Writing Next: Sentence Combining Strategy

Sentence Combining: A Tool to Improve Student Writing

According to the Carnegie report, Writing Next, sentence combining is the sixth most effective approach to improving writing, with a .50 effect size. The notion of sentence combining is really quite straight forward: it is taking simple sentences and combining them into more complex sentences. What is particularly noteworthy from the study is that sentence combining is more effective then traditional rote grammar strategies. Furthermore, the study found that the strategy is almost equally effective with students who are weak writers.

Through research I came across a wealth of websites, though I focused on those I could apply in a high school classroom. They range from worksheets, examining professional writer examples, applying to compositions, and incorporating vocabulary and prescripted sentence structures. The following are websites and books I visited:

http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CNP/0261-august08/NP0261Sentence.pdf This source from NCTE looks at sentence combining actvities.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:0F1is7fnzL8J:english.sxu.edu/musgrove/write_prog/lessons.doc+sentence+combining+lessons&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgblvOa0XHfsDQZ_NqgFRNttrckLJ-rRvZa_qT9zbCdL9N4zs6kwNjHj4LYQ9LxbWt_lRawynn8BwhVNrelVGIUvEVctmSPIMfdyC0O11Rx-jDOEXT5cIajxD2aCZ87w7PdsPWc&sig=AHIEtbSlr8VcZxgGer3bG7yrJN9iqiHBWQ&pli=1 This lengthy site is a college level document with many sentence combining exercises.

http://grammar.about.com/od/tests/a/introsc.htm This about.com site provides a clearing house of sites on the topic of sentence combining.

http://www.mshogue.com/AP/vocab_09.pdf This PDF comes from a renowned AP Lit & Language teacher who combines vocabulary and sentence structures to improve writing.

http://jonsenglishsite.info/Sentenccombnew.htm This little gem provides 12 units that teachers can use to work through sentence combining with their students.

Longknive, Ann Ph.D. & Sullivan, K. D. The Art of Styling Sentences. Haupage, NY. Barron’s Educational Services. 2002. Print. This is a fairly complex book that focuses on teaching students twenty different sentence patterns (how many of us can name all 20?).

Killgallon, Don. Sentence Composing for High School. Portsmouth, NH. Heinemann. 1998 Print. Numerous sites have referenced Killgallon in my research. This book provides a clear, straightforward way to implement sentence combining.