Current Lesson

PEARSON ADULT LEARNING CENTRE
Advanced Composition
Coordination and Conjunctions

November 12, 2003

 

Coordination is what we call joining together two independent clauses. A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb. To join these clauses we use the coordination conjunctions. These are easily remembered in this way: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. Or, you could say FANBOYS!
 

Examples of Coordination Using Conjunctions:

 Jim loves Dorothy, and she loves him. (Here “and” shows addition)

 He proposed, so they got married. (Here “so” shows a result)

 They lived in her hometown, yet they were unhappy. (Here “yet” shows a contrast)

 They stayed there, for they didn’t have enough money to move. (Here “for” shows a reason)

 Dorothy didn’t have a good job, nor did Jim. (Here “nor” shows an alternative. Note how the question word order is used after “nor”)

Writing Assignment:

Write a short paragraph about two people who got married. This could be yourself and your own husband or wife, or it could be about your friends or your own parents.

Use the five coordinating conjunctions from today’s example in your paragraph.

Give more detail than the examples above to make your paragraph more interesting. For example, “John wasn’t sure he wanted to get married, yet he did it happily once he got to know Mary’s nice family.”

See a Teacher Writing Sample on this topic

Please also visit your Advanced Composition Class Page where you can access current and past lessons.

For more assignments, visit our Assignment Archive