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Lindemann covers many good points in these two chapters. I would like to focus on combining and generating cumulative sentences, passive and active sentences, and style. These chapters are mainly an in depth look at teaching sentences and words, and there is a lot of great methods of doing so. With combining sentences we learn to cut, rearrange and paste elements from each other in order to make one good sentence.
One example Lindemann used was changing the canary flew out the window. and The canary is yellow. Combine these two sentences into The yellow canary flew out the window. Combining these two sentences and condensing them into one sounds very much more fluid than if they were not combined. Using the technique of generating cumulative sentences Lindemann show us how to use modifiers to sharpen the image of the main idea of a sentence. This in turn creates a more complex, and seemingly more impressive sentence.
Both of these techniques can increase the syntactic fluency of sentences and help improve students writing. Passive and active sentences are something Lindemann says gets overlooked in school. Students are taught to look for content rather than for passive sentences. We normally try to write our sentences in the active form because passives often become very wordy, but neither type make bad sentences. Style can be defined in a broad sense or a more detailed sense.
Lindemann gives one definition as choices writers make about words or diction and sometimes sentence structure. One way to teach students style would be to give them two examples written using different styles. Next they would read them out loud and reflect on the differences in the two, as well as witch they enjoyed more. They then should be given a writing assignment and have to write it in each of the two styles. I have never really thought of myself as having a writing style. I am sure now that I do, and that is definitely reassuring.
I had never been introduced to passive sentences until I was in Linguistics in college. I never really thought about it before, and I think Lindeman gives me another way to look at it. From a linguistics point of view I always just had to change the active to passive and passive to active. I was taught to find them in a sentence, but Lindemann made me have to think about why they are there. This I guess could be part of a style all itself.
Learning that passive are more wordy was obvious, although I never really thought about it. Seeing it from a linguistics standpoint I always just saw the structure of a sentence, but now I notice stylistically as a sentence in a paragraph. I think that sentence combining is a very good technique to teach students and its one that comes very naturally. Im sure I am not mindful enough when it comes to this, but mostly because I take it for granted. This seems like a method I will use very often because Im going to be an elementary school teacher. Generating cumulative sentences is another good one, but I would probably use this in the higher grades.
I plan on teaching early elementary grades so this is a technique I should just use for myself. Finally I feel that these chapters went together fairly well, and this surprised me. I thought at first glance that the chapter on teaching words would come before that of teaching sentences but it turned out well. I think these chapters gave me a lot to think about in terms of my own writing as well as my teaching. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Generating Cumulative Sentences Passive And Active Sentences Sentence
