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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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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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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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Add layers of meaning Week 4

A complex sentence has a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses:

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.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

e. The computer finally died. It had been used non-stop.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

f. Amanda bought some new pink shoes. She loved shopping.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

Write 3 of your own.

1. _______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

They ate chocolates greedily, until they felt sick.

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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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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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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.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

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.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

10) Covent Garden is now a busy shopping area. It was once owned

by the abbot and monks of Westminster.

.,………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

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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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2) The coach will arrive in Birmingham at midday unless there are

traffic problems on the motorway.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

3) Matthew has been out every night since he passed his driving

test six weeks ago.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

4) The writer describes the Smiths’ house in great detail before he

introduces the main character.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

5) Some people had to travel to the match by car because there was

not enough room on the minibus.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

6) Jane decided that she would go to the concert whether or not

Stephen chose to go with her.

..........................................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................................

7) Mum was watering the plants while Dad was washing the car.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

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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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.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

11) Anna pretended that she was very keen to borrow the

book though she had no intention of ever reading it.

.................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................

12) Passengers will not be allowed on

their flight if they do not arrive at the

check-in desk by three o’clock.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

13) Lizzie was not allowed to leave the theatre until she had checked

that every dressing room was empty.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

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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