The following notes come from a student
practice session on writing improvement. Includes samples of student
writing and teacher comments (in italics).
Stephen
King argues that "simple sentences provide a path you can follow when
you fear getting lost." Use his exercise of writing simple sentences: a
noun plus a verb. Perhaps you can write an entire assignment in this
way, first, and then fill in the details later!
Teacher Sentences
He loves.
She tires.
Polly smiles.
Dogs circle.
Friends betray.
Life becomes.
Enemies fly.
Birds squabble.
Feet scrape.
Movies move.
Hair stands.
Student Sentences
Siblings argue.
Volcano erupted.
Building built.
Airplane landed.
House ages.
Lesson finishes.
Trees grow.
Boat floats.
Weather warms.
Flower blooms.
Wind blows.
Sun rises.
Neighbours remove.
Hearts hug.
People walk.
Door opens.
Immigrants give up.
Immigrants insist.
Immigrant persist.
Spring comes.
Wife abandons.
House sells.
Work experiences.
Water flows.
Air freshens.
Dog barks.
Time passes.
Learning quickens.
Teacher Longer Sentences (from the two word sentences)
Life becomes difficult when we look at everything we see and see difficulty.
A dog barks at midnight beside an old tree in the back of the garden.
A wife abandons hope when her husband leaves.
Student Longer Sentences
The airplane landed in the morning and a new life starts.
Alice's
neighbour was removed because she refused to pay her house rent. Her
neighbour said she always liked to delay her monthly rent and could not
cope with this situation, so, finally, she was removed.
He saw the trees budding, flowers blooming and baby animals running all over.
Sun rises, flowers bloom and spring comes to our city.
The volcano, which had slept for almost one hundred years, finally erupted yesterday, and about 10 000 residents were evacuated.
The wife abandons her husband because he is not good enough for her.