Improving your Sentences

1. Improving your Sentences By: Tori, Megan, and Jerry

2. Goals • Write complete sentences • Use active voice • Divide long or rambling sentences • Combine choppy sentences • Use transitions

3. Comparing Editions • There was a few little things that were changed between books. • One of the things they changed was the activity they changed the wording they used. • In activity 13 in the old edition they used Active vs. Passive and in the new one they used just Use Active Voice. They did that because they didn’t even talk about Passive voice in the information. • In activities 15 and 17 they just made a typo.

4. Complete Sentences • How do you know it is a complete sentence? • Subject • Predicate • Complete thought

5. Example • Fragment: Exceeded investor expectations. • Sentence: Our sales last year exceeded investor expectations. The highlighted blue part made this a real sentence, it wasn’t a sentence before because it didn’t have a subject. The sentence didn’t work without the subject, you need to have all three things in the sentences to make it a complete sentence.

6. Active voice & Dividing long sentences • Using active voices energizes your writing. • Dividing long sentences it to make it easier for your readers to understand. • If a sentence is too long they break the sentence into parts and reshape it as a bulleted or numbered list. • If that doesn’t work then you can divide it into two or more sentences.

7. Fixing choppy sentences • Use a series: When you have several idea or details you can use a series to create one sentence. • Example: The policy will address using disclaimers, writing international e-mails and implementing employee e-mail guidelines. • Use coordinating conjunctions: Join conjunctions and, but, or, nor, for, yet, or so. These conjunctions show equal relationships between ideas and details. • Example: We want a new policy but we must wait for our legal department’s input. • Use a subordinating conjunction: Although, before, in order that, unless, and while are all conjunctions that you can use to join sentences. • Example: After our legal department gives us the go-ahead, we will write a new policy.

8. Run-on sentences and Transitions • Run-on sentences is two sentences that are joined incorrectly. They confuse your reader and detract from your message. • There is three ways to fix a run-on sentences: Use a period, use a semicolon, use a comma and a coordinating conjunctions. • Transitions show your reader how the ideas in your sentences link or relate to each other. Transitions link sentences and paragraphs into an easy-to-read document.

9. Review Questions 1. How do you know when the sentence is complete? You have to have a subject, predicate, complete thought. 2. Why is having an active voice important? It energizes your writing. 3. How do you divide long sentences? Divide the sentence, make on point, then start a new sentence.

10. More Review 4. How do you combine choppy sentences? Combine the sentences with a comma. 5. How do you fix run-on sentences? Use a period, a comma, or a semi colon, or a coordinating conjunction. 6. Why do you use transitions to connect sentences? It shows how they relate to each other. 7. What are transitions? Shows how ideas are linked with time and comparison.