If you are unsure if your chosen author has a distinctive style, please check with Dr. Manning or the TA to approve your author before you start work on it.***
  It must be at least 200 words long and all the sentences must be by the same author. Do not use your own work to analyze. If you're having trouble deciding what to imitate, pull a paragraph from your favorite book, but change the subject-matter to something completely different. (i.e. "a janitor cleaning an office" becomes "a mother on a shopping trip")
• Break down the text sentence by sentence and "tag" (label) each word according to its part of speech. Check the assignment model section to see how this is done.
• Insert words of your own choice to "fill in the slots." Follow these guidelines below.
• All of your sentences must relate to one another. The tract you have chosen to imitate must make sense, and so must yours.
• Check and make sure all the parts of speech are the same.
• Prepare to put in in a format acceptable for submission. A complete and formatted assignment can be found below.

The Format for Submission

The assignment that you will turn in has 4 parts. Each part has a link below.

• Submit the original text: typed! Part A Tolkien, Part A Kerouac
• After the original text, type another copy of the original, EXCEPT it will have triple or quadruple spacing between each line. Below each sentence, print neatly the syntactic structure (parts of speech) of the sentence. Label subject and predicate. For example click here Part B Tolkien. or Part B Kerouac. If you have to give each sentence its own line for it to be neat and readable, please do so.
• Type a new page with your new text that matches the structure, leave triple or quadruple spacing between each line. Label your text. To get full credit: the labels on the original text and the labels on your text need to be the same! Click here for an example of Part C Tolkien, Part C Kerouac
• Retype a new page with all your imitative text in a single, 1.5 spaced paragraph at the end. Part D Tolkien, Part D Kerouac
• Submit all four parts of your typed work into a 3-hole, brad-closing folder with your name and section number on the cover.
• No assignment with formatting problems can get more than 90% of points possible.

Guidelines for Imitation

1. Articles (a, an, the) may either be retained, omitted, or added, aa ia appropriate for the topic.

 

2. Auxiliary verbs (be, do, have) may be retained.

 

3. Linking verbs (appear, seem, etc.) may be retained.

 

4. Verbs must remain in the same tense and voice as original.

 

5. Negatives (e.g., I am not) should be retained.

 

6. Verbs and nouns must remain singular or plural, according to the original.

 

7. Proper nouns (names of people, places, etc.) may be changed to common nouns if appropriate to the topic.

 

8. Pronoun may be retained, although they may need to be changed to agree with the substituted noun (e.g., if original noun is feminine but substitute is masculine, you would change from "she" or "her" to "he" or "him").

 

9. Relative pronouns (that, what, which, etc.) may be retained.

 

10. Co-ordinating and subordinating pronouns/conjunctions may be retained.

An Example of What Syntact Imitation is NOT

1. Lamb, Patricia Principles of Modern English Grammar, UNLV Publishers, Las Vegas 1995

2. Boyett, Steven R. , Treks Not Taken : What If Stephen King, Anne Rice, Kurt Vonnegut, and Other Literary Greats Had Written Episodes of Star Trek : The Next Generation? 1998

3. Jacobs, Will and Jones, Gerard The Beaver Papers : The Story of the Lost Season [author note: of Leave it to Beaver, the television show]

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