Adding VARITEY and STYLE to your WRITING:

Why do I need fluency?  Experienced writers use a variety of sentences to make their writing interesting and lively. Too many simple sentences, for example, will sound choppy and immature while too many long sentences will be difficult to read and hard to understand.

The Simple Sentence  A simple sentence, also called an independent clause, contains a subject and a verb, and it expresses a complete thought.  In the following simple sentences, subjects are in yellow, and verbs are in green.

Simple Sentence Examples  A. Some students like to study in the mornings. B. Juan and Bryce play football every afternoon. C. Alicia goes to the library and studies every day.  Note that sentence B contains a compound subject, and sentence C contains a compound verb.

Spicing Up the Simple Sentence with a SEMICOLON  ; is used between two Complete Sentences of common topics. The first word of the second sentence is NOT capitalized unless it is a proper noun or the word I.  Ex. Chocolate is my favorite candy; I could eat a pound of it a day!  Ex. Melissa confusedly walked around the store; she could not locate the pickles.  NOT: The tree in my back yard is dying; Birds have wings.

Where should the ; go?  Jenks Middle School is a great place to go to school the teachers, staff, and students are all very helpful.  Halloween is my favorite holiday because of the costumes I will probably dress up as a super hero this year.  Tomorrow the weather might be dangerous the meteorologist is forecasting possible tornadoes

Spicing up the simple sentence with an appositive  An appositive is a noun or phrase that renames/describes another noun offset by commas.

Appositive Examples  Ex. Jimmy, my dog, ate his rawhide chew.  Ex. The kid plays with an XBOX, a game console.  Ex. We drove to Austin, the capital of Texas.  Ex. Mrs. Rock, one of our assistant principals, used to teach Language Arts.  What noun is being re-named or described?

How can I create an appositive?  Bess is a character in the poem “The Highwayman.” She sacrificed herself for love.  Rikki Tikki Tavi was victorious over three snakes. He defeated Karait, Nag, and Nagaina.  In the story “Seventh Grade,” Victor wanted to impress a girl named Teresa.

The Compound Sentence  A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinator.  The coordinators are as follows: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. (Helpful hint: The first letter of each of the coordinators spells FANBOYS.)  Coordinators are always preceded by a comma.  In the following compound sentences, subjects are in yellow, verbs are in green, and the coordinators and the commas that precede them are in red.

Examples of Compound Sentences  A. I tried to speak Spanish, and my friend tried to speak English. B. Cale played football, so Maria went shopping. C. Aiden practiced his trumpet, for he was alone at his house.

, conjunction fanboys , for , and , nor , but , or , yet , so

The Complex Sentence  A complex sentence has an independent clause joined by one or more dependent clauses. A complex sentence always has a subordinator such as because, since, after, although, or when.  In the following complex sentences, subjects are in yellow, verbs are in green, and the subordinators and their commas (when required) are in red.

Examples of Complex Sentences  A. When he handed in his homework, he forgot to give the teacher the last page. B. The teacher returned the homework after she noticed the error. C. The students are studying because they have a test tomorrow. D. After they finished studying, Juan and Michelle went to the movies. E. Juan and Michelle went to the movies after they finished studying.

When do I use a comma?  When a complex sentence begins with a subordinator such as sentences A and D, a comma is required at the end of the dependent clause.  When the independent clause begins the sentence with subordinators in the middle as in sentences B, C, and E, no comma is required.  If a comma is placed before the subordinators in sentences B, C, and E, it is wrong.

AAAWWUUBBIS Words  Some of the most common subordinating conjunctions can be remembered by using AAAWWUUBBIS  Although, After, AS  While, When  Unless, Until  Because, Before  If  Since