Noun Clauses to Sharpen Paragraph Focus

By: Sean Savoie 

It is best to grammatical subjects of sentences because they impact the strength of an essay to such a large degree. The all-too-common type of essay introduction is often written as expressed below from this site's section called SAT Essay and Tips on Point of View: 

Faulty example:

   I do not think the 1st Amendment freedom of the press is being used very wisely. Most people feel that if the newspapers and news magazines can publish anything they want to that all people will be safer. If this is true, why do I always see information about vulnerable locations in the U.S. published in the news? People need to realize that Al Qaeda gets much of its information in the New York Times. I hardly call that safe. Shouldn’t the press have a responsibility? Most people would agree that giving away potentially damaging information about their country is a bad choice. We need to make some law allowing the government to control some of the information that people read. 

Notice the grammatical subjects of the sentences, ( I, most people, I, people, I, the press, most people, and we). To make the paragraph more direct it is better to have the subjects of the above paragraph be: The 1st Amendment freedom of the press, newspapers and news magazines (or safety), vulnerable positions, Al Qaeda (or The New York Times), responsibility, giving away potentially damaging information, law, (or government control). This distinction between what the topic is and who is expressing the opinion is extremely important to understand. Ultimately, control of the point of view, which does not always mean keeping the point of view consistent, is essential to master writing.

Take a look at one possible improvement of the essay above keeping the same number of sentences but changing the subject. 

      Better example:

      The 1st Amendment freedom of the press is being used unwisely. Safety is often thought to be a result of the freedom of the press, yet the vulnerable locations in the U.S.A. are often published.  Al Qaeda gets much of its information, which is hardly safe, from the New York Times. Should the press have a responsibility? Giving away potentially damaging information is clearly a bad choice. Law must work to control some of the information that is publicly accessible. 

      Best example:

            With safety often thought to be the primary result of the freedom of the press, the 1st Amendment right is being used unwisely to the degree that terrorists, such as Al Qaeda, get publicly available, potentially damaging information about U.S. vulnerabilities. Laws must be enacted to prevent certain information from benefiting enemies of the nation. 

You should notice that the three paragraphs get shorter as they improve. The best example not only focuses on the topic as the grammatical subject but also combines the sentences in a way that most efficiently expresses the relationship between the ideas. This is the goal. 

In order to better understand potential ways to shift the subject of a sentence, we should first examine noun clauses.  

There are basically three types of noun clauses; an open noun clause statement and two closed noun statements. What do I mean by open and closed? Open questions are often called Wh-questions, as in who, what, where, when, why (and of course, how). These clauses also include whatever, whoever, whenever, etc…Examples of these noun clauses as the subjects of sentences are: 

Who he asked for help is older than your brother.

What the report said is misleading.

Where the experiments are done is now unclear.

When the climate changes is the key issue.

Why the government is not acting is a mystery.

How the people vote will determine the future policies. 

What I refer to as closed noun clauses are often answers to closed questions, which are also known as yes/no questions. For example: Does he have a car? Are you ready? Can they come here next week? Etc… When dealing with an unknown or uncertain answer, there are five common ways to form the clause.  

If….

If….or not

Whether….

Whether….or not

Whether or not…. 

To make an example, assume the question is: Will the legal drinking age change? 

If the legal drinking age will change is uncertain.

If the legal drinking age will change or not is uncertain.

Whether the legal drinking age will change is uncertain.

Whether the legal drinking age will change or not is uncertain.

Whether or not the legal drinking age will change is uncertain.

 

The third type of noun clause starts with the word that and states a fact.

 

That the company has financial problems is well known.

That Bloomberg will win the election is almost a certainty.

That American confidence in the president is low indicates changes in thinking. 

Keep in mind that all of these noun clause types may be used as regular nouns in any grammatical position in the sentence (subject, direct object, indirect object, subjective complement, objective complement, object of a preposition). When not used in the subject position, the third type of noun clause often drops the word that. 

In order to practice some of the above clauses, answer the following simple questions with a noun clause subject followed by….is unclear. 

Open Example:  When will the government get the confidence of the people?

Possible answer:  When the government will get the confidence of the people is unclear.

 

Closed Example:  Will Hillary run for president in 2008?

Possible answer:   Whether Hillary will run for president or not is unclear. 

1. Who is that?
2. Where are your friends?
3. What time are you going?
4. When does your sister eat lunch?
5. How can we go to Manhattan?
6. Who does your brother like?
7. How often does he go to the library?
8. How long will you talk on the phone?
9. Why does she always say that?
10. How difficult is Spanish?
11. Is your friend in school?
12. Will your brother come to my party?
13. Can you open this door?
14. Is Iraq going to be better?
15. Will you go to that movie?
16. Does his family live in Flushing?
17. Are you eating at 7:00 tonight?
18. Do you need to go to work tomorrow?
19. Is you sister afraid of snakes?
20. Can we go on vacation next week?

There are limitless noun clauses that may answer the questions above, but one basic way to use them to answer these questions is given below using ‘is unclear’, ‘is not important’, ‘is none of your business’, etc…: 

1. Who that is is none of your business.
2. Where your friends are is unclear.
3. What time I am going is undecided.
4. When my sister eats lunch is not important.
5. How we can go to Manhattan is unclear.
6. Who my brother likes is not your business.
7. How often he goes to the library varies.
8. How long I will talk on the phone is unimportant.
9. Why she always says that is a mystery.
10. How difficult Spanish is is unclear.
11. Whether or not my friend is in school is none of your business.
12. Whether or not my brother will come to the party is a mystery.
13. Whether or not I can open the door is unclear.
14. Whether or not Iraq is going to get better is a mystery.
15. Whether or not I will go to that movie is uncertain.
16. Whether or not his family lives in Flushing is not your business.
17. Whether or not I am eating at 7:00 tonight is not important.
18. Whether or not I need to go to work tomorrow is unclear.
19. Whether or not my sister is afraid of snakes is not important.
20. Whether or not we can go on vacation next week is unknown.

Notice how, in numbers 1 and 10, there is an ‘is is’ construction. This will only occur when a noun clause is used and the structure is perfectly correct grammar.  

Often, especially for sentence variation, writers will use a delayed subject, for which the subject is substituted with the word ‘it’. All of the above sentences may be written in this way. For example: 

1. It is none of your business who that is.
2. It is unclear where your friends are.
3. It is undecided what time I am going.  Etc…

As a general rule, however, limiting the use of the word ‘it’ as a delayed subject is recommended. Certainly be careful of using ‘it’ when the intended subject or object is not clear. 

Another effective application of noun clauses makes use of the expression ‘depends on’. Both sides of this expression must be in noun form. This use is extremely handy when working with conditional ideas. Take a look at how this type of sentence is put to use. 

1. What time I am going depends on how long it takes to get there.
2. How expensive gas is depends on what oil producing companies charge.
3. Whether or not the economy improves depends on how much people spend.
4. Which college he can go to will depend on how good his grades are.   Etc…

See if you can identify how many noun clauses are in the following example paragraph. Which clauses are noun clauses? 

How you live and plan for the future depends quite a bit on what chances you have had and what choices you have made. How well an immigrant speaks a foreign language, for example, is a direct result of how much that person has practiced, what was studied and if that student could concentrate. Whoever really wants to succeed speaking English will almost always get more opportunities. Unfortunately, how much time recent immigrants have to read and speak English depends on how often they are able to speak at work, home or with friends. 

If you recognized them correctly, you'll notice that there are 10.