TESL Times: Writing Center-includes tutorials, activities, links, and lesson plans for ESL students and teachers.

Writing Techniques

T-units:
Are your sentences too long or too short? Well maybe this will help. T-units are a way that we can measure the length of a sentence. A t-unit is the shortest unit which can stand alone as a sentence.

for example:
'He stopped and he sat down on the soft grass'

There are two t-units here. Can you see why? Remember, a sentence needs a subject and a verb to be a complete sentence. In the example above we have two complete sentences which can 'stand alone'.

'He stopped.'
'He sat down on the soft grass.'

The first sentence has two words per t-unit while the second sentence has seven words per t-unit. So what's the point?

Academic writing, like that expected of university students typically has around 20 words per t-unit. This is an average number. That means university students need to know how to write longer sentences. So how do we do that?

Well one way is through the use of clauses and phrases.. There are several different clause structures in English which I can not hope to explain completely here. Consequently, let's limit our discussion to Adverbial clauses and Relative clauses .

Just like an adverb describes the action of a verb, Adverbial Clauses describe the action of the sentence in some way.

for example:
When he arrived home, Allen took a bath and quietly ate his dinner alone.

This is an adverbial clause of time because it descibes when the action of the sentence is happening.When did Allen take a bath and quietly eat his dinner alone? (When he arrived home). Let's look at another example.

for example:
Because she was tired of studying so hard, Joan met her friends and went to see a good movie

This is an adverbial clause of reason because it describes why the action in the sentence is happening. Why did Joan meet her friends and go see a good movie? (because she was tired of studying so hard). Let's try another example.

for example:
The adventurous police officer jumped on the speeding car

This is an adverbial clause of location because it describes where the action of the sentence is happening. Where did the adventurous police officer jump? (on the speeding car).

Notice that in each of the examples above the clause can not be separated from the rest of the sentence. In other words, it can not stand alone as a sentence.

Adverbial phrases work just like adverbial clauses except that they do not have a complete subject and/or verb.

for example:
Because of tiredness, Joan met her friends and went to see a good movie.
(or)
After arriving home, Allen took a hot bath and ate his dinner alone.
(or)
In the small town of Gloster, Mike worked everyday as a fisherman and sea captian.

In the small town of Gloster describes where the action of the sentence takes place. You might think that 'In the small town...' is just a prepositional phrase; but it's not. In fact, many prepositional phrases act like adverbial clauses or phrases. Here's why:

Prepostional phrases can act like adverbial clauses and phrases if they describe the action of the sentence. In other words, does the prepositional phrase answer the question: where? , or when? If the answer is yes, then it is acting like an adverbial clause or phrase. An additional help in distinguishing between prepositional phrases and adverbials is that prepositional phrases follow a noun.

for example:
I drove my car in the park. is a prepositional phrase. I drove in the park. is an adverbial phrase. He lived in a fine house (adverbial phrase) in Toledo. (prepositional phrase)

Other adverbial clause words:

Time: After..., Before..., While..., After..., During...,

Reason: As a result of..., If...,

Location: where..., On..., under..., above..., near..., etc...

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Another clause which is very useful for making your sentences longer is the Relative Clause.

Identifying Relative Clauses:

Relative clauses (also known as adjective clauses) typically are difficult for many students. Consequently, I will try to keep our discussion of them relatively simple. There are four types of relative/adjective clauses: subject-subject, object-subject, subject-object, and object-object .
Subject-subject clauses are often used to give extra information about the subject. In fact, they describe the subject.

for example:
.

I am currently re-working the information below. Please disregard it for now.

Notice how

for example 2:
I saw the man who kicked the dog

Which man was it? (The man who kicked the dog.) It was not the man who helped the dog; nor the man who walked the dog. It was the man who kicked the dog.
Another help in identifying restrictive clauses is that they usually appear at the end of a sentence.

Unlike restrictive relative clauses, non-restrictive relative clauses don't add important defining information to a sentence. Actually, they add extra, unnecessary information.

for example:
I saw the man who was eating icecream, kick the dog.

The fact that the man was eating icecream is extra info which is not needed to identify the man.

Relative clauses very often begin with:

who..., whose...,(for people and intelligent animals)

which...,(for non-living things)

where...,(for locations)

Using Relative Clauses to Make Longer Sentences:
Just like with adverbials, we can use relative clauses to make our sentences longer. Here's how:

for example:
I saw the man. He kicked the dog.
...can be combined into:

I saw the man who kicked the dog.

for example 2:
Last night John studied for a test. The test would determine his grade for the class
...can be combined into:

Last night John studied for a test which would determine his grade for the class.

Notice that we removed the subject of the second sentence.(the test). Just like with adverbials, the relative clause: which would determine his grade for the class can not stand alone. It has no subject.

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Subjectless Conjunctions:
Subjectless conjunctions are another device which can be used to make shorter sentences longer. If we have two sentences like the ones below we can combine them using 'and', 'but', 'nor', 'for' or another conjunction.

for example:
Phillip came home late. He kicked the dog.
...can be combined into:

Phillip came home late and kicked the dog.

Notice that we removed the second subject when we combined the two sentences. We can remove the second subject because the first subject (Phillip) is doing both actions (coming home late and kicking the dog). In fact we have to remove the second subject our we would still have two complete sentences which could stand alone.

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More to come... Five Paragraph Essay Writing:

Organization
Narrowing a topic
Writing supporting details
Writing a thesis statement
Introductions & Conclusions

with special thanks to Dr. R. Thompson at the University of Florida

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