1. ASManager2.zip Driver
2. B_WARMUP.txt File Contents

B_WARMUP.txt Driver File Contents (ASManager2.zip)

Name: <  >
Class: <  >
Date: <  >

Warm Up

Everyone enjoys talking when their ideas and feelings begin to flow. Sometimes we use the word "fluency" to mean the free flow of good ideas. This same feeling of fluency encourages the flow of ideas when you are writing -- ideas that hop, pop, and blend together.

A good writer knows how to use short sentences and long sentences. First, let's practice making smoother, longer sentences from several short sentences.

This very paragraph is a good place to start! What if it had been written this way:

A good writer knows something. That writer knows how to use short sentences. That writer knows how to use long sentences. Let's do something first. Let's give you practice. You could make smoother sentences. You could make longer sentences. This could be done by combining several short sentences.

Aren't you just itching to blend some of those ideas? With your writing partners, discuss different ways you could combine the sentences in the previous paragraph.

Another copy of the paragraph is on the screen below. Please edit the sentences. Try combining some of the sentences to make them flow.

Copy to Edit:

A good writer knows something. That writer knows how to use short sentences. That writer knows how to use long sentences. Let's do something first. Let's give you practice. You could make smoother sentences. You could make longer sentences. This could be done by combining several short sentences.


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Compare your paragraph with the one below. Yours might be different. There are many ways to combine ideas into sentences.

A good writer knows how to use short sentences and long sentences. First, let's give you practice making smoother, longer sentences from several short sentences.


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Rule for combining sentences: Drop words and add connecting words or word endings, such as -ing, but keep all the main ideas.

This activity gives you groups of short sentences that describe a scene. They sound the way a rough sea looks -- choppy and disconnected. Make them flow smoothly.

Can you turn each group of sentences into one sentence? Take turns in your writing group suggesting ways to combine the sentences. Then type your new sentences at the angle brackets.

Combine Group I sentences into one sentence.

Group I:

The hunter crept through the leaves.
The leaves had fallen.
The leaves were dry
The hunter carried a gun.
The gun was new.

New Sentence:

< >


Name and save this file now. (Press ctrl+S, type a name for the file, and press enter.)

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Here are examples of how other writers combined the short sentences:

1. The hunter, carrying a new gun, crept through the dry, fallen leaves.

2. Creeping through the dry, fallen leaves, the hunter carried a new gun.

3. The hunter, who was carrying a new gun, crept through the dry fallen leaves.

4. Carrying a new gun, the hunter crept through the dry leaves that had fallen.

Which sentence do you like the best? Put brackets [ ] around it.

If you'd like to change your sentence, scroll back and do that now.

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Combine Group II sentences into one sentence.

Group II:

The hunter saw a deer.
The deer had antlers.
A tree partly hid the antlers.
The deer was beautiful.

New Sentence:

< >


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Ways other writers combined the short sentences:

1. The hunter saw a deer that was beautiful and had antlers, but a tree partly hid the antlers.

2. A beautiful deer, which the hunter saw, had antlers that were partly hidden by a tree.

3. The hunter saw a beautiful deer whose antlers were partly hidden by a tree.

Which sentence do you like the best? Put brackets [ ] around it.

If you'd like to change your sentence, scroll back and do that now.

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Combine Group III sentences into one sentence.

Group III:

The hunter shot at the deer.
The hunter missed.
The shot frightened the deer.
The deer bounded away.

New Sentence:

< >


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Ways other writers combined the short sentences:

1. The hunter shot and missed, frightening the deer so that it bounded away.

2. Shooting at the deer but missing it, the hunter frightened the deer, so it bounded away.

3. The hunter's shot missed the deer but frightened it, so that the deer bounded away.

4. Although the hunter's shot missed, the frightened deer bounded away.

Which sentence do you like the best? Put brackets [ ] around it.

If you'd like to change your sentence, scroll back and do that now.


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As you combined sentences and read other writers' combined sentences, did you notice:

- it's easy and natural to change the order of words?

- it's easy to drop repetitious words?

- certain connecting words are useful (and, but, although, which, whose, and so forth)?

- you can add -ing to the verb in a sentence to make it easy to turn that sentence into a part of another sentence?

For example: The hunter shot the deer.
Becomes: Shooting the deer, the hunter . . . 

- it helped if you spoke your new sentence as you were creating it?

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Congratulations! You've just done sentence combining. It's easy and natural to do once you get the hang of it. After you practice fixing up other writers' sentences, you will find that you will look at your own sentences more closely. You'll want to rewrite sentences to make them better. You'll want to change choppy sentences into flowing sentences!


If you haven't done so already, name and save this file now. (Press ctrl+S, type a name for the file, and press enter.)

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end of activity
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