Book Review: When I read a novel set in a city I know well, I must see that the writer knows the city at least as we...
Chris-SmutnyJune 10, 2020
diagramming a sentence
The first sentence has 3 of the indicator words "when" "must" and "if". This confused me when i tried to diagram it the first time. I saw that you didn't diagram the first section of the sentence that starts with "when" . How am I supposed to know that was the section not to diagram?
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I thought about that for a while, too, but then it seemed like the "when" was a bit like an overriding condition of the whole situation, a bit like a "given" in math. So, everything after it must take the initial condition (set in a city the book reviewer knows well) into account.
It might be a good idea to read through the questions like Mehran suggests before attempting any diagramming: read each sentence, pause long enough to digest it and understand the logical connections before reading the following sentence. Once you've done that and have a general idea of the stimulus, then and only then diagram.
