Sentence  Fluency

Sentence Beginnings               The Art of Styling Sentences

   Sentence  Beginnings

1.   Two adjectives:                 Intelligent, hard-working students study every night.

2.   An appositive:                  Margaret, intelligent and hard working, studies at the library.

3.   A parallel structure:          Intelligent and hard working, Margaret studies at the library.

4.   A question:                        Who could that intelligent, hard-working student be?

5.   A prepositional phrase:     In the brightly-lit classroom, the intelligent, hard-working
                                              students study for an entire class period.

6.   An infinitive:                     To study all day in the information-filled classroom is the duty
                                              of the students.

7.   A gerund:                          Listening and studying all day in the classroom is the students' duty.

8.   A perfect participle:          Having sat all day in the classroom, the students were anxious for
       (past participle)              soda and chips.

9.   A present participle:         Smiling at the busy students, the teacher keeps watch.

10. A predicate adjective:       The teacher is pleasant.

11. A predicate noun:             The well-trained teacher was the obvious leader.

12. An adverbial clause:          Until we learned the parts of speech, we couldn't improve our writing.

13. An adjective clause:          Andy, who has the mind of a scientist, worked as lab assistant.

14. A noun clause:                  That he could study all day in the library has never been proven.

15. An exclamation (!):            Wow!  He certainly is enjoying middle school.

The Art of Styling Sentences

Emerging Writers       Developing Writers       Advanced Writers

Emerging Writers

• Short, simple sentence for relief or dramatic effect – grabs the reader’s attention when used to separate several long sentences, to summarize, or to provide transition between ideas
  • Everything changed.
  • Let’s talk.
  • Just consider this.

• Prepositional phrase before subject and verb – positions one or more prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence
  • With horrified attention, we watched the planes crash.
  • In the park, the children ran and played wildly.

• Introductory or concluding participles – places action ing or ed words at the beginning of the sentence which describes the subject
  • Expecting a spectacular display, the crowd eagerly awaited the fireworks.
  • Inspired by the Harry Potter books, Joe created his Halloween costume.

• Interrupting modifier between subject and verb – interrupts the subject and the verb of a sentence as a kind of whisper
  • An apple a day (as your mother has said) will keep the doctor away.
  • Typewriters, once common in schools, are rarely seen today.
  • Snakes – once considered dangerous – are now common household pets.

• A series of balanced pairs – creates a balanced rhythm within the sentence
  • The textbook showed distinctions between prose and poetry, denotation and connotation, deduction and induction.
  • The middle school is a great place to be because of Becky and Barb, Jody and Deana, John and Pat.

• Compound sentence: semicolon, no conjunction – joins two short, simple sentences having two closely related ideas
  • Gloria, try on these jeans; they seem to be your size.
  • Reading is the easy part; remembering takes more effort.

The Art of Styling Sentences

Developing Writers

• The deliberate fragment – used sparingly can be effective for emphasis or to create a dramatic effect
  • (for transition) Now, on with the story.
  • (for indicating conclusions) Fine.
  • (for making exclamations and for emphasis) But how?
  • (for making explanations) All to no avail.

• A paired construction for contrast only – illustrates the differences between two ideas and usually involves a reversal
  • By chance (not by studying) she made an “A” on the midterm.
  • Hard work, not luck, gets you promoted in business.

• Emphatic appositive at end, after a colon – provides a forceful emphatic appositive that concludes the sentence and practically shouts for your reader’s attention
  • Her room contained a collection of trash: old clothes, pop cans, magazines.
  • When I go to the movies, I need two items to really enjoy it; popcorn and pop.

• Dependent clauses in a pair or in a series – expresses conditions, situations, or provisions dependent upon the idea expressed in the main clause – must be parallel in structure
  • If he had the money, if he had the time, if he had a companion, he would take that trip around the world.
  • With no money and with no time, she had to refuse the vacation package.

• An internal series of appositives or modifiers – renames (appositives) and describe (modifiers) something named elsewhere in the sentence
  • The basic writing skills – good vocabulary, knowledge of grammar, sense of style – can be learned by almost everyone.
  • Many of the books kids enjoy reading (Animal Farm, Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter novels) take them into another world.

• A series without a conjunction – gives a sentence a quick, staccato sound by separating items with commas and no conjunctions
  • The US has a government of the people, by the people, for the people,
  • It took courage, skill, knowledge – and he had them all.

• Dependent clause as a subject or object or complement – utilizes a dependent clause as another part of the sentence
  • Why so many people hate to eat vegetables constantly amazes parents.
  • He finally finished what he had started over a year ago.
  • Ann never discovered why her husband bought her a diamond necklace.

The Art of Styling Sentences

Advanced Writers

• A short question for dramatic effect – involves either a question that begins with an interrogative word, or a statement that becomes a question through intonation (pitch or tone) of voice
  • Can we change?
  • When will it end?

• Complete inversion of normal pattern – reverses the order of sentence parts to create emphasis and rhythm not achievable by any other means
  • Down the field and through the weeds pranced the little puppy.
  • “Never before have we had so little time to do so much.” FDR (1942)

• Single modifier out of place for emphasis – places additional emphases on any modifier by putting it somewhere other than its normal place in the sentence
  • Desperate, the young mother called for help.
  • All day the walkers sweated in the sun, pleased that they were walking for a good cause – preventing breast cancer.

• A full sentence as interrupting modifier – interrupts the main thought with a full sentence
  • Although the young models looked wonderful in their new $500 parkas – they were pretending to know how to ski – not one of them dared venture down the giant slalom.
  • Juliet’s famous question – early in the balcony scene she asks, “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” – is often misunderstood; she meant not “where,” but “why.”

• A variation: Same word repeated in parallel structure – creates a parallel structure by repeating an adjective or adverb in phrases or clauses, the same preposition in a series, the same noun as the object of different prepositions, the same modifying word in phrases that begin with different preposition, the same intensifiers, or the same verb or alternative forms of the same word
  • He has known her for many years, before she went to college, before she was a star, before she won the Oscar.
  • The baseball game was quite exciting, quite enjoyable, but quite long.

• Repetition of a key term – repeats a key word in a modifying phrase attached to the main clause
  • We life in an uncertain world – the inner world, the world of the mind.
  • We all have problems; but we can find a solution, a solution that works, a solution that is equitable.

• A variation: appositive after a dash – precedes a short climactic appositive
  • Pandas eat only one food – bamboo shoots.
  • E-mail is wonderful and so easy to send, but also represents a major problem – answering it.

• An introductory series of appositives – begins with a “cluster” or appositives
  • The depressed, the stressed, the lonely, the fearful – all have trouble coping with problems.
  • Mickey Mouse, Magic Mountain, the Light Parade – these mean Disneyland to children.

• Compound sentence with explanatory statement – signals the reader that the second clause will specifically explain or expand some idea expressed only vaguely in the first clause
  • A lizard never worries about losing its tail: it can always grow another.
  • Superman has extraordinary powers: he flies like a bird and has X-ray vision.

• Compound sentence with elliptical construction – joins two simple sentences having closely related ideas by leaving out the verb in the second clause because it is not necessary
  • His mother told him to rent a car; his sister, to pack the suitcases.
  • For many of us, the new math teacher was a savior; for others, a pain.