THE GENTLE ART OF SENTENCE COMBINING

1
THE GENTLE ART OF SENTENCE COMBINING

• How to graduate from
• Dick Jane
• to College Writing

2

• To get to my house you go left. You pass by
  these town houses. They all look the same. A
  couple of blocks down you will see a big yellow
  sign with bold, black letters. It says Dead End.
  You pass that sign and youll see where I live.
  There are two buildings. They look like gray
  shoe boxes. Outside the houses there is a total
  of about eight cars. Some are trucks, some old,
  some new. The thing is only half of the vehicles
  work.

3
Dick Jane vs. College Writing

• To get to my house you go left. You pass by
  these town houses. They all look the same.

• To get to my house you go left, passing by town
  houses that all look the same.

4

• A couple of blocks down you will see a big yellow
  sign with bold, black letters. It says Dead End.
  You pass that sign and youll see where I live.
  There are two buildings. They look like gray
  shoe boxes.

• A couple of blocks down you will see a big yellow
  sign with bold, black letters saying Dead End.
  As you pass that sign, youll see two buildings
  that look like gray shoe boxes. This is where I
  live.

5

• Outside the houses there is a total of about
  eight cars. Some are trucks, some old, some new.
  The thing is that only half of the vehicles work.

• Outside the houses are about eight cars and
  trucks, old and new, but only half of them
  actually run.

6
The Story of Freckles

• I will never forget the winter our family dog had
  puppies. I was six years old. Our dogs name
  was Freckles. It was quite appropriate because
  she was a Dalmatian. She had perfect markings,
  my mom said.

• The winter when I was six years old our family
  dog, Freckles, had puppies. Freckles was an
  appropriate name for a Dalmatian who had perfect
  markings, my mom said.

7

• My dad spent a few weeks looking for a male dog
  with good quality markings. He spent two months
  trying to get Freckles to mate with the other
  dog. Freckles didnt want anything to do with
  this stud. My dad finally gave up and went
  looking for another male. During this time
  Freckles had thoughts of her own on mating. She
  found the scroungiest black mutt.

• My dad spent a few weeks looking for a male dog
  with good quality markings and then took two
  months trying to get Freckles to mate with that
  other dog, but Freckles didnt want anything to
  do with this stud. My dad finally gave up and
  went looking for another male. Meanwhile,
  Freckles had thoughts of her own on mating,
  finding the scroungiest black mutt.

8

• About two weeks later we found out she was
  pregnant. My father was absolutely furious when
  he found out. He had spent a lot of time and
  money trying to breed her to a show-quality dog.
  He finally got over his anger. He began by
  making her a bed. He made the bed out of a
  cardboard box. In this box he put two old
  pillows and a sheet and blanket. He started
  making her special breakfasts.

• About two weeks later we found out she was
  pregnant. My father was furious because he had
  spent a lot of time and money trying to breed
  her with a show-quality dog. When he finally got
  over his anger, he made her a bed out of a
  cardboard box, two old pillows, a sheet and a
  blanket. Then he started making her special
  breakfasts of pancakes (with syrup), bacon and
  eggs.

9
Finally, when you learn to combine sentences,
your writing will be beautiful, sophisticated,
graceful, like this lovely piece of prose
For the animal shall not be measured by man. In
a world older and more complete than ours, they
move finished and complete, gifted with
extensions of the senses we have lost or never
attained, living by voices we shall never hear.
They are not brethren, they are not underlings
they are other nations, caught with ourselves in
the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the
splendor and travail of the earth.

Henry Beston

10
Good luck with your writing!