Sentence Combining and Imitation

As a student, I definitely did not think of myself as a writer. Normally, I felt stuck from the very beginning, and more often than not, that feeling only worsened when I looked at my finished work. When the time came to edit and submit a paper, I became overwhelmed with a sense of complete discouragement. My writing felt dull, repetitive, choppy, and hard to read. You name it—I struggled with it. I didn’t know how to structure my writing the same way “real writers” did.

Practicing sentence combining and imitation helped me understand that real writers don’t always abide by conventional rules to make their writing flow smoothly and feel engaging. I learned that good writing takes practice and experimentation. Sometimes, all you need to do is rearrange, add, or delete a few things to make your writing fresh and dynamic. Most importantly, I discovered that it was possible for me to imitate strong writing—which meant I could create it too.

What is Sentence Combining and Imitation?

Sentence combining and imitation are writing strategies designed to help students develop writing they can be proud of. These techniques enable students to write and revise with style and fluency. Sentence combining is the process of taking a set of small sentences, and reworking them into one complex, cohesive sentence. Sentence imitation is the reverse! Students examine one well-written sentence and craft their own version that mirrors its structure.

I first learned about these strategies in college while taking a "Teaching Writing" course with Dr. Deborah Dean, author of Strategic Writing: The Writing Process and Beyond in the Secondary English Classroom. She discusses these methods in Chapter Six of her book:

“Daily practice with sentences—with hearing them, manipulating them, and talking about them—is an essential foundation that will allow students to revise effectively for style and fluency” (Dean 83).

How it Works (check out my how to video here!)

To demonstrate these practices, I'm going to show examples from my very own writer's notebook I used as a student in Dr. Dean's "Teaching Writing" course. These pictures are of entries I made at the beginning of almost EVERY class period.

Sentence Combining

Practicing sentence combining in the classroom is very simple. Here are two methods of practice listed in Dr. Dean's book.

Method One

1. Provide a well-crafted sentence and break it into smaller, simpler sentences.

2. Have students combine these sentences in at least two different ways.

3. Ask them to star their favorite version and explain why they prefer it.

4. Compare their versions to the original—not to correct, but to discuss the author’s choices. This step is REALLY important. Sharing and discussing their results will help your students see that everyone's combinations are different. There's no correct way to complete this practice. It will also help them theorize about craft. Ask them: Why did the author choose this specific structure? What is the effect? What's the effect of your starred preferred version?

   
   

Here's an example of step 1 and 2 from my writer's notebook. (This sentence set is listed in Appendix of Dr. Dean's book)

"It's a tiny little room, almost a closet, with dingy walls, a concrete floor, and one lightbulb that dangles from the ceiling in a way that's slightly creepy. (Liar and Spy, Stead)" (p. 367)

• It's a tiny little room.

• It's a closet.

• The room has walls that are dingy.

• The room has a floor that is concrete.

• The room has one lightbulb.

• The lightbulb dangles from the ceiling.

• The lightbulb dangles in a way that's slightly creepy.

I starred the second option as my favorite. I think it reads better out loud, and emphasizes the creepiness of the lightbulb--unlike the first option which focuses more on the tiny size of the room.

The most important tip I have is to keep reinforcing to your students that they can't do this WRONG! You are just experimenting and playing with structure. It could be done a hundred different ways, therefore having a hundred different effects!

“When we teach students about sentence fluency, we are teaching them about style at the sentence level, not correctness or sentence boundaries… I want my students to be able to think of sentence fluency as craft, not rules” (Dean 83).

Method Two

This method practices the combining process by simply rearranging your chosen sentence.

1. Provide a well-crafted sentence

2. Have students rearrange these sentences in at least two different ways.

3. Ask them to star their favorite version and explain why they prefer it.

4. Compare their versions to the original—not to correct, but to discuss the author’s choices. This step is REALLY important. Sharing and discussing their results will help your students see that everyone's combinations are different. There's no correct way to complete this practice. It will also help them theorize about craft. Ask them: Why did the author choose this specific structure? What is the effect? What's the effect of your starred preferred version?

If your students are struggling to find ways to rearrange their sentences, you teach them this mnemonic device from Dr. Dean's book. All of these strategies can help them get started!

DRAFT:

• Delete unnecessary words

• Rearrange words and chunks

• Add connectors

• Form new verb endings

• Talk it out

I chose my first rearranged sentence here. It's got good rhythm and flow, and emphasizes the danger of the pirates.

Sentence Imitation

Practicing sentence imitation is just as easy! All you need is a sentence that excites you. Show your students an example sentence and then have them write their own sentence that mirrors the example's structure. Below is an example from my own writer’s notebook during Dr. Dean’s class in February 2020:

Tip: This exercise works best after students have already written something. Begin class with a free write or writer’s notebook entry. Once they’ve written for a few minutes, display an engaging sentence and have them imitate it somewhere in their journal entry!

My Testimonial

When I first practiced these strategies, it felt awkward and stiff. But as we did them daily, this kind of “experimental writing” became second nature. No two people ever came up with the same result, reinforcing the idea that there is no single “correct” way to write.

In my classroom experience, I saw students build confidence through these strategies. Learning how to imitate writing they admired helped them start to see themselves as real writers. Writing becomes more powerful when students are given the tools to experiment.

“I want my students to learn to enjoy language and the multiple ways it can play in a sentence, to develop sensitivity to sentences and patterns in language and their effects on readers, and to consider these patterns and play as options they have as writers” (Dean 84).

Simply put, playing with sentence structure in this way gives students a chance to see:

• it takes practices to create the kind of writing they see in their favorite books

• there's no one right way to write a sentence

• different structures create different meanings. The way sentences are organized gives them their power

How can YA Lit Sidekick Help Me Use This in My Classroom?

One of the best ways to show students how real writers create craft is through books they love. The writing that excites them is what they will be most eager to imitate! That’s why, in every sidekick book review, I will include standout sentences that could be used for this type of sentence play in a lesson.

Check out my how to video example using sentences and sets from Darkly by Marisha Pessl! Watch here.