Combining Sentences

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Combining Sentences

• One plus one equals one.

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?? Why should we know about sentencecombining?

• ?To build clarity
• ?To avoid wordiness
• ?To avoid redundancy

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Consider the followingparagraph

• The boy struggled to ride his bike. The boy is
  four years old and he is feisty. The bike is new
  and it is alight blue color. The boy received the
  bike for his birthday. He struggled for two
  hours. However, he was unsuccessful in riding the
  bike.

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• The feisty four-year-old boy struggled
  unsuccessfully for two hours to ride his new
  light blue birthday bike.

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• The animal trainer dove into the pool. The
  trainer was skilled and athletic. She was excited
  when she dove into the pool. She swam with two
  dolphins. The dolphins were babies. The dolphins
  were playful. The trainer swam with the dolphins
  for over an hour. When the trainer swam with the
  dolphins, she was happy.

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• The skilled, athletic animal trainer excitedly
  dove into the pool and happily swam for over an
  hour with two playful baby dolphins.

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• The blizzard contained strong winds and heavy
  snow. During the snowstorm, the roof of the town
  library collapsed. The roof of the post office
  did the same. The blowing snow covered the county
  roads. Schools cancelled classes due to the
  white-out conditions.

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• The blizzard, containing strong winds and heavy
  snow, caused the roofs of the town library and
  the post office to collapse, created white-out
  conditions on county roads, and forced schools to
  cancel classes.

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Problems that crop up whencombining sentences

• Fragments
• Run-ons
• Adjectives
• Adverbs
• Series in a sentence
• Prepositional phrases

• s/v agreement
• Appositives
• Compound sentences
• Complex sentences
• Relative pronouns

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Problems that crop up whencombining sentences
(contd.)

• Comma splices
• Misplaced modifiers
• Dangling modifiers
• Parallelism

• Tense shifts
• Overuse of passive voice
• Floating pronouns

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Combining Sentences

• Sentence combining is making one smoother, more
  detailed sentence out of two or more shorter
  sentences.
• Combining with key words
• Combining with phrases
• Combining with longer sentences

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Combining with KEY WORDS

• Use a key word
• Ideas included in short sentences can be
  combined by moving a key word from one sentence
  to the other.

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Use an adjective

• Short sentences
• Kellys necklace sparkles.
• It is beaded.
• Combined with an adjective
• Kellys beaded necklace sparkles.

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Try it!

• Short sentences
• The women always have to wait in a line.
• The line is long.
• Combined with an adjective
• The women always have to wait in a long line.

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Use an adverb

• Short sentences
• I am going to a sleepover.
• I m going tomorrow.
• Combined with an adverb
• Tomorrow I am going to a sleepover.

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Try it!

• Short Sentences
• You are supposed to sit on the bus.
• You are supposed to sit quietly.
• Combined with an adverb
• You are supposed to sit quietly on the bus.

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Use a series of words or phrases

• Short sentences
• The reading teacher is organized.
• The reading teacher is funny.
• The reading teacher is helpful.
• Combined with a series of words
• The reading teacher is organized, funny,
• and helpful.

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Try it!

• Short sentences
• On Thanksgiving, we have turkey.
• We also have stuffing.
• We also have gravy.
• Combined with a series of words
• On Thanksgiving, we have turkey, stuffing, and
  gravy.

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REMEMBER!

• All of the words or phrases in a series should be
  parallel (stated in the same way).
• Otherwise, the sentences will be unbalanced.
• Incorrect My dog is friendly, playful, and he
  is
• smart, too. (The modifiers in the
  series are not parallel.)
• Correct My dog is friendly, playful, and
• smart. (All the words in the series are
  single-word adjectives.
• They are parallel.)

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Correct it!

• Incorrect
• We can hike, ski, or we can snowboard down the
  mountain, too.
• Correct
• We can hike, ski, or snowboard down the mountain.

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Combining with PHRASES

• Use phrases
• Ideas from short sentences can be combined into
  one sentence using phrases.

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Combined with a prepositional phrase

• Short sentences
• Our cat curls up.
• He curls up on top of my homework.
• Combined with a prepositional phrase
• Our cat curls up on top of my homework.

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Try it!

• Short sentences
• He signed his name.
• He signed it on a football.
• Combined with a prepositional phrase
• He signed his name on a football.

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Combined with an appositive phrase

• Short sentences
• Mrs. Brown makes the best cookies on the block.
• Mrs. Brown is our next-door neighbor.
• Combined with an appositive phrase
• Mrs. Brown, our next-door neighbor, makes the
  best cookies on the block.

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Try it!

• Short sentences
• Sam wants to be a professional baseball player.
• He is my brothers best friend.
• Combined with an appositive phrase
• Sam, my brothers best friend, wants to be a
  professional baseball player.

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Use compound subjects and/or compound verbs

• A compound subject is two or more subjects
  connected by a conjunction.
• A compound verb is two or more verbs connected by
  a conjunction.

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Combined with a compound subject

• Short sentences
• Jamie danced around the room.
• Mary danced around the room, too.
• Combined with a compound subject
• Jamie and Mary danced around the room.

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Try it!

• Short sentences
• Sue rode her horse today.
• Scott rode his horse today.
• Combined with a compound subject
• Sue and Scott rode their horses today.

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Combined with a compound verb

• Short sentences
• Janet skated onto the pond.
• She made a perfect figure eight.
• Combined with a compound verb
• Janet skated onto the pond and made a perfect
  figure eight.

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Try it!

• Short sentences
• My teacher dropped her glasses.
• My teacher laughed.
• Combined with a compound verb
• My teacher dropped her glasses and laughed.

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Combining with LONGER SENTENCES

• Use compound sentences
• Use complex sentences

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Use compound sentences

• A compound sentence is made up of two or more
  simple sentences joined together. The
  conjunction and, but, or, nor, for, so, and yet
  are used to connect the simple sentences.
• Remember to place a comma before a conjunction!

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Use compound sentences

• Simple sentences
• My dog has hair hanging over his eyes.
• He looks just like a dust mop.
• Combined with and
• My dog has hair hanging over his eyes, and he
  looks just like a dust mop.

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Try it!

• Simple sentences
• Mary wrote a book about the seasons.
• It was interesting.
• Combined with and
• Mary wrote a book about the seasons, and it was
  interesting.

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Use complex sentences

• A complex sentence is made up of two ideas
  connected by a subordinating conjunction
  (because, when, since, after, before, though,
  although, if, unless, when, where, while, etc.).
• A complex sentence can also be combined by a
  relative pronoun (who, whose, which, and that).

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Combine sentences using a subordinating
conjunction

• Simple sentences
• My friend shares her lunch with me.
• She doesnt like what her dad packs.
• Combined with because
• My friend shares her lunch with me because she
  doesnt like what her dad packs.

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Try it!

• Simple sentences
• We took the elevator to the second floor.
• The stairs were closed for repairs.
• Combined with because
• We took the elevator to the second floor because
  the stairs were closed for repairs.

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Combine sentences using a relative pronoun

• Simple sentences
• Very cold weather closed school for a day.
• The cold weather came down from Canada.
• Combined with which
• Very cold weather, which came down from Canada,
  closed school for a day.

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Try it!

• Simple sentences
• Jack ran all the way to school.
• Jack was late this morning.
• Combined using who
• Jack, who was late this morning, ran all the way
  to school.

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The Comma Splice

• A writer creates a comma splice by joining 2
  independent clauses with a comma instead of a
  conjunction.
• Comma splice- It was a pleasure to meet you, I
  hope we can get together again soon.
• Comma splice- The Internet has revolutionized the
  publishing business, online sales of books have
  skyrocketed in the past few years.

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3 Fixes for the Comma Splice

• 1.Add a conjunction between the 2 clauses.
• 2.Start a new sentence.
• 3.If the independent clauses have a closely
  related topic, insert a semicolon between the
  two.
• It was a pleasure to meet you, and I hope we can
  get together again very soon.

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3 Fixes for the Comma Splice (contd.)

• 1.Add a conjunction between the 2 clauses.
• 2.Start a new sentence.
• 3.If the independent clauses have a closely
  related topic, insert a semicolon between the
  two.
• The Internet has revolutionized the publishing
  business online sales of books have skyrocketed
  in the past few years.

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Misplaced Modifiers

• Modifiers should be kept next to the word(s) to
  which they refer.
• Too great of a physical distance between modifier
  and object causes confusion because its not
  clear to which word the modifier is referring.

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Misplaced Modifiers

• Modifiers are words (adjectives or adverbs) that
  limit, qualify, or describe another word.
• Adjectives modify nouns - New car, old book,
  interesting class
• Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other
  adverbs
• ? She walked slowly.
• ? He drove a very fast car.
• ? The bride moved quite slowly down the aisle.

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Misplaced Modifiers CousinsDangling and
Squinting

• I almost failed every art class I took.
• I failed almost every art class I took.
• We only collected 27 signatures on the petition.
• We collected only 27 signatures on the petition.

• Dangling trying to modify something that has
  been left out of the sentence.
• Squinting placing the modifier between two
  likely choices.

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Dangling Modifiers

• Most often occur at the beginnings and ends of
  sentences
• ? Usually indicated by an -ing verb or a to
  verb phrase
• Example Hiking the trail, the birds chirped
  loudly.
• (Were the birds hiking the trail?)
• Example Walking to the campsite in February, my
  nose began to run.
• (Was your nose out of breath after it broke
  into a run? Did your nose get to the campsite
  before the rest of your body?)

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Dangling modifiers can berepaired

• By making the subject of the modifier the subject
  of the independent clause
• I was walking to the campsite in February, and
  my nose began to run.
• By placing the subject of the action within the
  dangling phrase
• As our group was hiking the trail, the birds
• chirped loudly.

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Squinting Modifier a modifiersandwiched between
two possible targets

• Children who laugh rarely are shy.
• Did the writer mean children who laugh
  infrequently are often shy, or that children who
  laugh often are typically not shy?
• Its impossible for the reader to figure out what
  the writer intended to say.

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Misplaced Modifiers

• The other day I shot an elephant in my pajamas.
  How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
• -- Groucho Marx

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Misplaced Modifiers

• One-word modifiers are easily misplaced. Be sure
  to keep these words beside the word(s) they are
  modifying.
• only just hardly simply
• even nearly merely almost

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Explain the meaning of eachsentence

• Almost everyone in the class passed the calculus
  exam.
• Everyone in the class almost passed the calculus
  exam.
• Which sentence indicates that everyone in the
  class failed the exam?

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Location, Location, LocationIts not just
important for realestate!

• Which of these projects is unlikely to pay you as
  a research assistant?
• Our project received a grant for nearly one
  million dollars.
• Our project nearly received a grant for one
  million dollars.