Date of Award
8-1-1985
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Advisor
Dr. Joan Horn
Keywords
grammar, sentence combining, sentences, writing (composition), writing exercises, writing instructions, writing skills
Abstract
Tenth grade students in two English Honors classes were given direct instruction on sentence combining. The goal of the program was to increase the syntactic complexity of student writing, to have them express more in each sentence.
Instruction was approached from different aspects. The students worked with two textbooks on sentence combining. They worked with sentences from the newspaper and a magazine. There were lessons in sentence combining as a means to understanding the style of two authors. Sentences combining was used as a means to encourage substantial revision of essays. Writing an abstract of the research paper was approached through sentence combining. Exercises utilizing different levels of thinking were also included. According to a pre-test and post-test measure by T-unit length, students progressed an average of four years during a ten week period.