What is a sentence?

• “A sentence should be alive…Sentences need energy to jump off the page and into the reader’s head. As a writer you must embed energy in the sentence—coil the spring, set the trap.”

Peter Elbow, Writing With Power

What is a sentence?

• A sentence must contain at least one subject and one verb, and it must express a complete thought.

• A fragment is missing a subject or verb and/or it doesn’t contain a complete thought.

Try this Simplest Sentence Pattern

for Fun and Effect! The Two-Word Sentence

SmackdownSubject + Powerful Verb

• They race. (Jerry Spinelli, Loser)

• Maria flinched. (Nancy Farmer, House of the Scorpion)

• Blood flew. (Stephen King, Cujo)

• He sprung. (Stephen King, Cujo)

Your turn for a “Two-Word Sentence”

Smack Down

• Subject: Dog Breed (You pick the subject and add the verb!)

• Subject: Story Character

• Subject: Body Part (i.e., tongues)

Another Powerful Sentence Pattern:

The Compound Sentence

Sentence,forandnorbutoryetso

Sentence .

A compound sentence uses a conjunction to bindtwo complete sentences.

Remember the Sentence-Connecting

Coordinating Conjunctions with the Word…

FANBOYS• For• And• Nor• But• Or• Yet• So

Compound Sentence Examples using , + fanboys

• Every day was a happy day, and every night was peaceful. (E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web)

• Celia says you’re in shock, but I think you’re just lazy. (Nancy Farmer, The House of the Scorpion)

• It was almost time for science, her best subject, so it would be easy for Judy to pay attention. (Also contains an interrupter, Megan MacDonald, Judy Moody Gets Famous)

Conjunctive adverbs

accordinglyalsobesidesconsequentlyconverselyfinallyfurthermorehence

howeverindeedinsteadlikewisemeanwhilemoreoverneverthelessnext

nonethelessotherwisesimilarlystillsubsequentlythenthereforethus

Sentence; conjunctive adverb, sentence.

Sample compound sentences

using; conjunctive adverbs, • The dark skies and distant thunder dissuaded

Clarice from her afternoon run; moreover, she had thirty calculus problems to solve for her morning class.

• Leon's apartment complex does not allow dogs over thirty pounds; otherwise, he would have bought the gangly Great Dane puppy playing in the pet store window.

• The cat ate a bowlful of tuna; then, to the squirrels' delight, the fat feline fell asleep in the rocking chair.

• Compound may be connected with a semicolon

Sentence ; sentence.

I am happy to take your donation; any amount will be greatly appreciated.

Let’s hear some of your Compound Sentences

• Join your sentence in the 3 different ways we discussed.

• Write a sentence to connect a hamster’s cage with a messy bedroom.

• Connect an angry wasp with lazy old bloodhound.

• Connect a blustery fall day with a basketball game.

Now let’s get more complicated: Three Basic Scaffolds

for Complex Sentence Patterns

Opener, Sentence .Sent , interrupter, ence .

Sentence , closer .

Opener, Sentence

• Start with a preposition (above, after, across, against, along, among, around, at, behind, below, beside, between, beyond, by, down, from, in, inside, into, near, off, on, out, outside, over, past, through, to, toward, under, underneath, up, within, after, as, before, during, since, until, about, despite, except, for, like, of, per, than, with, without)

Opener, Sentence with Prepositions as Starters

• To tease your hair, grab a small section and hold it up by the end. (Kinky Friedman, Kinky Friedman’s Guide to Texas Etiquette)

• About the time I got to San Antone, I never wanted to see another dead armadillo.

• Despite his bulk, Lester sounded like a girl every time he opened his mouth.

• Underneath the seven layers of urine-soaked newspaper, rat poo, and seed jackets, Gilbertina was quite cozy and contented.

Another Type of Opener, Sentence:

Start with AAAWWUBBIS

• AAAWWUBBIS is a mnemonic device standing for the common subordinating conjunctions after, although, as, when, while, until, before, because, if, or since

• If you start a sentence with AAAWWUBBIS, you’ll need a comma—usually!

Opener, Sentence: Examples with AAAWWUBBIS

• Before the plate hit the table, Louie leaned forward like a snake striking and hit the stack of pancakes with his fork. (Gary Paulsen, Harris and Me)

• When I pop in a Bird CD, it’s like I feel myself filling up with Zeke. (Tracy Mack, Birdland)

• If there was an Olympic contest for talking, Shelly Staffs would sweep the event. (Wendelin Van Draanen, Flipped)

Now you use the Opener, Sentence pattern to

complete the following sentences…

• ________________, Amazina sniffed the tantalizing odor of pan-fried crow’s feet.

• ______________, strap yourself securely onto your broom, clasp the handle in both of your claws, and utter the mystical phrase, “Barlulia liftupus.”

Sent-, interrupter, -ence

• His eyes, brown and sparkly, lit up his face.

• Intricate mosaic tiles, handpicked by Baba in Isfahan, covered the four floors of the four bathrooms. (Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner)

• I was stretched out on my back, my paws dangling at my sides, thinking nothing more of the meal I’d just eaten and the chocolate I hoped still lie ahead. (James Howe, The Celery Stalks at Midnight)

Sent-, interrupter, -ence

• What is the purpose of the “interrupter”?

• The “interrupter” adds describing information about the subject of the Sent- part of the sentence.

More Examples of Sent-, interrupter, -ence

• Our yellow ranch house, 26 Bobolink Drive, had a garage and a bathroom shower with sliding glass doors. (Wally Lamb, She’s Come Undone)

• I even coaxed Rowdy, my bluetick hound, into helping me with this monkey trouble. (Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys)

• Monsieur Bibot, the dentist, was a very fussy man. (Chris Van Allsburg, The Sweetest Fig)

Sentence, CloserA closer adds information to

the sentence.

Sentence ,Sensory Detail(s)

+ participle (-ing or –ed

“verbs”) and

Note that not ALL closers follow this pattern, but all closers add information.

Examples of Sentence, Closer

• Cujo trailed at Brett’s heels, looking hot and dispirited. (Stephen King, Cujo)

• The dog stood up like a lion, stiff-standing hackles, teeth uncovered as he lashed up his fury for the charge. (Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God)

• The waif waved a filthy kerchief, sending the stomach-churning air of the sewer into my nostrils.

• Simon seized Astrid’s arm, causing a bolt of fear to lunge up her spine.

More Examples of Sentence, Closer

• He don’t even whimper, like he’s lost his bark. (Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Shiloh)

• The screen was coming away from the screen door in one corner, curling away from the metal frame like a leaf. (Suzanne Berne, A Crime in the Neighborhood)

Examining the Sentence, Closer

• What does the Closer often start with?

• A participle (“-ing” or “-ed” verb)

• What does the Closer add to a sentence?

• The Closer adds information, often sensory details, to the Sentence.

Time to experiment with Sentence, Closer

• The weary eagle spotted the cedar and made a beeline toward it, ___________________.

• Heracula lifted her pointy head, ___________________.

• Tears surfaced in his eyes, and the aged fairy king gulped, _____________.

Another Powerful Sentence Pattern:

The Serial Comma Sentence

Sente , c and .n , e

AKA “The Magic Three” A Serial Comma Sentence adds three pieces of information to a sentence.

Examples of the Serial Comma Sentence Pattern

Sente n , c , and e .AKA “The Magic Three”

• Pick up your tennis shoes, your potato chip bag, and your sweaty self off my white rug. (Betsy Anderson)

• With a malicious gleam in his eye, he kicks back the chair, pulls out his shirt tails, and adopts the high-volume grunting and braying tones of a Mississippi Delta evangelist. (Rob Thomas, Slave Day)

More Examples of the Serial Comma Sentence Pattern

Sente n , c , and e .AKA “The Magic Three”

• The soup was a delicious mingling of chicken, watercress, and garlic. (Rob Thomas, Slave Day)

• Can you imagine your father selling you for a tablecloth, a hen, and a handful of cigarettes? (Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux)

Test your expertise with the The Serial Comma Sentence

• The scraggly lion ____________, ____________, and ___________.

• Shot from his shaky bow, Albanius’s arrow ____________, ____________, and ___________.

• The ogre’s preferred snacks included __________, __________, and _____________

Parallelism is making things match.

• His room smelled of cooked grease, Lysol, and age. (Maya Angelou)

• I had three places I wanted to visit, six things I wanted to make, and two conversations I wanted to have before dinner. (Kathering Hannigan)

You try:

Appositivesadd information by renaming nouns

• Frank’s house looked like it had been drawn by a kindergartener with only two crayons, lime green and sunflower. (Paul Acampra)

• It was twilight, that time of day when shadows grow long and the lights start to fade and a dog’s eyes can play tricks on her. (Ann Martin)

• Joey was in their grade, a big pudgy kid with a cowlick that stood up at the back of his head like a blunt Indian feather. (Peter Abrahams)

Appositive

• You try

Plans for Tracking Use of the Sentence Patterns

Use this chart to track your usage of the sentence patterns

Sentence Type Number of Examples in

My Paper

Two-Word Sentence

(Color code: Red)

Compound Sentence

(Color code: Brown)

Opener, Sentence

(Color code: Blue)

Sentence, Closer

(Color code: Orange)

Sent-, Interrupter, -Ence

(Color code: Green)

Serial Comma Sente n, c, e (Magic 3)

(Color code: Purple)