Sentence Combination
Take these three simple sentences:
Steven Spielberg is a surprisingly good director. Spielberg’s first features were cheap and unimaginative
action movies. Spielberg went on to direct thoughtful films like Schindler’s List.
Combine . . .

With a Coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS – For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So)
Steven Spielberg is a surprisingly good director. His first features were cheap and unimaginative
action movies, but Spielberg went on to direct thoughtful films like Schindler’s List.
Steven Spielberg is a surprisingly good director, but his first features were cheap and unimaginative.
Spielberg went on, however, to direct thoughtful films like Schindler’s List.

By subordinating one clause to another with words like “while” and “although”
While Steven Spielberg’s first films were cheap and unimaginative, he is still a surprisingly good
director. H went on to direct thoughtful films like Schindler’s List.
Steven Spielberg is a surprisingly good director, even though his first films were cheap and
unimaginative. He went on to direct thoughtful films like Schindler’s List.

Use colons, semi-colons and dashes to imply relationships between sentences and to give texture
and pace to the prose. RULES: a colon must have a complete sentence before it, but can have a
fragment after. A semi-colon has to have complete sentences on either side. A dash works like
a colon when separating clauses, but can also be used (like a comma) to suspend appositives.
While Steven Spielberg’s first films were cheap and unimaginative, he is still a surprisingly good
director: he went on, after all, to direct thoughtful films like Schindler’s List.
Steven Spielberg is a surprisingly good director: even though his first films were cheap and
unimaginative, he went on to direct thoughtful films like Schindler’s List.

Suspend purely descriptive information in appositives. Put them next to the noun they
describe, and enclose them with either commas or dashes.
Steven Spielberg, whose first films were cheap and unimaginative, is a surprisingly good director: he
went on to direct thoughtful films like Schindler’s List.
Steven Spielberg – who went on to become the surprisingly good director of thoughtful films like
Schindler’s List – made cheap and unimaginative films early in his career.