English 104
Optional Extra Credit Assignment
Due Monday, February 24
Credit: 4 points
Format: typed and double-spaced
Instructions: Choose one of the prompts below. Be creative and imaginative and use those
dependent clauses.
1. Write a love letter to any recipient, real or imaginary. Your letter can be to a person, to an
object, or to a group of people. (Examples: To Harry Potter, to my great-grandmother
(whom I did not know), to my favorite old sweatshirt, to potato chips, to The Beatles.) In
your poem or letter, make use of as many parallel dependent clauses as you can. Try to
make some very long strings of parallel dependent clauses. Use at least two kinds of
dependent clauses. Underline each dependent clause and label it according to what kind it
is—adverb clause, relative clause, or noun clause. Your letter can be in the form of a
poem if you like.
2. Write the opposite of a love letter: a letter of hate or annoyance. Address the letter to the
thing that annoys you: call it “you.” For example, you might write to potato chips,
complaining about how bad for you they are; to the traffic light on your daily route that
always takes forever to change and that doesn’t give you enough time to cross the street;
to greediness; to cruelty. As with option #1, make use of as many parallel dependent
clauses as you can. Try to make some very long strings of parallel dependent clauses.
Use at least two kinds of dependent clauses. Underline each dependent clause and label it
according to what kind it is—adverb clause, relative clause, or noun clause. Your letter
can be in the form of a poem if you like.
3. Write a persuasive speech in which you try to convince your audience to take action on
something. You can choose any topic you want to, from the real to the imaginary. For
example, you could persuade your audience to stop playing video games to play only a
specific video game, to go to your favorite restaurant, to go shopping with you next
Saturday, to stop driving and instead take public transportation, to vote for a particular
candidate, to undertake a secret mission. As with option #1, make use of as many parallel
dependent clauses as you can. Try to make some very long strings of parallel dependent
clauses. Use at least two kinds of dependent clauses. Underline each dependent clause
and label it according to what kind it is—adverb clause, relative clause, or noun clause.