SENTENCE FLUENCY
By: Kayla Stacy, Faith Westovhen,
Cole Kircherner, Richard Herro
LENGTH SENTENCES
Whenever you are writing an essay, make sure
that your sentences aren’t all short. If they are,
it will make your essay sound choppy.
Try mixing it up, and use conjunctive adverbs to
create short sentences into long sentences.
Using different length sentences will
allow your essay to sound complex.
Ex: I ate ice-cream. It melted quickly.
I ate ice-cream; however, it melted
quickly.
SENTENCE BEGININGS
Do not always start each sentence with the
same word. Using the same word will create
your essay to sound boring.
Ex: I visited my sister. I ate ice-cream with her. I
saw a squirrel outside.
Using a thesaurus will allow you to pinpoint different
words. Doing this will create your essay to include
different beginnings.
Ex: I visited my sister. Afterwards, I ate ice-cream.
While I was outside, I saw a squirrel.
When you are done adding the different sentence
beginnings, read your essay aloud to reassure yourself
that it sounds correct.
READING YOUR ESSAY ALOUD
Whenever you are writing an essay, and
feel that you created a mistake, go back to
the beginning of the sentence/paragraph
and read through the whole thing.
If you ever stumble upon your words and have
to backtrack often, the sentence is most likely
incorrect.
Ex: Shannon and Ben is going to the beach.
You hear that is sounds incorrect.
Sentence Structures
Whenever your writing, make sure
that you include prepositional
phrases, appositives, or anything else
that will spice up the writing. If you
don’t include different structures,
your essay will sound short and
bunched up.
Appositives basically, share extra information about
the subject that is given.
Prepositional Phrases: Begin with a preposition
and end with a noun, pronoun, or clause, the
"object" of the preposition.
Ex: My house is big. My house is red.
A squirrel lives by our porch.
My house, the red one, is big. A
squirrel lives under our porch.
SENTENCE FLOW AND
RYTHM
Whenever you are writing an essay, go back to
the beginning and read through everything you
have written.
If you happen to stop at any point, and go back
to re-read the sentence, your essay doesn’t flow
properly.
Example of rhythm and flow
The spider, dropping down from twig,
Unfolds a plan of her devising,
A thin premeditated rig
To use in rising.
And all that journey down through space,
In cool descent and loyal hearted,
She spins a ladder to the place
From where she started.
Thus I, gone forth as
spiders do
In spider’s web a truth
discerning,
Attach one silken
thread to you
For my returning.
E. B. White
Oral Language
When you read aloud your essay, make sure
that you do not sound as if you are reciting a
dictionary.
When you read your essay, and it does sound as
if you are reciting a dictionary, use a thesaurus
to find different and engaging words that will
“razzle dazzle” you essay.
Add some voice and emotion in your essay.
Adding voice to your essay will engage the
readers.
Ex: The beach is pretty and noisy.
Although the beach has breath-taking
views, it is has cacophony.
SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
A sentence fragment does not express a
complete thought. It may be missing a
subject, predicate, or both. Sentence
fragments won’t make your essay sound
fluent.
Ex: Wrote about birds.
Sheryl wrote about birds.
Qu ickT ime ™ a nd a
GI F de com pres sor
are nee ded to s ee th is p ictur e.
Common Mistakes
Numerous people always start sentences
with the same beginning.
Ex: Then we went to the beach. Then we
ate lunch. Then we went home.
Then we went to the beach. Later, we ate
lunch. Lastly, we went home.
Common Mistakes
A great amount of people always create
sentences to be short. They forget to add
long sentences.
Ex: The cat is white. The cat eats a lot. The
cat is fat.
The cat is white. The cat eats a lot;
therefore, he is fat.
Famous Writers
The spider weaves a sticky web
To capture bugs to eat.What keeps the spider's sticky web
From sticking to her feet?
Spider webs are very tricky
Because not all the strands are sticky.
Unlike the passing hapless fly,
The spider knows which strands are dry.
But if she accidentally stands
Upon one of the sticky strands,
She still would not get stuck, you see-Her oily body slides off free.-Amy Goldman Koss
Writing Practice
Everyone will be handed a “Sentence
Fluency” worksheet. Do your best to find
any sentence fragments, places where
there should be appositives or
prepositional phrases, sentence
beginnings that repeat numerous times,
words that don’t razzle dazzle the
sentence, etc.
In 5 minutes, we will check the worksheet.
Thank you for watching
our presentation!
Information: By Cole, Richard, Kayla
and Faith.
Animations: By Faith and Richard
Typing: By Kayla and Cole