Elaborating with Phrases

1. Elaborating with Phrases

2. Openers, interrupters and closers • Sentences are formed with clauses and phrases. • Independent clauses can stand alone and form a complete thought. • Example: I had a tree house. • Dependent clauses and phrases, cannot stand alone, they need to be attached to an independent clause. The punctuation mark used when adding a dependent clause or phrase to an independent clause (sentence) is a comma. • Example: When I was little, I had a tree house. • (Introductory element – opener, added to the simple sentence.) • Example: When I was little, I had a tree house, which was really just a piece of plywood my dad nailed up in the chinaberry tree. • (Phrase added to the end of the sentence – closer). • Adding phrases and dependent clauses to simple sentences is a way to add detailand description to your work – Elaboration.

3. interrupters • Interrupters, or embedded details, add information to a sentence. • Example: I even coaxed Rowdy, my bluetick hound, into helping me with this monkey trouble. (Appositive – renames the subject) • The interrupter, adds additional information to the sentence that helps clarify things for the reader. • Example: Only Howie, who was growling as he chewed vigorously on a rawhide bone,seemed unable to relax. • The interrupter, adds sensory detail – sight and sound. • Example: Intricate mosaic tiles, handpicked by Baba in Isfahan, covered the four floors of the four bathrooms. • The interrupter gives additional details about who picked the tiles and where they came from.

4. Examples of how to use Openers • AAAWWUBBIS – After, although, as, when (whenever), while, until, because, before, if, and since are words that frequently are used in “openers.” “ING Verbs” also are used as openers too. • Examples: • When I saw the woman, she reminded me of a bird. • Though her hair was white with age, she walked with small, quick, lively steps. • Looking back on it now, I doubt that there was any way I ould have imagined what lay ahead. • Holding his hat against his chest and Tartufo’s leash with one hand, he knocked on his office door with the other.

5. Examples of interrupters • Usher, a real fine guy, sings so sweet. • I was stretched out on my back, my paws dangling at my sides, thinking nothing more of the meal I’d just eaten and the chocolate I hoped still lie ahead. • And she didn’t want to sit next to Frank Pearl, who ate paste, in class. • Her hair, brown and flowing, was held back with a scrunchy. • Mr. Talk, our English teacher, says we’re intelligent. • Interrupters often add little close-up pictures for our eyes to see. Interrupters can also help us combine two sentences by embedding the information from one sentence in the other.

6. Examples of sentence closers , Sentence Possible Closers • Mark slipped away, leaving his empty cereal bowl on the table. • All the other kids watched the woman as she moved along the line, her high-heeled shoes sounding like firecrackers going off on the wooden floor. • The screen was coming away from the screen door in one corner, curling away from the metal frame like a leaf. • The volume-control knob had fallen off, leaving a forked metal bud. • Closers add sensory images for the reader.