Quality vs. Quantity

Every day, for a week, spend five minutes having your students craft one—and only one—great sentence. Focus on quality vs. quantity. Some suggested topics:

• Day one— In one sentence, describe something disgusting. (Keep your description appropriate for class, please!)
• Day two—In one sentence, describe something beautiful.
• Day three—In one sentence, describe something sad.
• Day four—In one sentence, describe something frightening.
• Day five—In one sentence, describe something joyous.

Each day, suggest techniques that give a sentence punch, such as adding specific detail or using strong verbs. You might also have students try rewriting their sentences in different ways. (Rewrite the sentence so that it begins with an –ing word. Rewrite the sentence so that it includes an appositive. Rewrite the sentence so that it starts with a long prepositional phrase…)

      For help on giving students techniques for improvement, try our newest book, Sentence CPR: Breathing Life Into Sentences That Might As Well Be Pushing Up Daisies! Another helpful source is our “Variety Is the Spice of Life” packet or our “Downloadable Variety Is the Spice of Life” packet.

      And as long as you are concentrating on one sentence at a time, you might also try proofreading one sentence at a time with the one-sentence proofreading exercises in A Sentence a Day or Downloadable A Sentence A Day.