1. Combining Sentences Effectively & Economically

2. …a Mash Up. Good sentences are composed so that they blend well. Sentence Combining is like…

3. Compositional Strategies Focus on word order to avoid confusion Lists: Use commas and conjunctions to blend “Clue” words: Because, However, Before/After, When, As, Next, etc.

4. Combine Effectively a. The girls stood aside. b. The very small children rolled in the dust. c. Some children clung to the hands of their older brothers or sisters. d. The girls were doing two things. e. They looked over their shoulders at the boys. f. They talked among themselves. Based on a sentence by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”

5. The Master Mash-Up The girls stood aside, talking among themselves, looking over their shoulders at the boys, and the very small children rolled in the dust or clung to the hands of their older brothers or sisters.

6. Combine Economically Less is more.

7. Word Count Challenge How low can you go? a. One day when I went out to my woodpile, something happened. b. What happened was that I observed two ants. c. They were both large. d. One was red. e. The other ant was much larger than the red one. f. The larger one was black. g. The two ants were fiercely contending with one another. Based on a sentence by Henry David Thoreau, Walden

8. How many words did it take? Thoreau did it in 26: One day when I went out to my woodpile, I observed two large ants, the one red, the other much larger, fiercely contending with one another.