Wednesday, 22 June 2022

EF6- 37 class - sentence combining

 

Good morning, everyone.

We’ll get started at 11:00.

 

Today is Hump Day.

 

Today’s agenda:

·      Test#4 – paragraph on “Wise Woman of Cordoba”

·      Continue essay work

·      Begin sentence combining

 

Thursday

·      Continue essay work

·      Sentence combining

 

 

Friday- end 12:45

·      Optional replacement test, last hour of class

 

 

 

Final week

 

Monday

·      finish essay prep

 

Tuesday

·      Final essay, whole class

 

Wednesday – June 29th- final day

·      NO TEACHING, NO INSTRUCTION

·      Marks day, final reports

 

 

 

 

Test#4

Paragraph (150-200 ww)

Please, don’t just tell me the story.

Please don’t copy from the story.

Address the question.

Submit by 12:10.

 

 Why was the Wise Woman put into jail?

 

Break until 12:20

 

 

SENTENCES:

simple compound complex

 

 

Next level of work for sentence writing

 

 

Sentence combining

-very effective way to get better at sentence writing

-practical, useful

 

IMO (in my opinion)- the best way to get better at sentence writing

-at all levels – absolute beginner, beginner, intermediate, developing, advanced, expert

start basic level----- very high university-level exercises

 

Based on the sentence styles- simple, compound, complex

foundation of all writing and speaking in English

sentence combining – puts all of this knowledge into use

                                        

 

William Strong – university professor – taught university students how to be better writers, not ESL EAL

o   more prestigious English

o   beautiful, elegant, stylish writing

o   sound good, read well, smooth to read

 

GOALS

-sentences that are dense with information, but not too much (tricky balance)

-sentences that are as compact as possible (short, few words as possible)

*** balancing competing impulses- lots of information, short sentences

 

*PERSONAL ANECDOTE*

My first year in university-

My story learned how to write well by working with Style books.

 

The Elements of Style Strunk and White

Style: Ten Levels in Clarity and Grace Williams

*Changed my world

 

 

Beginner level sentence combining – good for a little kid

 

Joe has a hat.

The hat is red.

The hat is for baseball.

 

1. Choose the important elements in each sentence

2. Combine all of the element together into on sentence- simple, compound, complex

 

 

Joe has a hat. KERNEL – centre, hub Usually the first sentence in an exercise

 

FIND NEW INFORMATION IN THE OTHER SENTENCES

The hat is red.

The hat is for baseball.

 

ELEMENTS to be combined

Joe has a hat.

red

baseball

 

Choose what kind of sentence do you want to write to include all of these elements? simple compound complex?

-gut reaction, trust your instinct, feeling

 

SIMPLE

Joe has a red baseball hat. MY CHOICE

Joe has a red hat for baseball.

COMPOUND

Joe has a red hat, and it is for baseball. SEEMS LIKE TOO MUCH FOR SUCH A BASIC IDEA

Joe has a red hat; in fact, it is for baseball. SEEMS OVERWRITTEN

COMPLEX

Joe has a baseball hat that is red. ADJ CL  Overwritten?

because  since  SEEMS LIKE A LOT

Joe has a red hat which is for baseball.

 

NOTE: prefix is the beginning part of a word ‘un’ unkind ‘im’ impossible

suffix is the end part of a word  ‘tion’ education  ‘ment’ employment

 

**

Two approaches to putting sentences together:

1.    COORDINATION – prefix ‘co’ together

coworker, cooperate, combine, colleagues, collaboration, coparent, coordinate, coordinator–

co- two things , same level

sentence – two clauses at the same level of importance

compound sentence– coordinated clauses

, SOBA   , FANBOYS   ;   ; TRANS,

 

Like a seesaw, teeter-totter

 

 

2.    SUBORDINATION- ‘sub’ under

submarine, subway, subconscious

 

Vietnamese submarine sandwiches – Banh Mi Saigon, 5397 Victoria Drive- have one for homework

 

subtract, substitute, submission, submissive, subcontract

one thing more important than the other

sentence – two clauses not at the same level of importance

complex- adverb clauses, noun clauses, adjective clauses

e.g. Mae likes dogs because they are loyal. main clause subordinate clause

main clause -more important information

subordinate clause- less important information

 

Dogs are loyal, so I like them. COMPOUND

Dogs are loyal since they always stay with their family.

 

 

This is my visualization of sentences  

1.    _______   SIMPLE

2.    ___   ___   COMPOUND

3.    ___

                    ___   COMPLEX

 

* It’s all about main and subordinate clauses

 

-looking under the hood of a car

-looking behind the curtain at Cirque de Soleil

-looking in the kitchen of a restaurant

How it’s done! How it’s made!

 

 

 

Tetris – video game with blocks

-different shapes

-all the pieces fit together

Russian Blocks

 

- nice mix of sentence styles in our writing

-mix of SIMPLE, COMPOUND and COMPLEX sentences

We should aim for a nice mix of simple, compoiund and complex sentences. We should aim for a mix of short, medium, and long sentences.

 

SIDE NOTE

In my editing business for university students, I write a mix of SIMPLE, COMPOUND and COMPLEX sentences, with a few fancy details.

Therefore, if you can master SIMPLE, COMPOUND and COMPLEX sentences, you’ll be set for any class, college, university, job, etc.

 

 

Sentence Combining Sheet #1

1.    a. The object looks long. KERNEL

Find new information

b. The object looks thin.

c. The object measures about 8 inches in length.

 

The elements to be combined:

The object looks long

thin

measures about 8 inches in length

 

Decide what kind of sentence would be most appropriate to include all these elements.

 

SIMPLE

The object looks long, thin, and measures about 8 inches in length. Not bad- problem with parallelism

long, thin, and measures -   adj, adj, and verb

 

 

COMPOUND

 

The object looks long and thin, and it measures about 8 inches in length. small problem- two ‘ands’

 

The object looks long and thin; also, it measures about 8 inches in length.

 

The object looks long and thin, measuring about 8 inches in length. FANCY

 

The object looks long, thin, and it measures about 8 inches in length. need ‘and’

The long object looks thin, and it measures about 8 inches in length.

 

 

COMPLEX

-ADVERB CL

The object looks long

thin

measures about 8 inches in length

 

-NOUN CL

The object looks long

thin

measures about 8 inches in length

 

-ADJECTIVE CL that which

The object looks long

thin

measures about 8 inches in length

The object that/which measures about 8 inches in length looks long and thin. adj cl

 

The object that/which looks long and thin measures about 8 inches in length. adj cl

 

 

We have an excellent variety of sentences here.

SIMPLE

SIMPLE

The object looks long, thin, and measures about 8 inches in length.

parallelism

 

* parallelism – same kind of words in a series, in a row

The object looks long and thin. adj

Doris likes hiking and swimming. n- gerunds

Doris likes hiking and to swim. not parallel words- n v

FIX Doris likes to hike and to swim.

 

The object looks long, thin, and measures about 8 inches in length.

parallelism adj   adj   verb   not parallel

 

The object looks long, thin, and measures about 8 inches in length.

The object looks long and thin. It measures about 8 inches in length.

The long, thin object measures about 8 inches in length.

 

The object, looks long and thin, measures about 8 inches in length. XXX

The object, which looks long and thin, measures about 8 inches in length. COMPLEX- adj cl

The object looks long which measures about 8 inches in length, but it is thin. XXX adj cl after a adj

We want to put an adj cl after a noun.

The object which measures about 8 inches in length looks long, but it is thin.

 

My sister is nice who is 37 years old. wrong place- misplaced modifier

My sister who is 37 years old is nice.

 

GOALS for sentence combining

1.    Create a variety of sentences- stretch our ability, get comfortable with all three styles

2.    Balance content with conciseness.

Include lots of information, but not too much, in a sentence.

Make the sentence as short as possible, but not too short.

 

Sentence Combining Sheet 1

Email me a couple exercises for homework. We will go over them tomorrow.

Proofreading exercise- find ten errors

 

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