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 ideas. This same feeling of fluency encourages the flow of ideas in writing -- ideas that hop, pop, and blend together.

A good writer knows how to blend short sentences and long sentences. First, let's practice making a smoother, longer sentence from several short sentences. This very paragraph is a good place to start! Suppose it was written this way:

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

Aren't you just itching to blend some of these ideas? Discuss with your writing partners different ways to combine those sentences.

Then edit the paragraph on the screen below by combining some of the sentences to make them flow. 

Copy to Edit:

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

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

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Compare your paragraph with the original one below. Yours might be different. That's because there are many ways to combine ideas into sentences.

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

Practice **** Practice

Below are sets of short sentences that describe a scene. They sound the way a choppy sea looks -- bouncing and disconnected. Your job is to make them flow like a stream.

See if you can turn each group of sentences into one sentence. If you have partners, let each one make a suggestion about combining. That way you'll be collaborating! Say your new sentence aloud before typing it in.

Rule for Combining Sentences: You can drop words and add connecting words or word endings (such as ing), but you must keep all the main ideas.

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.

Type Your New Sentence Here:

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Just for comparison, look at the ways some other writers combined the same 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 which 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.

Type Your New Sentence Here:

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Look at the ways some other writers combined the same 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.

Type Your New Sentence Here:

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Look at the ways some other writers combined the same 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 [ ] around it. If you'd like to change your sentence, scroll back and do that now.

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When you combined sentences and saw other writers' sentences, you may have noticed:

It's easy and natural to change the order of words.

It's easy to drop words that are repetitious.

Certain connecting words are useful, such as and, but, although, which, and whose.

You can add ing to the verb in a sentence, and make it easy to turn that sentence into part of another sentence. From: The hunter shot the deer. To: Shooting the deer, the hunter . . .

It helps to speak new sentences as you create them.

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

The other files for this activity will show you how. While you work with sentences and get practice as an editor, you'll also be reading passages from famous writers of the mid-nineteenth century. You'll see how masters from the middle 1800s made their sentences flow.


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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