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Cumulative Sentences

Published on Nov 19, 2015

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

WRITING CUMULATIVE SENTENCES

BY MR DOWNING

FEATURES OF MODERN SENTENCES

  • The first part of the sentence up to the first comma or dash is general
  • The first part of the sentence up to the comma can stand only
  • The parts following the first comma/dash describe the first part of the sentence
  • The parts following the commas can't stand alone by themselves

RULES FOR WRITING A CUMULATIVE SENTENCE

  • The first part of the sentence up to the first comma is called a base clause
  • The rest of the sentence after the base clause contains additions
  • These additions cannot stand alone without the base clause
  • Each addition is separated from another addition by commas or dashes

EXAMPLES

  • He lay for a quarter of an hour without thinking,lips parted,
  • Legs and arms extended, breathing quietly as he gazed at the figures
  • In the wallpaper until they were hidden in darkness.

EXAMPLES

  • I sensed a wrongness around me, like an alarm clock that had gone off without being set.
  • Her hair was slicked against her head with a bun in the back, a proper married-lady hairdo.
  • On the corner a guy played the saxophone, the sound sliding into the darkness and echoing off the bricks

VERB CLUSTERS

  • Verb clusters are a type of cumulative sentence
  • Verb clusters use ing words after the base clause
  • Another term for verb cluster is present participle

VERB CLUSTER EXAMPLES

  • The faces of clouds were piled up, hurting.
  • I climbed the fence,jumping down with a grunt.
  • They were teenagers in the picture, grinning at the camera.
  • Byron started walking toward Momma in slow motion, sliding his feet in the snow.

CREATE CUMULATIVE SENTENCES

  • Create cumulative sentences in your narrative
  • Use at least 5 verb clusters
  • Vary the sentence length
  • Try a cumulative sentence that has more than one addition