Writing Skills

1
Writing Skills

• Writing skills are best learned through
  experience through doing. William Strong,
  author of Sentence Combining, a Composing Book.

2
Sentence Combining in Action

• Look at these short, choppy sentences.
• The sub had faked to the baseline.
• The sub had twisted past his defender.
• The sub had banked a shot off the glass.
• The sub had sent the crowd into ecstasy.

3
Sentence Combining

• What are the verbs in these sentences?
• had faked
• had twisted
• had banked
• had sent

4
Sentence Combining

• Can we do a better job of eliminating the
  repeated subject the sub and giving more
  impact to those great verbs?

5
Sentence Combining

• Read this sentence to see if it does a better job
  of inviting the reader.
• The sub had faked to the baseline, twisted past
  his defender, banked a shot off the glass, and
  sent the crowd into ecstasy.

6
Sentence Combining

• Or, how about this one?
• After faking to the baseline and twisting past
  his defender, the sub had banked a shot off the
  glass, sending the crowd into ecstasy.

7
Sentence Combining

• Heres another version of those same short,
  choppy sentences combined into one, more
  effective and fluent sentence.
• The sub faking to the baseline, twisting past
  his defender, banking a shot off the glass had
  sent the crowd into ecstasy.

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Sentence Combining

• This is my personal favorite because the short,
  dramatic sentence at the end (standing by itself)
  gives a punch to the idea that the crowd was
  excited.
• With a fake to the baseline, the sub had twisted
  past his defender and then banked a shot off the
  glass. The crowd was ecstatic.

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Sentence Combining

• You can rearrange sentences, change nouns like
  ecstasy into adjectives like ecstatic, and even
  add details if you choose. Look at this example
• An ecstatic crowd had watched the sub fake to the
  baseline and twist past a frantic, backpedaling
  defender his shot banking softly off the glass
  to send the championship into overtime.

10
Sentence Combining

• The point is that sentence combining exercises
  have many right answers.
• You will get to use some creative energy to make
  these sentences/paragraphs YOURS!

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Paragraphs a context for combining

• You will be given an activity that looks like
  this Notice the numbers beside each sentence.
  You are reading a nineteen sentence paragraph
  that should be a five sentence one.
• Looking Back
• 1.1 Shadows filled the coachs office.
• 1.2 The coach bent over his metal desk.
• 1.3 He cleaned out the bulging files.
• 2.1 He was ready to dump an envelope.
• 2.2 A photo caught his attention.
• 2.3 The photo was fading.
• 2.4 The photo was from an earlier era.
• 3.1 The young mans face was thin.
• 3.2 The young mans face was determined.
• 3.3 His eyes hungered for a chance to play.
• 4.1 The coach thought back.
• 4.2 The coach remembered something.

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Paragraphs a context for combining

• Ultimately, this story will become a five
  sentence paragraph.
• The 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 sentences will be combined
  to form the first sentence.
• The 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4 sentences will be
  combined to form the second sentence.
• Get it?

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Paragraphs a context for combining

• (1) As shadows filled the coachs office, the
  coach bent over his metal desk and cleaned out
  the bulging files. (2) He was ready to dump an
  envelope when a photo caught his attention. (3)
  The photo was fading and from an earlier era. (4)
  The young mans face was thin and determined, and
  his eyes hungered for a chance to play. (5) The
  coach thought back and remembered something. (6)
  He had pulled a sub off the bench and yelled
  instructions, but the lad had ignored them. (7)
  The sub had faked to the baseline, twisted past
  his defender, and banked a shot off the glass.
  (8) The sub had sent the crowd into ecstasy.

14
Paragraphs a context for combining

• Some sentences can be combined by changing an
  independent clause to a dependent clause.
• Some can be combined by using a comma and a
  BOYFANS.
• Some can be combined by using phrases (such as
  participial phrases or prepositional phrases).

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Paragraphs a context for combining

• (1) With shadows filling his office, the coach
  bent over his metal desk, cleaning out the
  bulging files. (2) He was ready to dump an
  envelope, but a fading photo from an earlier era
  caught his attention. (3) The young mans face
  was thin and determined his eyes hungered for a
  chance to play. (4) As the coach thought back, he
  remembered that he had pulled a sub off the bench
  and yelled instructions that were ignored by the
  lad. (5) The sub had faked to the baseline and
  twisted past his defender. (6) His shot, banked
  off the glass, had sent the crowd into ecstasy.

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Paragraphs a context for combining

• (1) In a shadow-filled office, the coach bent
  over his metal desk to clean out bulging files.
  (2) He was ready to dump an envelope when a
  fading photo from an earlier era caught his
  attention. (3) The young mans face, thin and
  determined, hungered for a chance to play. (4)
  The coach thought back, remembering that he had
  pulled a sub off the bench and then yelled
  instructions that the lad ignored. (5) Faking to
  the baseline then twisting past his defender, the
  sub had banked a shot off the glass the crowds
  ticket to ecstasy.

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Writing Tips

• Sometimes I will give you little hints or
  Writing Tips. For example
• 2.1 He stood atop the bungee tower.
• 2.2 He felt a jackhammer in his chest.
• Writing Tip Try adding an ing ending to one of
  the verbs in cluster 2.
• Or

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Writing Tips

• 4.1 Far below was the parking lot.
• 4.2 Car windows glinted in the sun.
• Writing Tip Try using where as a connector in
  cluster 4.

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Lets give it a whirl.
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Bungee Jumping

• 1.1 The moment of truth arrived.
• 1.2 Max had felt raw panic.
• 2.1 He stood atop the bungee tower.
• 2.2 He felt a jackhammer in his chest.
• 3.1 His mind screamed one repeated thought.
• 3.2 What am I doing here?
• 4.1 Far below was the parking lot.
• 4.2 Car windows glinted in the sun.
• 5.1 Traffic streamed by on the highway.
• 5.2 A small plane droned in the distance.
• 6.1 Max squeezed his eyes shut.
• 6.2 Max wished hed never accepted the dare.
• 7.1 Youre eighteen, he told himself.