Write down your top 5 tips for effective

descriptive writing…

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Simple, Complex and

Compound sentences

KQ Can I use simple, complex and compound sentences in my writing and evaluate why and how they are effective?

This is confusing stuff so you

have to…..

LISTEN!!!!

The bottom line…

• Experienced writers use a variety of

sentences to make their writing

interesting and lively. Too many simple

sentences, for example, will sound

choppy and immature while too many long

sentences will be difficult to read and hard

to understand.

Simple Sentences are…SIMPLE!

You all use simple sentences in your writing. For example ‘The sand was golden.’ Or ‘The sun was hot.’

If you only use simple sentences your reader will

fall

asleep.*

*and you won’t get higher than a C!

Compound Sentences are…A little less simple.

When you have two or more short, independent, simple sentences which are of equal weight you can join them together using CONJUNCTIONS.

For example:

The sea was rough.

The sun was shining.

These are both boring simple sentences. You can put these together to make one longer, more interesting compound sentence using a conjunction.

For example: The sea was rough but the sun was shining.

The most common conjunctions are: and, as, but, or, so

Remember: JUNCTIONS join roads together, so

CONJUNCTIONS join sentences together!

Simple Sentences – Contain a subject and a

verb.

The sun shines brightly.

The children play football on the beach.

Compound Sentences – Contain a subject, a

verb and a conjunction.

The sun was shining, so the people got burnt.

The seagulls sang as the sea came in.

So far we have learnt….

Another note: Try not to use the same conjunction over and

over again. Vary them to make it more interesting!

Complex sentences are…

The hardest of all! So listen carefully…

The Small Print…

When you make a compound sentence you are joining two or more simple sentences together with a conjunction. If you took the conjunction away, the sentences would be complete and they would still make sense.

This isn't the same for complex sentences. Complex sentences don't just divide into neat, complete, simple sentences if you take out the conjunctions. In complex sentences the conjunction is used to join together clauses. A clause is a group of words that contains a subjectand a verb. Some of these clauses might be complete short sentences, but in a complex sentence at least one of them will depend on the conjunction for its meaning.

In other words, if you take the conjunction away, the sentence won't divide into complete units that make sense by themselves!

Thailand flourishes in March, although it

rains in August.

Thailand flourishes in March – Main clause (complete, short sentence)

Although – Conjunction

It rains in August – Subordinate clause (Called this because it doesn’t

really make sense on its own!)

While the breeze blew, people flew colourful

kites.

While – Conjunction (Yes, they can be at the beginning of sentences

too!)

The breeze blew – Subordinate clause

People flew colourful kites – Main clause (complete, short sentence)

Notice that only 1 of the 2 clauses in these sentences makes sense on its own!

I tried to speak Spanish, and my friend tried to speak French.

When he handed in his homework, he forgot to give the teacher the last page.

Some students like to study in the mornings.

Alicia goes to the library to study everyday.

Mark played football, so Maria went shopping.

Kelly and Beth went to the movies after they finished studying

COMPOUND

COMPLEX

SIMPLE

SIMPLE

COMPOUND

COMPLEX

Your task…

Work in groups of 4.

One of you will represent nouns

One of you will represent verbs

One of you will represent a conjunction

One of you will be a narrator

In your groups, you must come up with one simple, one compound and one complex sentence which you will write down, then share with the class, who will decide whether you have constructed the sentence correctly.

THE POINT of all this….

• You MUST vary your sentences when

writing descriptively.

• It makes your writing more

INTERESTING, ENGAGING and more

importantly will get you a HIGHER

GRADE!