Tuesday, 13 June 2023

EF7 11 Class 33 Sentence combining

 

Good morning, everyone.

 

 

Today’s agenda:

·      Begin sentence combining work

·      Animal Farm Chapter 6

·      Remaining verb exercises – verb tenses, phrasal verbs

·      HW   Complete some of the sentence combining exercises

 

Wednesday

·      Animal Farm Chapter 6

·      Remaining verb exercises – verb tenses, phrasal verbs

 

Thursday

·      Test AF Ch 4-6 Paragraph with “ ”

·      Animal Farm Chapter 7

                  

Friday

·      Animal Farm Chapter 7

·      Begin essay work- likely write 1-2 essays

·      Listening

 

Final week – group presentations (fun!! more to come)

 

 

 

 

SENTENCE COMBINING – culmination of all of sentence work

culmination – using all the sentence knowledge that we have accumulated so far

put it all into practice

 

Next level of work for sentence writing –

 

IDIOM where the rubber hits the road- practical, real-life

 

SENTENCES:

*simple

*compound

*complex

 

MY ADVICE Practice these styles. Follow the patterns. If you follow these patterns, your writing will probably be ok.

If you don’t follow these patterns, your writing will likely be substandard.

When you are writing , use these styles. Stick to these styles.

 

 

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, advanced, expert

start at very 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, mostly native English speakers

GOAL- LEARN TO WRITE

o   higher-level sentences

o   more prestigious English ‘prestige English”- sounds professional and competent

o   prestige English- sounds high-level

o   maybe even beautiful, elegant, stylish writing

o   sounds good, reads well, smooth and beautiful to read

 

*** Sentence combining books are available if you dig for them. Keep your eyes open for this kind of sentence combining exercise books.

I have amassed a small collection of sentence combining books over the years.

 

VPL   Amazon   used book stores

William Strong

 

BTW I have mountains of sentence combining exervcises. I would happy to give you some.

 

 

BASIC IDEA OF SENTENCE COMBINING

Sentence combining – taking several short sentences and combine the most important parts of them into one sentence

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy example

a.     Bill felt hungry.

b.    Bill had no lunch today.

 

COMBINE a and b into one sentence

What kind of sentence would be best? simple   compound   complex

a.     Bill felt hungry.

b.    Bill had no lunch today.          because – complex, adv cl

 

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Bill felt hungry because Bill he had no lunch today.         

Because Bill had no lunch today, so he felt hungry.      

Because Bill had no lunch today, he felt hungry.

Bill had no lunch today so that he felt hungry. COMPLEX – adv cl

 

Bill had no lunch today, so he felt hungry.   COMPOUND

Bill had no lunch today; therefore, he felt hungry.  

 

Bill who had no lunch today felt hungry. COMPLEX- adj cl

Bill who felt hungry had no lunch today. COMPLEX- adj cl

 

Bill had no lunch today. Bill felt hungry. SIMPLES

Bill had no lunch today and felt hungry. OK

 

 

Many options- many varieties to choose from if we have the knowledge.

The knowledge: SIMPLE, COMPOUND, COMPLEX

Stick to the basics. Get back to basics.

 

The goal is to write a rich variety of sentences. We can do that by sticking to the basics.

 

GOALS of sentence combining

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

-sentences that are as compact as possible (short, few words as possible), not too short (another tricky balance)

 

*** balancing competing interests/impulses- lots of information, compact sentences

- VERY CHALLENGING

We are up for the challenge!

 

 

*PERSONAL ANECDOTE*

My first year in university-

I learned how to write well by working with style books.

 

CONSIDER WORKING THROUGH A GOOD STYLE BOOK

HIGHER-LEVEL WRITING – for the future, college

The Elements of Style Strunk and White CLASSIC

Style: Ten Levels in Clarity and Grace Williams ***

*These changed my writing world. The scales fell from my eyes.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/

Dig! Keep looking!

 

 

 

BASIC SENTENCE COMBINING

Beginner-level sentence combining – good for a little kid

 

Kai has a hat.

The hat is red.

The hat is for baseball.

 

1.    Start with the KERNEL - usually first sentence

2.    Choose the important new elements in each following sentences

3.    Combine all of the element together into one sentence- simple, compound, complex

 

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

 

FIND JUST NEW INFORMATION IN THE OTHER SENTENCES, AVOID REPETITION

The hat is red.

The hat is for baseball.

 

Kai has a hat, and the hat is red. REP, NOT A GOOD STYLE

 

ELEMENTS to be combined

Kai has a hat

red

for 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

You should have a feeling about it.

Make the decision.

You have to decide.

 

*SIMPLE

Kai has a red baseball hat. MY CHOICE

Kai has a red hat for baseball.

 

*COMPOUND

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

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

We don’t need that elaborate structure for such a simple idea.

*COMPLEX

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

because  since  SEEMS LIKE A LOT

Kai has a red hat which is for baseball. Maybe he has several special hats.

Jun has a nice suit which is for job interviews.

 

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

 

DETAILS OF THE STRUCTURE

META- level, above, higher level

Birdseye view of sentences

Next level of thinking about sentences

**

 

PROCESS of choosing sentences

 

 

Sentence Combining Sheet #5

1.    a. I like Italian cooking.

b. I like Chinese cooking.

c. They are very different.

 

I like Italian and Chinese cooking even though they are very different.

I like Italian and Chinese cooking, but they are very different.

Even though Italian and Chinese cooking are very different, I like them both.  I like both of them

 

VARIATIONS

I like both Italian and Chinese cooking despite them being very different.

I like both Italian and Chinese cooking despite their many differences.

Even though Italian, Chinese, and Japanese cooking are all very different, I like them all. I like all of them.

Try numbers 2,3,4

 

2.Although they are both spicy, Italian cooks use garlic and oregano while Chinese cooks often use ginger and hot pepper. STRANGE

Although both Italian and Chinese food/dishes/cuisine are spicy, Italian cooks use garlic and oregano while Chinese cooks often use ginger and hot pepper.

 

Garlic has a nice tang.

 

*3.The Italians use a lot of tomato sauce unlike the Chinese who use bean, soy, and duck sauces.

bean suace, soy sauce, and duck sauce

 

The Italians use a lot of tomato sauce, but the Chinese use bean, soy, and duck sauces.  ; on the other hand,

 

4.An Italian meal is usually served with wine; however, a Chinese meal is usually served with tea.

An Italian meal is usually served with wine while a Chinese meal is usually served with tea.

*An Italian meal is usually served with wine unlike a Chinese meal which is usually/always served with tea.

An Italian meal is usually paired with wine while a Chinese meal is always served with tea.

 

pair(v) – match wine and food

 

Very strong sentence styles- prestige writing. This is good enough for UBC.

 

 

For homework, try some of the sentence combining exercises. Email a couple to me. We can share them tomorrow.

 

 

Animal Farm Chapter 6

Discussion groups

 

 

 

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