Expanding sentences
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Topics
- The five W's (and an H)
- How to expand a basic sentence with more information
We're going to work on another elaboration skill called sentence expansion today. The purpose here is to take a simple sentence and add information to it so that it sounds better and also helps the reader understand your point more clearly. The process is simple: start with your sentence kernel (the simple version of the idea) and start answering some of the W's:
- Who
- What
- Where
- When
- Why
- wHow (shh, stop judging.)
For now, I'm going to give you a kernel related to something else we're learning, and I'm going to give you the question words I want the final sentence to answer. You'll craft an improved sentence that answers the questions.
In the process of doing this, we're also going to use a special note-taking syntax to plan our ideas. I know that for a single sentence, this feels like an unnecessary step but we'll move on to more complex planning very soon and it'll be handy to have some simple examples to look back at.
Here's the basic process:
- Sentence kernel: The Mongol Empire ruled.
- Question words: when, how, where
And your answer will look like this:
- When: 13 century
- Where: Asia and the Middle East
- How: brutal conquest followed by peaceful reign
- During the 13th century, the Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan in a rapid, brutal conquest of Asia and the Middle east that was quickly followed by almost a century of peaceful rule and heavy trade along the silk road.
Media resources
- Youtube search for "The five W's (and an H)"
- Youtube search for "How to expand a basic sentence with more information"
Homework Questions
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(Typescript) The sort method sorts. what, how, why
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(From Catcher in the Rye) He seems depressed. Who, why, where
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(Physics) LOL charts show energy. what, how, why (is it useful)