Writing Academic English 4th Edition

Participial
Pbrasesand
WritingStyle

SHORT,CHOPPYSENTENCES

IMPROVED

Chapter 15 IParticipialPhrases 257

Useparticipialphrasestoimproveyourwritingstyle.

• Ifyouwritesentenceswitha lotofwhich's,who's,andthat's,consider
  reducingsomeadjectivesclausestoparticipialphrases.


• Ifyouwriteshort,choppysentences,considercombiningthembyusing
  participialphrases.


• Varyyoursentenceopeningsbyoccasionallystartinga sentencewitha
  participialphrase.
  First-bornchildrenareoftensuperachievers.Theyfeelpressuretobehavewell
  andtoexcelinschool.

First-bornchildren,whofeelpressuretobehavewellandtoexcelinschool,

areoftensuperachievers.

First-bornchildren,feelingpressuretobehavewellandtoexcelinschool,are

oftensuperachievers.

Feelingpressuretobehavewellandtoexcelinschool,first-bornchildrenare

oftensuperachievers.

A. Writesentencescontainingparticipialphrasesbycombiningsentences.

Step 1 Matchtheideasinthetwocolumns.

Step 2 Changethesentenceintherightcolumntoa participialphrase.

Step 3 Writea newsentencethatcombinesthetwoparts,andaddcommasif

necessary.

Thefirstonehasbeendoneforyouasanexample.(Thereis morethanonepos-

siblewaytocombinesomeofthesentences.)

PRA.CTICE 4

Sentence

Combining

d 1. Eskimosaredistantcousins

ofmodemAsians.

__2. Eskimoshaveadaptedwell

totheirharshenvironment.

__3. Aproblemconcernsthe

rightsofnativeAlaskans.

__4. SomeEskimosrejectthe

waysofthemodemworld.

(Deletesomeinyoursentence.)

__5. Ontheotherhand,some

Eskimoshopethattheycan

combinebothworlds-old

andnew.(Deletesomein

yoursentence.)

a. Aproblemisbeingdiscussed

bytheAlaskangovernment.

b. Eskimoswanttoimprovetheir

standardofliving.

c. Eskimoswanttopreservetheir

traditionalwayoflife.

d. Eskimoshadmigratedacrossa

landbridgefromAsia.

e. Eskimoshavelivedin

Alaskaforthousandsofyears.

1. Havingmigratedacrossaland bridgefromAsia, Eskimosaredistantcousins
   ormodernAsians.


2. 
   


3. 
   


4. 
   


5.