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WRITING EFFECTIVE SENTENCES

Paragraph 1

The bartender said the accident victim always dropped in at the bar at 11
oclock every morning. After that the victim went out to the Sport Club for his
lunch. On the way there, he had to cross the road. A postman also wanted to
cross the road. He saw the victim cross the road and noticed that he did not
look left of right. When the accident happened, a housewife also saw the
victim being hit by the car. The housewife did not do anything because she
fainted. A grocer heard the sound of the car hitting the victim. He ran out
and saw the victim in front of the car.

Paragraph 2

At eleven oclock in the morning, the accident victim dropped in at the bar
for appetizer. Twenty minutes later, he finished his drink and left the bar. He
stepped forward to cross the road. At the same time, a postman, also
about to cross the road, saw the victim who was lurching drunkenly as he
stepped off the kerb. Just then, a car appeared from nowhere and hit the
victim. The accident was also witnessed by a housewife who promptly
fainted. A grocer, whose shop was near the scene of the accident, ran out at
the sound of the accident.

Both paragraphs have grammatically correct sentences.


2nd paragraph has a better style of writing.
Uses varied sentence patterns - sentence length, sentence type, sentence
order
Uses concise words,employs appropriate transition signal and describe the
accident clearly and coherently.
SENTENCE PATTERNS

1. Simple sentence
- consists of a subject and a verb.
- Example : The baby cries.

2. Compound sentence
- Help to combine ideas that are of equal importance.
- Expressing the ideas in the same grammatical form - words, phrases or
clauses
- Use of conjuctions - and, yet, but, or, nor,so,for
- Example :

Form Simple sentence Compound Sentence


Words The girl was young. The The girl was young and
girl was pretty. pretty.
Phrases He passed his exam by He passed his exam by
paying attention in class. paying attention in class
he passed his exam by and by studying hard.
studying hard.
Clauses He went to the library. He He went to the library and
borrowed a book. borrowed a book.

3. Complex sentence
- Idea are unequal but related,so usage of complex sentence to show this
unequal relationship.
- Split a sentence into its main clause and its subordinate clause. Example :
adverb clause,adjective clause, noun clause.
- The main clause carries the central idea while the subordinate clause holds
the less important idea.

Exercise - Combine the ides in the following pairs of sentences into


compound or complex sentences. Use suitable conjunctions, transition
signals or clause markers. There may be more than one way to combine
the sentences.

1. The man was unable to work. He had suffered a stroke.

2. Truancy will become a serious a serious problem. No immediate and appropriate


action is taken.

3. Police moved in on the underground jungle casino. They received information on


its operations.

4. The worker appealed against the dismissal. His appeal was turned down.

5. The trip to the Australian outback was exciting. The trip to the Australian outback
was educational.
6. The police are trying to identify the robbers. The robbers were involved in the
bank robbery.

7. You must be in the exam hall at least ten minutes before time. You will not be in
allowed to sit the test.

8. The women cooked the fresh kangaroo meat. The men told stories at the
campfire.

9. The teacher did not mention his name. He knew the teacher was referring to him.

10. I dont want to marry you. I dont love you.

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