The Real Subject of Your Sentence

I took a writing course about four years ago. By the end of the second session, I was thinking, “Sheeze! I could teach this course.” I learned only one thing. During the second month, I learned the name of a very important concept I had been using unconsciously for years, thereby increasing my ability to write and edit purposefully.

Grammatical versus Rhetorical Subject

I learned that sentences can have two types of subjects: Grammatical and Rhetorical. We are all familiar with the first type. Parse this sentence and find the subject:

“The proofreader looked askance at the period after the quotation mark, wondering if the writer is British.”

The subject is “proofreader,” right? It is the subject of the main verb “looked,” which mean it has the grammatical function of subject. We call “proofreader” the grammatical subject. Ok, we’re not breaking any new ground here. But now look at this sentence and find the subject:

“The veterinarian said the dog has fleas.”

Using my psychic powers, I’m going to guess that you said “veterinarian” is the subject. Ahem...the grammatical subject. Now let’s talk about the ONE thing I learned in the writing course: rhetorical subjects. Look at that sentence again and answer this question: “Who or what is this sentence about?”

This sentence is NOT about the veterinarian or what the veterinarian said. This sentence is about the dog. Thus, the dog, not the veterinarian, is the real focus of this sentence, which means it is the rhetorical subject.

Don’t believe me? Ok, let’s approach this differently. To find the grammatical subject, we identify the main verb. To find the rhetorical subject, we identify the main action. What is the main action described by this sentence? Although the main verb is “said,” the main action being described is having fleas. And who or what performs this action? The dog. Thus, the dog is the rhetorical subject.

Using the Rhetorical Subject as the Grammatical Subject

“Gee, that’s swell. And that’s useful how?” I’m glad you asked. As a careful, effective, and purposeful writer, you want the grammatical subject to be the same word as the rhetorical subject.When we use the rhetorical subject as the grammatical subject, we get this revision:

“According to the veterinarian, the dog has fleas.”

Now what’s the grammatical subject? Dog. And what’s the rhetorical subject? Dog. In this revision, the grammatical and rhetorical subjects are the same. This improves the sentence in four ways:

1. The sentence clearly states its main idea.
2. The sentence focuses the readers’ attention on the right subject.
3. The sentence emphasizes the main action.
4. The sentence is economical.

The base sentence of the revised version is now “the dog has fleas,” and “according to the veterinarian” has been pushed into a descriptive phrase where it belongs.

Another Example of Rhetorical and Grammatical Subjects

Let’s try another sentence in which the rhetorical and grammatical subjects differ.

“There is a good reason for this mess.”

When we parse this sentence, we find the following elements.

Grammatical subject: “there” [“There” and all other expletives make crummy subjects.]
Main verb: “is” [“Is” and all other state-of-being verbs weaken sentences.]
Main action: having a good reason for this mess
Rhetorical subject: I, we, you, she, etc. [This sentence doesn’t provide the person or thing who does the main action. In cases such as this, we have to figure it out from the context. Here, we’ll assume that I am the person who has the reason.]

This sentence is weak. It doesn’t use the rhetorical subject for the grammatical subject—it doesn’t even tell the reader who or what the rhetorical subject is! We’ll apply the same strategy as before to improve it and use the rhetorical subject “I” as the grammatical subject. This gives us the following revision.

“I have a good reason for doing this.”

What are the grammatical and rhetorical subjects now? In this revised sentence, “I” serves both functions. As a result, this sentence clearly states its main idea, focuses the readers’ attention on the doer of the main action, emphasizes the main action, and provides the idea economically. This sentence has another benefit: it demonstrates confidence.

Summary of Everything Above

1. The grammatical subject is the subject of the main verb.
2. The rhetorical subject is the subject of the main action described by the sentence.
3. Clear, direct, economical sentences use the rhetorical subject as the grammatical subject.
4. If your grammatical subject and rhetorical subject are not the same, revise.

Try These on Your Own

“It appears that I was right.”
“The hospital was where John recovered.”
“Although John loved Mary, she preferred Tom.”
“There was a book I read about the Civil War.”
“Here is where the CEO got fired.”
[One of these is a trick question.]

David Bowman is the owner and chief editor of Precise Edit. As a specialist in written communications with nearly 20 years of experience, he helps clients achieve their writing goals. He is a favored writing instructor at the University of New Mexico, as well as the author of the Precise Edit blog (http://preciseedit.wordpress.com) and several books on writing (http://hostileediting.com).