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2. Week 1
Types of sentences
1. Simple sentence:
contains only one piece of information …
e.g. ‘The cat sat on the mat.’
Top tip: these can be very dramatic and build suspense. Fragments or
minor sentences can also be used for this purpose, e.g. Stop!
2. Compound sentences:
contain more than one piece of information. The words ‘and’, ‘but’
and ‘or’ are used to join two simple sentences together.
e.g. ‘The cat sat on the mat and licked his paw.’
3. Complex sentences:
also contain more than one piece of information. They are made up of
several parts or clauses. At least one of these will be a main clause,
which contains the main information of the sentence. There will also
be one or more subordinate clauses which give extra information
about what is happening. The subordinate clause cannot make sense
on its own. There are numerous ways of making complex sentences –
some are listed below:
a. An embedded subordinate clause:
e.g. The cat, who was eyeing my goldfish hungrily, needed lots of food.
b. Beginning with a subordinate clause:
e.g. Eyeing my goldfish hungrily, the cat paced back and forth beside the
fish bowl.
c. Surrounding the main clause with subordinate clauses:
e.g. Even though he had just eaten half a tin of cat food, Felix paced back
and forth beside the fish bowl, eyeing my goldfish hungrily,
Can you create your own examples of simple, compound and complex
sentences?
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3. Week 2
Tasks
1. Read the extract from Regeneration by Pat Barker. See if you can find
and label some examples of the above sentence types.
Extract from Regeneration by Pat Barker
Burns. Rivers had become adept at finding bearable aspects to unbearable
experiences, but Burns defeated him. What had happened to him was so vile, so
disgusting, that Rivers could find no redeeming feature. He’d been thrown into
the air by the explosion of a shell and had landed, head-first, on a German
corpse, whose gas-filled belly had ruptured on impact. Before Burns lost
consciousness, he’d had time to realise that what filled his nose and mouth was
decomposing human flesh. Now, whenever he tried to eat, that taste and smell
recurred. Nightly, he relived the experience, and from every nightmare, he
awoke vomiting. Burns, on his knees, as Rivers had often seen him, retching up
the last ounce of bile, hardly looked like a human being at all. His body seemed
to have become merely the skin-and-bone casing for a tormented alimentary
canal. His suffering was without purpose or dignity, and yes, Rivers knew
exactly what Burns meant when he said it was a joke.
Regeneration copyright © Pat Barker
2. Re-write this passage from a children’s story, taking care to use a
variety of the sentence types and to make the story more sophisticated
for an adult audience.
Extract from The Haunted House
The boy was very small. He looked up at the haunted house. It was big and
scary. He wondered what was waiting inside. He opened the door. It was very
dark. There was silence. He could feel himself shaking. A floorboard creaked.
He jumped. He looked up the staircase. There was nothing there. He couldn’t
shake the feeling he was being watched. He turned around…
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4. Week 3
Add some complexity
Re-write these extracts, changing the sentence structure to make them more powerful
and detailed.
a. I am very excited. I am going on holiday to America tomorrow. My whole
family are going. What’s really good is that I am allowed to take a best friend.
b. Cats are natural predators. When they see a bird or mouse it just means
excitement to them. Sometimes they kill without the desire to eat their prey.
Some cats can be shocked when they catch something.
Watch the length
These sentences are out of control. Re-write them, putting in punctuation to make
the meaning clearer.
a. The market was full of exciting smells and colours and noises and people and
new things.
b. Music can create the atmosphere you need to learn and it can even help you to
remember ideas because when you come to revise you can listen to the same
music and it will help you to recall the original idea because your memory has
made a link.
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5. Add layers of meaning Week 4
A complex sentence has a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses:
They ate chocolates greedily, until they felt sick.
The main clause, “They ate chocolates greedily” can be understood by itself but the
subordinate clause, “until they felt sick” doesn’t make sense by itself.
Underline the main clause in red and the subordinate clause in blue, in these
sentences.
a. I hid under the duvet shaking, as the storm raged outside.
b. Claire, who was filled with a sense or relief, left the stage.
c. Until the power cut hit, Paul refused to leave his computers.
Re-write these as complex sentences. You might choose to put the subordinate clause
at the beginning, in the middle or at the end.
d. Sally loved the book. She missed her bus because she was reading it.
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e. The computer finally died. It had been used non-stop.
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f. Amanda bought some new pink shoes. She loved shopping.
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Write 3 of your own.
1. _______________________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________________
2. _______________________________________________________________
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3. _______________________________________________________________
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6. Week 5
JOINING SENTENCES
PHRASES IN APPOSITION
You might already have seen this example:
Ben won the race and he was given a medal.
To remove boring old “and”, this is suggested:
Ben, the winner of the race, was given a medal.
This sentence replaces “and” by making the phrase “the winner of the
race” out of “won the race.” You can often make phrases like this to
join sentences in a varied and interesting way. They save you from
having to use “and.” (They are called phrases in apposition but
knowing their name isn’t as important as being able to make and use
them.) They are quite easy: you simply make a phrase which refers to
the same person or thing that you’ve just mentioned and then put
commas around it.
EXAMPLES
1.
This one removes “and.” It is easy as the words are already the same:
Sentence: Rome is the capital city of Italy and is a fascinating place to
visit.
Becomes: Rome, the capital city of Italy, is a fascinating place to visit.
2.
This one joins two sentences. You have to change the words by
making “director” from “directed”:
Sentence: Steven Spielberg directed “E.T.” in 1982. He has now
moved away from making children’s films.
Becomes: Steven Spielberg, the director of “E.T.” in 1982, has now
moved away from making children’s films.
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7. TASK Week 5
Join these sentences together or replace the word “and” by making
one of these phrases. Use the above sentences as examples. You
are given some help with the early ones.
1) Thomas Hardy wrote only a handful of novels. He decided to
concentrate on poetry after his book “Jude the Obscure” was
harshly criticised.
Becomes: Thomas Hardy, the writer of only ……………………………
………………, decided to concentrate on ………………………
2) London Bridge is one of the world’s greatest bridges and is fairly
recent though there has always been a crossing at that place.
Becomes: London Bridge, one of……………………………………………...........
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
3) Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of Great Britain during
the Second World War. He was probably the greatest speaker of
the twentieth century.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
4) Mrs. Crawford teaches me Geography. She lives in an enormous
house in the same avenue as my friend.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
5) Andrew Mitchell rode the winning horse Chestnut Cracker. He
announced after the race that he intends to retire at the end of
the season.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
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8. 6) Albert Swinton was the Wimbledon men’s tennis champion in
1949. He has died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Los
Angeles.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
7) “Falsely Accused” is an examination of ten murder trials. It is an
exciting book which comes highly
recommended.
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
8) Loch Ness is the largest inland lake in the British Isles. It is
famous for the monster which is said to live in its depths.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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9) Mr. Downham is the chairman of Sefton Residents’ Association.
He has written to the Prime Minister about the increasing level of
crime in the area.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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10) Covent Garden is now a busy shopping area. It was once owned
by the abbot and monks of Westminster.
.,………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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9. JOINING SENTENCES Week 6
PLACING CONJUNCTIONS AT THE BEGINNING OF
SENTENCES
A conjunction is a word that joins, or creates a junction between, two
sentences. It acts like a piece of Sellotape making two sentences stick
together but YOU DON’T ALWAYS HAVE TO STICK THEM TOGETHER IN
THE MIDDLE. This is BORING…BORING…BORING.
More varied and interesting sentences, improving your writing skills
and your marks, are created if you realise that you can place most
conjunctions (though not all) at the beginning of a sentence.
EXAMPLE
Jake was not allowed to go out until he had finished his
homework.
“until” is the conjunction. Try starting the sentence with it.
Until he had finished his homework, Jake was not allowed to go
out.
TASK
Change the order of the following sentences. Find the conjunction in
the middle and make your new version begin with it. The first one has
been started for you.
1) Rebecca decided to walk into the village although her ankle
was slightly swollen.
Becomes: Although her ankle………..............………......…, Rebecca
………………...................................……
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10. 2) The coach will arrive in Birmingham at midday unless there are
traffic problems on the motorway.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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3) Matthew has been out every night since he passed his driving
test six weeks ago.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
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4) The writer describes the Smiths’ house in great detail before he
introduces the main character.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
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5) Some people had to travel to the match by car because there was
not enough room on the minibus.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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…………………………………………………………………………………………………
6) Jane decided that she would go to the concert whether or not
Stephen chose to go with her.
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7) Mum was watering the plants while Dad was washing the car.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
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8) I looked for the book I wanted on the library shelves after I had
checked its details on the computer.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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…………………………………………………………………………………………………
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11. 9) The teacher gave the class no homework on Friday as everyone
had worked very hard during the lesson.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
10) You will find the buried treasure where the river forks next to an
old oak tree.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
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11) Anna pretended that she was very keen to borrow the
book though she had no intention of ever reading it.
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12) Passengers will not be allowed on
their flight if they do not arrive at the
check-in desk by three o’clock.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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13) Lizzie was not allowed to leave the theatre until she had checked
that every dressing room was empty.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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14) The family was going on a luxurious holiday in Mauritius when
Helen’s and Robert’s exams were over.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
15) I received a letter from the shop demanding payment after I had
sent a cheque to them for the correct amount.
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