Tutorial
Making Sentence Connections

Copyright 2014 © Laraine Flemming. Copyright is granted exclusively to instructors and students using textbooks written by Laraine Flemming. General distribution and redistribution are strictly prohibited.


Directions: Read each excerpt. Then click the appropriate answer to indicate how the sentences in each excerpt help readers follow the thread of the writer’s thought.


1. (1) A key trend in self-esteem is that males generally show higher self-esteem than females, especially after early adolescence. (2) More girls than boys report low self-esteem during middle and late adolescence, (3) Some studies find that the self-esteem of boys actually increases in adolescence, whereas girls do not seem to easily recover from the loss of self-esteem that frequently occurs as the make the transition to junior high. (Adapted from Kaplan, Adolescence, 1e, Cengage Learning, p. 309)
A. Sentences 2 and 3 challenge the point of sentence 1—that males in adolescence have higher self-esteem than females do.
B. Sentences 2 and 3 offer more specific evidence for the point of sentence 1—that males in adolescence feel greater self-esteem than do females.
C. Sentence 2 changes direction to introduce a completely different point about adolescence in males and females. Sentence 3 follows up on that brand-new point.
2. (1) The comic book industry began life in the early 20th century as the province of con men who stripped artists of their creations, then moved on to the next mark. (2) The artists, who were paid virtually nothing for work on characters that are now worth billions at the movies, are nearly all dead. (3) But their heirs are beginning to speak for them through a federal copyright law that practically invites descendants to sue for ownership interests in characters whose current value could never have been imagined at the moment of creation. (Source: Brent Staples, "Marvel Superheroes and The Fathers of Invention," The New York Times, June 26, 2011, p.11)
A. Sentences 1 and 2 generally describe a problem related to copyright of comic book figures. Sentence 3 starts to introduce a possible solution to that problem.
B. Sentences 1 and 2 describe the early history of comic book characters, focusing on the artists who created them. Sentence 3 explains how the heirs of those artists are selfishly trying to reap benefits from the creators of their ancestors.
C. Sentences 1 and 2 talk about creators of early comic book characters and how devoted they were to their creations, so much so, they didn’t care about getting paid. Sentence 3 contrasts those early creators to their heirs, who are earning huge sums of money thanks to a new copyright law.
3. (1) In 2013, bantamweight fighters Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche climbed into the ring for the first female Ultimate Fight Championship (UFC) bout in history. (2) Naysayers expected both the event and the idea of women being part of the UFC to fail big time. (3) Instead, a year later, Rousey was one of the UFC’s biggest stars, and nobody doubted that women had become part of the UFC world.
A. Sentences 1 and 2 start tracking a sequence of events while sentence 3 contributes a third event to the series.
B. Sentences 1 and 2 describe the prejudice again women in the UFC, and sentence 3 explains how that prejudice has been eliminated.
C. Sentence 1 introduces an event, the fight between Rousey and Carmouche, while sentence 2 describes predictions made about the event. Sentence 3 makes it clear just how wrong those predictions were.
4. (1) Methamphetamines, central nervous stimulants that are highly addictive and dangerous, have recently gained in popularity, but they are certainly not new to the drug scene. (2) During the Second World War, soldiers on both sides used it to reduce fatigue and enhance performance. (3) In fact, Adolf Hitler was widely believed to be a meth addict. (Adapted from Linda A. Mooney et al., Social Problems, 8e, Cengage Learning, p.79)
A. Sentence 1 emphasizes that Methamphetamines are not new drugs. Sentences 2 and 3 explain why the drug has recently gotten so much attention.
B. Sentence 1 explains that, despite an increase in popularity, methamphetamines are not new drugs. Sentences 2 and 3 indicate how far back their use actually went.
C. Sentence 1 loosely defines methamphetamines as "central nervous stimulants" and says they are dangerous. Sentences 2 and 3 then expand upon that point with illustrations of the drug’s dangers.
5. (1) Feral, or wild, hogs, are among the most gruesome and destructive of invasive species. (2) The federal government estimates that there are now five million hogs in 35 states, resulting in 1.5 billion in damages and control costs every year. (3) In its literature, the Department of Agriculture suggests the extent of the problem by referring to the hogs as a "pandemic, " a wide-ranging infection that covers large regions and populations. (Adapted from Jon Mooallem, "The Swarm," New York Times Magazine, December 8, 2013, p. 42)
A. Sentence 1 specifically describes the damage hogs have done throughout the United States while sentences 2 and 3, make the financial costs more specific.
B. Sentence 1 offers a general description of feral hogs, emphasizing that they are a gruesome and destructive problem. Sentences 2 and 3 explain more specifically how gruesome and destructive the hogs are. In effect, they tell the reader how big the problem really is.
C. Sentence 1 describes how to address the problem of wild hogs throughout the nation’s rural areas. Sentences 2 and 3 suggest that the federal government needs to step in to address the problem.



Last change made to this page: 02/25/14