Scrambled Sentence Parts
a. When looking out of her window
b. Was a hearse
c. The first thing she saw
Unscrambled Sentences (Three versions)
1. The first thing she saw when looking out of her window was a
hearse.
2. The first thing she saw was a hearse when looking out of her
window.
3. When looking out of her window, the first thing she saw was a
hearse.
The first version is the original. The third version is also effective. The
second version is ineffective because the order of the information is all
wrong. The reader needs to know that she was looking out her window
before being told what she saw.
Activity 4
Unscrambling Sentence Parts
Sentence parts can often be put in various places within a sentence. Unscramble each sentence three times,
and tell which versions are effective and which aren’t.
1. the boy’s father sat
2. the lantern still burning by his side
3. at the foot of one of the trees
William H. Armstrong, Sounder
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1. a mortgage financier
2. the father was respectable and tight
3. and forecloser
4. and a stern, upright collection-plate passer
From a sentence by O. Henry, “The Ransom of Red Chief”
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1. for nothing can be done
2. after Buck Fanshaw’s inquest
3. without a public meeting
4. a meeting of the short-haired brotherhood was held
5. on the Pacific Coast
6. and an expression of sentiment
From a sentence of Mark Twain, “Buck Fanshaw’s Funeral”
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1. the littlest
2. with them
3. I had ever seen
4. carrying a gnarled walking stick
5. oldest man
6. was Elmo Goodhue Pipgrass
From a sentence by Max Shulman, “The Unlucky Winner”
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1. over long woolen underwear
2. he bounded
3. around his chest
4. out of bed
5. and a leather jacket
6. wearing a long flannel nightgown
7. a nightcap
From a sentence by James Thurber, “The Night the Ghost Got In”
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1. looked up from his scrambled eggs
2. once upon a sunny morning
3. who sat in a breakfast nook
4. quietly cropping the roses
5. with a gold horn
6. a man
7. to see a white unicorn
8. in the garden
From a sentence by James Thurber, “The Unicorn in the Garden”
1. grabbed my right foot
2. of patent-leather dancing pumps
3. then
4. and shoved it into one of them
5. as a shoehorn
6. she removed the gleaming pair
7. out of a box on the bed
8. using her finger
Jean Shepherd, “Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories”
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1. such as weather balloons
2. as a general rule
3. satellites
4. of the world trade center
5. careful on-the-scene investigations disclose
6. meteorites
7. that most “unidentified” flying objects are quite ordinary phenomena
8. who blew off the roof
9. named Lewis Mandelbaum
10. and even once a man
Woody Allen, “The UFO Menace”
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1. had been stowed
2. in which the barnyard sounds
3. escaped from two crates
4. that we heard
5. and from a burlap bag
6. of hens
7. a small flock
8. that the duvitches had fetched along
9. of ducks
Ambrose Flack, “The Strangers That Came To Town”
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1. in his trouser band
2. of age
3. I was fourteen years
4. that he carried
5. when a coward
6. plus two California gold pieces
7. shot my father down
8. going by the name of Tom Chaney
9. and robbed him of his life
10. in Fort Smith, Arkansas
11. and his horse and $150 in cash money
Charles Fortis, True Grit