Writing 101 Part 1

Learning Objective Identify subjects and verbs in sentences

Critical Awareness Essentially, this means being able to identify problems in your writing and thinking about ways in which the text you are working on could be improved.

Sentences Always use complete sentences when writing. To do this you need to familiar with two things: Subjects and verbs Major and minor clauses.

Subjects and Verbs To qualify as a complete sentence, a group of words must contain a subject and a verb. The subjects is who or what the sentence is about. The verb tells us about the subject’s actions or state of being. For example: Daisy awoke. (subject) (verb)

Practice your grammar Apply your learning with the following three worksheets.

Writing 101 Part 2

Learning Objective 1 Identify major and minor clause in sentences.

Check out the class webpage https://johnwilgress.weebly.com/ https://johnwilgress.weebly.com/year-11-general-english.html

Friday P5 Assessment Task 1: 7.5% (IN CLASS) (Set Week 1, due Week 3) Responding: In class. View an unseen, complex, informational text that includes infographics and answer questions which assess literal and inferential comprehension skills and basic critical literacy.

Things to review Establishing a Purpose Activating Existing knowledge Overviewing Scaffolding Scanning Skimming Re-reading Paraphrasing Inferring Reading with critical awareness

Major and Minor Clauses Many sentences have more than one subject-verb pair. Each part of the sentence with a subject verb pair is called a clause. Clauses can be classified as major clauses and major clauses: A major clause contains the main, or major, idea of a sentence. A minor clause contains an additional, or minor, idea. For example: We made a midnight snack after we watched television. (major clause) (minor clause)

Major and Minor Clauses: Continued As you can see from the above, a major clause can stand by itself as a complete sentence. A minor clause cannot do so unless the conjunction is removed (in this example, the conjunction is ‘after’). Minor clauses have the following: A particle (the ‘-ing’ part of a two-word verb) A relative pronoun (who, whom, which, that) A subordinating conjunction After Although As Because Etc.

Equal Clauses Usually include a sentence with the following words: For And Nor But However Or Yet So

Activity 1. In your books, identify the major and minor clauses in each of the following: There was a young man of Yalgoo whose limericks stopped at line two. Whatever you do, do not open that door. It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock’n’roll. Nobody loves you when you’re down and out. There’s a winding road that leads through the forest. When I find myself in times of trouble, I think of you. 2. Try making a few sentences with equal clauses.

Myths: Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions RULE: it is wrong to begin a sentence with a conjunction, such as ‘and’, ‘but’ or ‘because’. TRUE OR FALSE? FALSE: this is wrong in two cases such as… When a minor clause is placed at the beginning of a sentence When a writer wants to create a connection with the previous sentence

Myths: Incomplete sentences RULE: you should always write in complete sentences. TRUE OR FALSE? FALSE: In fact, there are many situations when it is acceptable to use incomplete sentences, which are also called sentence fragments. They are found in creative writing often, but less in essay and reports.

Learning Objective 2 Identify and use proper punctuation.

Punctuation: Full stops, question marks and exclamation marks A full stop (.) indicates the end of a sentence or sentence fragment. Question marks (?) are used for questions. Exclamation marks (!) indicate emphasis or surprise.

Capital Letters Capital letters are used at the beginning of a sentence and for proper nouns, for example: People’s names Place names Names of organisations Days of the week Months Titles – the Prime Minister of Australia, the Archbishop of Perth Nationalities and groups of people – Indian, British, Western Australian Languages – English, Arabic, Tagalog The main words in the title of a text.

Comma Rule 1 One use of commas (,) is to separate words that form a list; for example, a list of: Nouns – ‘Giraffes, zebras, antelopes and wildebeest are all herbivores.’ Verbs – ‘They spent the day swimming, surfing, sunbaking and generally enjoying themselves.’ Adjectives – ‘She was a tall, blonde, athletic person.’ Adverbs – ‘They approached the house slowly, fearfully, carefully.’

Comma Rule 2 Another use of commas is to separate clauses or phrases in a sentence. This is a useful way of breaking down a sentence into ‘chunks’, thus making it easier for the readers to understand the sentence, especially when a sentence begins a minor clause, for example: Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be there for you. After they had worked on their assignments for an hour, the students were given some free time.

Comma Rule 3 If the clauses or phrases are short, the comma might be omitted, for example: After finishing their work the class was excused.

Comma Rule 4 Comma pares are used to separate a minor clause or phrase in the middle of a sentence from the rest of a sentence, for example: Ahmed, because he was so tall, had no trouble in reaching the top shelf. Fremantle, normally a lively place, was unusually quiet that Saturday night. The Late Ancient Romans were avid Christians, however, they still kept some pagan traditions from previous centuries.

Colons The Colon (:) is used to: Introduce a list Indicate that what follows explains what has gone before. Examples The following are examples of herbivores: giraffes, zebras, antelopes and wildebeest. Falling in love on the net is usually a hoax, too: love needs a place to grow, just as her animals need a place to graze together.

Semi Colons The semi-colon (;) is used to link two clauses in a sentence to show that they are closely related, rather than making them separate sentences. It performs a similar function to a conjunction, so a conjunction is normally not used with a semi-colon. Some examples include: I need to go on a diet; I have been overindulging lately. Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.

Parentheses A Parentheses (commonly called brackets) are use do provide additional or explanatory information without interrupting the flow of a sentence.

Quick Activity Create one example sentence of each of the following with colons: list indicate Create one example sentences of each of the following with a semi colon: link two clauses Create one example sentence of each of the following with commas: separate clauses or phrases separate a minor clause or phrase in the middle of a sentences

Learning Objective 3 Create an awesome paragraph

Paragraphs The purpose of a paragraph is to break up your text into sections to make it easier for your readers to comprehend. Readers should be able to clearly see the different stages of your argument, report, description, narrative or other type of text. They can vary in length. Some writers use one sentence while others in formal text might used many in essays and or reports. The main idea is in the first sentence. The rest of the paragraph provides examples and or evidence to back up its point.

Use PEEL Point – your topic sentence Evidence – your information (facts, evidence and examples) that backs up your topic sentence Explanation – explain how the evidence backs your point Link – this is a short conclusion and point that joins to the next sentence