Sentence Composing # 6- Opening Adverb- Practice 2,3, and 4

Practice 2: Unscrambling to Imitate- In the model and the scramblist, identify the opening adverb. Next, unscramble a write out the sentence parts to imitate the model. Finally, write your own imitation of the model and identify the opening adverb.

Model: Suddenly, Alfred, who had heard the fight from the across the street, attacked from the rear with his favorite weapon, an indoor ball bat.
John Steinbeck, Cannery Row


a. sat up in the bed with her nightly snack

b. who had read the novel for over two hours

c. Jasmine

d. afterward

e. a mini Oreo cookie

Afterward, Jasmine, who had read the novel for over two hours, sat up in the bed with her nightly snack, a mini Oreo cookie.

Own Sentence: Unexpectedly, John, who had been sitting all by himelf for an hour, jumped up and put himself right into the discussion, which was very heated.

Practice 3: Combining to Imitate

In the model, identify the opening adverb. Next, combine the list of sentences to imitate the model. Finally, write your own imitation of the model and identify any opening adverbs.

Model: Outside, the doctor's car was surrounded by the boy while Finny was being lifted inside by Phil Latham.
John Knowles, A Separate Peace

a. This happened inside.

b. The younger children were involved with games.

c. While they were involved, Laura was being tutored near them.

d. The tutoring was by their teacher.

Inside, while the younger children were involved with games, the teacher tutored Laura near them.

Own Imitation Sentence: Outside, while the other people were playing pool, the student was studying her book just inside the door.

Practice 4: Imitating
Identify the opening adverbs in the model and then write your own example.

1. Here, relatives swarmed like termites.
--Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety

Own Imitation: Outside, the people were packed in like cows.

2. Slowly, methodically, miserably, she ate the jellied bread.
Toni Morrison, Beloved

Own Imitation: Angrily, quickly, suddenly, Bob punched Dan in the face.

3. Very slowly and very carefully, Harry got to his feet and set off again as fast as he could without making too much noise, hurrying through the darkness back toward Hogwarts.
--J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Own Imitation: Very stealthily and very sneakily, Chuck was able to sneak around the guards and get back to his room, without being sighted by the ominous guards and soon fell into a deep sleep.

Argumentative Paragraph

The Knight's Tale and The Miller's Tale are both provincial love stories, but the happenings in the story are very different. Both of the stories contain illicit relationships, but each story contains a very different type of love. Both stories contain, a woman, beautiful and young. But the loves in each of the stories are very different. In the knight's tale, the love is an instant affinity that two men have for one unmarried woman. In the Miller's tale, the love is not found until after a short time and is hard to come by because the woman being loved is married. It is very possible the the love in the Miller's tale is not true love, just a love of passion, as is concured from this statement (Chaucer, lines 94-95) "O darling, love me, love me now. Or shall i die, and pray that God me save!" So the thought that I obtain from this is that the stories are similar in nature, but are very different in seriousness and one has to be taken more seriously than the other.

Sentence Composing #5-Delayed Adjectives- Practice 4 and 5

Practice 4: Imitating

Directions: Identify the delayed adjectives in the models and sample imitations. Then write an imitation of each model sentence, one sentence part at a time.

1. Dumpster diving is outdoor work, often surprisingly pleasant.
--Lars Eighner, "On Dumpster Diving"

Sample: Doing homework is necessary discipline, sometimes incredibly helpful.
Example: Running a marathon is very hard, but incredibly satisfying.

2. The baby's eyes were the shape of watermelon seeds, very black and cut very precisely into her small, solemn face.
--Anne Tyler, Digging to America

Sample: The unspoken pain was the weight of river rocks ,very heavy and embedded most certainly into her aching body.

Example: The unfathomable aching was from being hit in the arm, repeatedly and accurately into the same spot on the body.

3. I shivered as he tossed the feathered corpse of the dead chicken, limp as a cloth, into the back of the truck.
--Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

Sample: I stared as he threw the battered ball from the garbage can, smelly as a foot, into the field of the pitcher.

Example: The crowd looked on as she ran around the field, fast as the wind, around each base.

Practice 5: Expanding

The delayed adjectives are omitted at the caret mark (^) in the following sentences. For each caret, add a delayed adjective or adjective phrase, blending your content and style with the rest of the sentence.
1. The man topple to one side, crumpled against the railing, ^unconscious.
--Robert Ludlum, The Prometheus Deception

2. The spiders like of their sides, ^calm and ^unmoving, their legs drying in knots.
--Annie Dillard, "Death of a Moth"

3. He was twenty-sex, dark haired ^handsome, ^strong, ^smart, and ^friendly.
--John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

Sentence Composing #5-Delayed Adjective Practice

Practice 1: Matching

Match the delayed adjectives with the sentences. Write out each sentences, inserting and underlining the delayed adjectives

1. Milk, sticky and sour on her dress, attracted every small flying thing from gnats to grasshoppers.

Toni Morrison, Beloved

2. It seemed dreadful to see the great bear lying there in agony, powerless to move and yet powerless to die.

George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant"

3. The water in this pool has a dark clarity, like smoked glass, transparent but obscure.

Edward Abbey, "Aravaipa Canyon"

4. Picture poor old Alfy coming home from football practice every evening, bruised and aching agonizingly tired, scarcely able to shovel the mashed potatoes into his mouth.

Paul Roberts, Understanding English

5. I am an enthusiastic laudress, capable of sorting a hamper full of clothes in to five subltly differentiated piles, but a terrible house keeper.

Nancy Mairs, Plaintext

Practice 2: Unscrambling to Imitate

In the model and the scrambled list, identify the delayed adjectives. Next, unscramble and write out the sentence parts of imitate the model. Finally write your own imitation of the model and identify the delayed adjectives.

Model: They ate like men, ravenous and intent

Toni Morrison, Beloved

a. They sang like angels.

b. The angel were pure.

c. And the angel were sweet

They sang like angels, pure and sweet

Own Sentence: They ran like gods, fast and powerful

Practice 3: Combining to Imitate- In the model, identify the delayed adjective, Next, combine the list of sentences to imitate the model. Finally, write your own imitation of the model and identify any delayed adjectives.

Model: He forgot that his Lesser Warders were watching, afraid to interfere.

--Stephen King, The Eyes of the Dragon

a. She knew something

b. What we knew is how her sister were feeling.

c. Her sisters were happy to help.

She knew how her sisters were feeling, happy to help

Own Sentence: He saw how the team acted, sad to be done.