2019-09-12 TOEFL: writing practice

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-do-crystals-work-graham-baird
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Writing practice - ETS 1.1
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BREAK
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“For no one is it a secret.”
- Sentences that begin with a negative adverb or adverbial phrase have inverted subject-verb order (this is the word order we normally see in quesitons).
“Never have I seen such a thing.”
“Rarely has it been this bad.”
“Only when you finish your dinner can you have dessert.

If you rearrange the parts of the sentence so the negative adverbial isn’t at the beginning, you can use standard word order:
“It is a secret to no one.”
“I have never seen such a thing.”
“It has rarely been this bad.”
“You can have dessert only when you finish your dinner.”
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Run-on sentences are sentences that are “too long”. They should be broken up into smaller pieces.

run-on: It’s raining outside I’m going to stay home.
comma splice: It’s raining outside, I’m going to stay home.

1 use a period to make two sentences: It’s raining outside. I’m going to stay home.
2 use a conjunction to relate the clauses: It’s raining outside, so I’m going to stay home.
3 use a semicolon: It’s raining outside; I’m going to stay home.
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clause = a group of words including a subject and verb

simple sentence = one independent clause
	It is raining.
compound sentence = two or more independent clauses
	It is raining and I don’t want to go outside.
complex sentence = an independent clause and one or more dependent (subordinate) clauses
	When it’s raining, I don’t want to go outside.
	(“When it’s raining” is a dependent clause. It describes a time, but doesn’t actually assert anything. It can’t be a complete sentence by itself.)

Adjective (relative) clauses and noun clauses are sort of dependent (they can’t be sentences by themselves), but are usually taught and discussed separately.
	The man who wrote this book is dead. (adjective clause to identify which man)
	I don’t know who wrote this book. (noun clause for the information I don’t know)
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comma splice = specific type of run-on sentence where two independent clauses are connected (spliced) with only a comma
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I knew.
He knew that I knew.
I knew that he knew that I knew.
He knew that I knew that he knew that I knew.
etc.
- There’s no limit to (grammatically correct) sentence length, but at some point writing becomes very unclear with too many long sentences.
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Homework: fix the run-on sentences on the handout