tomeubanks.com

                                           

         I married my wife nearly 36 years ago.  I still recall my father--who is an ordained minister and married us--invoking God to join the two of us as one.  I immediate thought of sex, of course, since that's how my male mind works.  After 36 years of marriage (38 years of commitment), I understand that this concept has a lot more to do with our souls than our bodies.  Especially now that our bodies have doubled (that means the two of us have actually become four, I think).
       In studying my writing and learning how to write more concisely, I discovered a technique for joining two sentences into one.  Absolute Constructions.   The word "absolute" is being used here in the strict Latin absolutus, meaning "made loose."  Loose?  As in loose clothing?  Loose woman?  
        (Okay, testosterone just rushed all reason and sent me back to believing that we're still talking about sex.  Pause.  Reflect.  I'm fine.  Let's go on.)
        After further investigation, absolutus also means "separation."  Now that's weird.  To marry two sentences, I'm using a grammatical device that means "to separate."
        Absolute constructions consist of a noun and some form of modifier, usually a participle, which is a word that shares the characteristics of both verbs and adjectives.  Being a modifying phrase, they generally come at the beginning of sentences and modify the whole second clause.

        All things considered, living with my wife beats the heck out of living with myself.  

        The italicized phrase is the absolute construction.  It modifies the second clause.  The second clause will always be a stand-alone sentence.  
        Now if the participial phrase at the beginning modifies the subject or object in the second clause, it is not an absolute construction; it's non-absolute.  Here are some sentences to show the difference:

        1.    Speaking of rewards, where's the nearest Baskin Robbins shop?
        2.    In order to fully appreciate this blog, you must have a sense of humor. 
        3.    Darkness having fallen, my wife found me quite handsome.
        4.    After wrapping herself in cellophane, Jessica decided she had a transparent personality.

        So which of these four sentences are absolute?  Number 1 and 3.  In both cases the italicized phrase modifies the whole second clause.  Whereas, in number 2 and 4, the phrase modifies only the subjects "you" and "Jessica," respectively.  That's the only difference between an absolute and a non-absolute construction.
        What's great about this grammatical device is that I can easily conjoin two sentences.  So:

         Thirty-five copies of my novel have been sold.  I am considering going back to work in the circumcision factory for ten bucks an hour plus tips.

        These two sentences are modified as:

        Thirty-five copies of my novel sold, I'm considering going back to work in the circumcision factory for ten bucks an hour plus tips.  

        A savings of two words.  That's about 7.5% of the sentence.  If I do that over the course of an entire short story, I will pare down the word-count.  If I'm writing with a limit on my words, such as writing for Flash Fiction, where the limit is 1000 words, 7% to 10% reductions in the number of words without changing the meaning is a big deal.  
        Separating the modifier from the second clause is great way for me to marry two sentences as one.  Until death do us part.