skills in essay writng

7/29/2019 Skills in Essay Writng

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Skills in Essay Writng : The use of varied sentences.

By :

ABIDAH BT SARAJUL HAQ

ENGLISH LANGUAGE MASTER TEACHER

Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman ,Ipoh

Students should use a variety of sentences to make their essays interesting

and lively. Too many simple sentences, for example, will sound choppy and immature

while too many long sentences will be difficult to read and hard to understand. The use

of the following types of sentences in your essays is very useful . Before using thesethree different types of sentences for practice , you need to understand what they are and

how you are going to use them in your writing activities.

The Simple, Compound and Complex SentencesA common weakness in writing is the lack of varied sentences. Becoming aware of three

general types of sentences--simple, compound, and complex--can help you vary thesentences in your writing.

The most effective writing uses a variety of the sentence types asexplained below.

1. Simple Sentences

A simple sentence has the most basic elements that make it a sentence: a subject and a

verb and a complete sentence.

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Examples of simple sentences include the following:

1. Syafiq waited for the train.

"Syafiq" = subject, "waited" = verb

2. The train was late."The train" = subject, "was" = verb

3. Shahira and Mawi took the bus.

" Shahira and Mawi" = compound subject, "took" = verb

4. I looked for Shahira and Mawi at the bus station."I" = subject, "looked" = verb

5. Shahira and Mawi arrived at the bus station before noon and left on the bus before

I arrived." Shahira and Mawi" = compound subject, "arrived" and "left" = compound verb

SIMPLE SENTENCES

A simple sentence is also called an independent clause . It contains a subject and a verb,

and it expresses a complete thought. In the following simple sentences the subjects are

coloured in yellow and the verbs are in green.

A. Some students like to study in the mornings.

B. Syafiq and Syamim play football every afternoon.

C. Shahira goes to the library and studies every day.

The three examples above are all simple sentences. Simple sentences, therefore, contain

a subject and verb and express a complete thought, but they can also contain compoundsubjects or verbs.

2. Compound Sentences

A compound sentence refers to a sentence made up of two independent clauses (or complete sentences) connected to one another with a coordinating conjunction.

Coordinating conjunctions are easy to remember if you think of the words "FAN BOYS":

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NOTE :

A verb usually states what a subject

is or does.

A subject can be a noun or pronoun.



• For

• And

• Nor

• But

• Or

•

Yet• So

Examples of compound sentences include the following:

1. Syafiq waited for the train, but the train was late.

2. I looked for Shahira and Mawi at the bus station, but they arrived at the station before noon and left on the bus before I arrived.

3. Shahira and Mawi arrived at the bus station before noon, and they left on the bus

before I arrived.

4. Shahira and Mawi left on the bus before I arrived, so I did not see them at the busstation.

COMPOUND SENTENCES

A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinator. The

coordinators are as follows: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. (Helpful hint: The first letter of

each of the coordinators spells FANBOYS .)

Except for very short sentences, coordinators are always preceded by a comma. In the

following compound sentences, subjects are in yellow and the verbs are in green. The

coordinators and the commas that precede them are in red.

A. I tried to speak Mandarin, and my friend tried to speak English.

B. Ronaldo played football, so Maria went shopping.

C. Ballack played football, because Rose went shopping.

The above three sentences are compound sentences. Each sentence contains two

independent clauses, and they are joined by a coordinator with a comma preceding it.

Sentences B and C, for example, are identical except for the coordinators. In sentence B,which action occurred first? Obviously, " Ronaldo played football" first, and as a result,

"Maria went shopping.

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In sentence C, "Rose went shopping" first. In sentence C, also, "Ballack played football"

because, possibly, he didn't have anything else to do, for or because "Rose went

shopping."

3. Complex Sentences

A complex sentence is made up of an independent clauseand one or more dependent clauses connected to it.

Examples of dependent clauses include the following:

• because Shahira and Mawi arrived at the bus station before noon

• while he waited at the train station

• after they left on the bus

Dependent clauses begin with subordinating conjunctions. Below are some of the most

common subordinating conjunctions:

• after

• although

• as

• because

• before

• even though

• if

• since

• though

• unless

• until

• when

• whenever

• whereas

• wherever

• while

COMPLEX SENTENCES

A complex sentence has an independent clause joined by one or more dependent clauses.A complex sentence always has a subordinator such as because, since, after, although, or

when or a relative pronoun such as that, who, or which. In the following complex

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sentences, subjects are in yellow, verbs are in green, and the subordinators and their

commas (when required) are in red.

A. When he handed in his homework, he forgot to give the teacher the

last page.

B. The teacher returned the homework after she noticed the error.

C. The students are studying because they have a test tomorrow.

D. After they finished studying, Juan and Ulma went to the movies.

E. Juan and Ulma went to the movies after they finished studying.

Another set of examples are as follows :

A. The woman who(m) my mother talked to sells cosmetics .

B. The book that Syamim read is on the shelf .

C. The house which Shariffudin was born in is still standing .

D. The town where I grew up is in Teluk Intan .

Remember that with the skill to write good simple, compound, and complex sentences,

you will have the advantage to :

(1) convey your ideas effectively

(2) write a variety of sentences in an essay.

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Below is an essay based on note expansion using the three types of sentences.

PMR Essay Practice

SECTION A

You are advised to spend about 40 minutes on this question.

Question : With the help of the notes below, write a story. Give a suitable title to your

story. Make your story as interesting as possible.

Last week – walking- heard – screams – searched- behind bushes – under a tree -

shocked - baby wrapped – in a box- carried – quickly- police station – felt sad.

When writing the article:

• use all the notes given.

• elaborate on the given notes to make it more interesting.

• make sure it is not less than 120 words.

Sample Answer

An unforgettable incident

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Last week, as I was walking home alone from my friend’s house, I heard some

screams on the way. The screams were coming from behind some nearby bushes . I went

hurriedly to the direction of the screams, hoping to find what caused them. To mysurprise, I found something moving under a shady tree.

I was shocked to find a baby wrapped up in a piece of yellow cloth in a cardboard box. I supposed the baby had been left there by an irresponsible mother. I quickly picked

up the cute baby boy and started to calm him down. After that , I carried the unfortunate baby quickly to the nearest police station. The police station was not far from the place

where I had found the baby.

As soon as I arrived at the police station, I handed the baby to the desk officer -on-duty . I lodged a report and the policeman thanked me for my kind gesture. As I left the

police station , I felt sad to leave the baby but I was hopeful that someone would take

care of baby soon , giving him love and kindness.

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