"The Earth on a Turtles Back" vs. "From the Iroquois Constitution" Sentence Structure Essay

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Sentence Structure Compare and Contrast Both of the passages I will be referring to have examples of all four of the sentence types. Sentence structure is very important, because it is what a sentence is made of. There are four types of sentences: compound, complex, simple, and compound-complex. The sentences also have phrases within them. The six types of phrases are: prepositional, infinitive, appositive, participial, gerund, and absolute. Phrases add spice and flavor up a boring sentence. I will be comparing “The Earth on Turtle’s Back” and “from The Iroquois Constitution”, two passages from Native American origin. “The Earth on Turtle’s Back” is an origin myth. This story shows examples of all four sentence types. Most of the sentences are compound and complex sentences. One example of a compound sentence is, “She was not as strong or as swift as the others, but she was determined.” This story also has many phrases, mostly being infinitive and participial phrases. One example of an infinitive phrase is, “They looked to see who it was.” the phrase would be “to see”. When I am reading this, I feel as if it is very well written, but compared to “from The Iroquois Constitution”, it would mainly be found in a children’s book. “from The Iroquois Constitution” is a professional document describing the laws of the Iroquois. This passage has all four sentence types, most of them being simple and compound. One example of a simple sentence is “He has now become a confederate lord.” There are also examples of the six phrases. An example of an infinitive phrase found in the document is, “We place at the top of the Tree of the Long Leaves an eagle who is able to see afar”, and the phrase is “to see afar”. An example of a participial phrase is, “See how splendid he looks.” This material makes you feels as if you have just read something phenomenal, and very important.

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