Linking Sentences With Phrases and Clauses

By: Sean Savoie           

Before we begin to practice a different way to connect ideas into more effective sentences, take a look at the answers from the previous lesson. Remember that exercise 1 requires you to write the information from one longer sentence into short individual sentences and exercise 2 requires you to connect all the short sentences into one clear sentence. 

Exercise 1:

With violence increasing in public schools and teachers afraid to deal with difficult students, the mayor of the city, seeking re-election, decided to put more police in these troubled schools. 

            Violence is increasing in public schools.

            Teachers are afraid to deal with difficult students.

            The mayor of the city is seeking re-election.

            The mayor of the city decided to put more police in public schools. 

            The victory against Germany assured, the United States, having lost large numbers of men to the war and wishing to get back to a normal way of life, put all of its efforts into the defeat of Japan. 

            The victory against Germany was assured.

            The United States lost large numbers of men to the war.

            The United States wished to get back to a normal way of life.

            The United States put all of its efforts into the defeat of Japan.

 

            With other countries developing quickly, science producing so many new inventions, and the number of foreign students to the U.S. dropping, the government, having the power to make change, must fund modern scientific research.

            Other countries are developing quickly. 

            Science is producing many new inventions.

            The number of foreign students to the U.S. is dropping.

            The government has the power to make change.

            The government must fund modern scientific research. 

Exercise 2:

            Young people play too many video games.

            Young people watch stupid TV programs.

            Young people do not read as much as before.

            Teachers want to educate their students.

            Teachers want to prepare their students.

            Teacher have a lot of pressure.

            Teachers feel a great deal of frustration.             

One solution:  With young people playing too many video games, watching stupid TV programs, and not reading as much as in the past, teachers, wanting to educate and prepare their students, have a lot of pressure and are feeling a great deal of frustration.           

So much information about genetics is becoming known.

            The technology to do experiments is advancing.

            The researchers wish to do the work they love.

            The researchers should also consider the ethics of their decisions.

            The researchers should abide by all federal laws. 

            So much information about genetics becoming known and the technology to do experiments advancing, the researchers, wishing to do the work they love, should also consider the ethics of their decisions and abide by all federal laws. 

 In a later lesson, we will come back to practice participial and absolute phrases for use in building effective paragraphs. Before then, however, it is important to better understand how to write different types of clauses. Adjective clauses are similar to participials in that they modify specific nouns in a sentence. The primary difference between adjective clauses and participial phrases is that the former must come immediately after the noun that they modify. Like all clauses, adjective clauses have subjects, which in this case are the following pronouns: who, whom, that, which, where, when, and whose. Although these clauses must be placed immediately following the nouns that they modify, there are a variety of ways they may be used. Note how the following two sentences may be connected using adjective clauses in the following ways: 

That is the place. I grew up in that place. 

That is the place that I grew up in.

That is the place which I grew up in.

That is the place I grew up in.

That is the place in which I grew up.

That is the place where I grew up. 

All of these sentences have exactly the same meaning. Until around thirty years ago, a grammar rule held that it was wrong to end a sentence in a preposition, which would make the first three sentences above incorrect. This rule has changed, and it is now acceptable to end a sentence in this way. Some other rules should be noted, however. To simplify these first rules, look at the list below: 

A person who

A person that

 

A thing that

A thing which

 

A place that

A place which

A place where

 

A time that

A time which

A time when 

Notice that you may not use the pronoun which to modify a person. The following sentences will give you a general understanding of how  restrictive adjective clauses can simply modify nouns.  

He is the person who I told you about yesterday.

This is the most important thing that you need to buy.

Is that the place where you really want to live?

1965 is the year when I was born.