Workshops

The Effective Use of Sentence Combining

Presented by Bruce Saddler, Ph.D.
November 17, 2010
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Of the many difficulties writers may encounter, crafting effective sentences can be markedly challenging. Skill in sentence construction is important because limited knowledge about effective writing formats at the sentence level may hinder a writer’s ability to translate their thoughts into text, diminishing the richness and quality of their writing. Difficulties constructing well-designed, grammatically correct sentences may also make the text more difficult for others to read and could negatively influence teachers’ evaluations of the quality of students’ text. Because of the importance of this skill in the overall writing process, direct, systematic instruction may benefit students.

Since the 1960’s there has been only one approach to teaching sentence construction skills supported by research. This approach, called sentence combining, is an effective method for helping students produce more syntactically mature and varied sentences. Sentence combining provides direct, mindful practice in manipulating and re-writing basic sentence elements into more syntactically mature or varied forms that may help writing sound more appealing and interesting.

During this workshop, I will provide a comprehensive synthesis of the 50+ years of sentence combining research and practice to help workshop participants understand and apply this technique in their K-12 writing workshop classrooms. Furthermore, I will help workshop participants situate this instruction into their current writing pedagogy through step-by-step instructional suggestions. Finally, I will provide guidelines and sources for the creation of exercises. -Bruce Saddler, Ph.D.

The Presenter:
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D.
Bruce Saddler, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Division of Special Education at the University at Albany, in Albany, New York. A former K-12 Special Education teacher and teacher of the year, he currently conducts and publishes empirical research and provides professional workshops concerning writing and the remediation of writing difficulties. Of particular interest to Dr. Saddler is sentence combining, a writing technique he has spent a decade investigating, teaching, and discussing.