40 Great Sentences For Students To Learn From

Created by Marcus Luther—feel free to copy or adapt template for
educational purposes. Feel free to email with questions, too!
40 GREAT
SENTENCES
a slide deck of innovative sentences that can serve as
models for student writers—with activities included to
bring them
Feel free intoforthe
to adapt classroom!
your students!
what is this project?

I spend a lot of time as a teacher looking for “great sentences” for students to learn from
—including the forming of a wall of “Beautiful Language” from students themselves
Full Explainer Here!
each year.
via The Broken Copier
However, I also know that this is often sporadic and responsive to the moment rather than
comprehensive, so I wanted to assemble a guide that could be referred to at any point of
the year for all writers—and teachers, too, to use and adapt for their own students!
Want the Spreadsheet
Version? Click Here. My goal here is to offer 40 “great sentences” from my own readings and also to present
each of them with an explanation of the technique, notes from the teacher perspective,
and potential application prompts to use. In other words, to try and make this project as
much of a teaching tool as possible.
Have Your Own Sentence
to Share? Click Here. So feel free to make this work for your classroom and students—and I’m always open to
suggestions, too!
sentences #1-#6
Playful (and Purposeful)
Punctuation Moves
#1 - Colon → If ____ Semicolon → If ___

From Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing
the sentences (with technique highlighted)
The family is like the forest: if you are outside it is dense; if you are
inside you see that each tree has its own position.
Technique Explanation: Gyasi uses both a colon and then a

semicolon within this sentence—the first a broad, simile-centered Potential Application Prompt:
claim (“The family is like the forest”), and then the latter half’s
dichotomy split by the semicolon (“if you are outside” v. “if you are ● Provide students the following frames to
inside”) choose from in crafting their own
sentence with this structure:
○ High school is like _______: if
Teacher’s Note: a great move to synthesize two core punctuation
__________; if _____________.
tools, the colon and the semicolon, and to push students who have ○ Being a teenager is like _______:
mastered each individually. if __________; if _____________.
#2 - Leap Across the Semicolon

From Ethan Canin’s The Doubter’s Almanac
An infant, in his first sleepiness, must let go of the world; a man must
learn to die. What comes between are the grains of sand.
Technique Explanation: In the first part of the sentence (before the

Potential Application Prompt:
semicolon), Canin describes what an infant experiences. Then on the
other side Canin leaps to adulthood “man” without a transition at all. ● Fill in the blanks with either of these
The following sentence is not required, but is a great push here— sentence frames:
especially with the added metaphor. ○ In the morning, __________; in
the evening, _________. What
Teacher’s Note: This can be helpful for showing semicolon usage for comes between is/are…
○ At the beginning of the school
impact, but also the idea of show don’t tell with creating an
year, _________; on the final day
intentional gap between the two points for the reader to do the work of school __________. What
filling. comes between is/are…
#3 - The—Em Dash—Interrupted—Sentence
From Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
The mind of man is capable of anything—because everything is in it, all the past as well as
all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valour, rage—who can
tell?—but truth—truth stripped of its cloak of time.
Technique Explanation: Especially in the final sentence, Conrad

introduces hesitation structurally by using lots of em dashes (3!) that Potential Application Prompt:
take the slighter hesitation from the commas and emphasize them first
with the parenthetical aside (“who can tell?”) but then the word truth ● Have students partner up and write as
being repeated with the em dash almost making it seem as if the long of a sentence as they possibly can.
narrator himself is staggering in the description. Then have them trade sentences and
decide where they can add em dashes
and then explain why they added them
Teacher’s Note: The comparison here with what interruptions with
where they did. (Definitely share out
commas instead of em dashes would be an intriguing class discussion. some examples whole-class, too!)
#4 - The Acquiring (or even Cluttering) of Commas

From Tommy Orange’s There There
Some of us, who gave up that tired life, on that long red road of sobriety, we drink coffee, we sing,
pray, and tell stories until we run out. We lie, cheat, and steal our stories, sweat and bleed them out
along the highway, until that long white line makes us quiet, makes us pull over to sleep.
Technique Explanation: Orange employs eleven commas in two Potential Application Prompt
sentences here, drawing out an already-long sentence even further, the
● In a simple sentence, write down either a
way memory itself can stretch. There are different types of
recent or far-off memory that you can picture
grammatical moves within these commas (relative clause, clearly in your mind and that you wish you
prepositional phrase, verb phrase) but the importance here is the idea could re-live or return to.
of stretching a sentence. ● Extend it once by adding a prepositional
phrase
● Extend it again by adding another verb
Teacher’s Note: this could work really well within a broader phrase (either repeating the same verb or
grammar lesson, and there are many other examples that can be found bringing in a new one)
of elongated, caesura-heavy sentences to build from. ● Extend it again by adding an “until” phrase at
the end.
#5 - [Rhetorical] Question? Answer: _______

Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground
But what can a decent man speak of with most pleasure? Answer:
Of himself. Well, so I will talk about myself.
Technique Explanation: rhetorical questions are a fantastic

Potential Application Prompt
technique, especially in 1st-person narration like Notes from
Underground. Here, though, the rhetorical question is followed up ● Give students a brief (4-5 sentence) narrative
immediately with a one-word pre-colon phrase (“Answer”) and then, prompt, and ask them to incorporate a similar
structure to Dostoevsky here by not only
of course, the answer.
asking a rhetorical question but then
following it up with the “Answer: _____”
Teacher’s Note: Showing other examples of rhetorical questions sentence frame.
might be helpful to introduce this concept overall—along with a ● [Follow-up] Have students pair/share and
explain why they chose the rhetorical
conversation about how they shift tone and, in the process, meaning. question that they did—and how it would
have been different without it.
#6 - List (First!) + Semicolon + Summation

From Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding
He had no art to call his own. He knew how to motivate people,
manipulate people, move them around; this was his only skill.
Technique Explanation: Harbach in this sentence almost seems to

Potential Application Prompts [2]:
reverse what typically would be done with a colon rather than a
semicolon—starting with a list (“motivate, manipulate, move”) and
● Offer students the following sentence
then after the semicolon providing the summation of what came
frame to start with:
before. It adds emphasis on the summation, too, rather than the list ○ I know how to ________,
itself, by placing it second. ________, _________; this is
my most important skill.
Teacher’s Note: Comparing this with the traditional form of a colon ○ Challenge: can they come up
(the latter part going first) would be a neat exercise for the class— with alliterative verbs like the
what is the stylistic benefit of each? sample?
sentences #7-#10
Grammatical Structure
as Meaning Itself
#7 - Dichotomy: “Only” the Passive and Active [Verbs]

From Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black
the sentence (with technique highlighted)
He saw only those who were there to be saved, and

those who did the saving.
Technique Explanation: this sentence structure is Potential Application Prompt:
intentionally simplistic in breaking down everything into
two categories: a passive verb (“to be saved”) and an active ● Give students a list of 10-15
verb (“did the saving”). The passive comes first here, too, verbs to choose from (“write,”
to end with emphasis on the action. “work,” “win,” etc.)
● Additional scaffold can be
Teacher’s Note: Can be a helpful exercise around offering this sentence frame:
passive/active verbs but also a discussion around a “forced There are only ______ (passive
dichotomy” and what its purpose can be. verb) and ________.
#8 - The Standalone List as a Sentence

From Chaim Potok’s The Chosen
Anything can be a shell, Reuven. Anything. Indifference,

laziness, brutality, and genius.
Technique Explanation: rather than the more formal, colon-introduced list
of academic writing, Potok in this sentence begins with the single-word
sentence (“Anything.”) before just listing the four individual nouns that ● Think of a list of 4-5 things that could be
relate to the previous word. In this instance, too, the “breaking of rules” described with one word (or give them the
adds to the idea of Anything being expressed—there are no rules, really, and one-word) and then have them write out the
the structure mimics this. list only with commas like example.
○ Challenge #1: ask a partner to decide
if the order of the words was as
Teacher’s Note: This is an easy situation to compare/contrast what this
impactful as it could have been?
type of sentence would look like compared to its “academically correct” ○ Challenge #2: make one of list entries
parallel. different than the others (intangible v.
tangible)
#9 - The Single-Word Pivot: “No.”

From Zadie Smith’s White Teeth
Greeting cards routinely tell us everybody deserves love. No. Everybody
deserves clean water. Not everybody deserves love all the time.
Technique Explanation: this is a relatively- straightforward- Potential Application Prompt:

but-considerably-impactful technique to use within writing. The
first part is the “generally accepted” wisdom or truth about the ● Step 1: write down something that you
world, then the single-word “No” sentence—and then the think many people think or believe
(“Everybody thinks…”) then write the
clarification/correction that comes after.
word
● Step 2: write the word, “No.” as its own
Teacher’s Note: Like several other sentences here, this would sentence.
make for a fantastic essay or story opening. ● Step 3: provide a clarification or
correction about what you believe is
actually true.
#10 - Accruing Participial Phrases

From Chaim Potok’s The Promise
I talked on and on, quietly, my voice shaking, using the words to push away the silence and fill the room
with something that was truly alive, with words, driving out the silence with words, beating against the
silence with words, pouring the wind and the lake and the memories of the summer into the emptiness of
the room.
Technique Explanation: Potok in this instance takes a sentence that

being straightforwardly (a character talking) and extends it four Potential Application Prompt:
different times with participial phrases (“using ___,” “driving ___,”
● Write down a straightforward sentence
“beating ___,” and “pouring ___”). There is structural meaning here,
about something you did that was
too, in reinforcing the idea of using words purposefully by literally meaningful to you in the past week.
using more words with this technique. ○ Add one participial phrase
beginning with a present participle
Teacher’s Note: This is a great participial phrase lesson to begin with (ex: “using…”)
one, and then add another, and then add another… ○ Then add another.
○ And then add another.
sentences #11-#19
Unique, Impactful
Repetition Moves
#11 - Listing of “Not-This-But-That’s” via Semicolons

From Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye
And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free,
merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were police; not good, but well
behaved.
Technique Explanation: the anastrophe to begin (“fantasy it was”)

foreshadows how the rest of the sentence will lean on saying first
what we were not before then saying the “we were”—and the list-
● Use this format of “Not This But That”
building takes place via semicolons, too, to add to the weight of what
in the first-person “I” and decide if you
is being revealed. want to use past, present, or future
tense.
Teacher’s Note: Consider situations where a person or character
would want to emphasize the negative first, a “glass-half-empty” ● Present tense Sentence Frame: I am
mindset, if you will. Ask students why this might be fitting or even not ______, I am ______; I am not
important. ______, I am _____… (and continue)
#12 - Who _____ + Who _____ + Who _____

From Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were
What could ever make up for the loss of my dearest friend, my sweet papa, unlike all other papas in Kosawa, a papa who sat with his
daughter at night and counted stars, who wondered with me if stalks of grass live in fear of the day they’d be trampled upon, who
reminded me to never forget what it felt like to be a child when I grow up, never forget how it felt to be small and in need of
protection and in need of protection, much of the suffering in the world was because of those who had forgotten that they too were
once children.
Technique Explanation: the simple description of this is to take a

noun (often a person) and think of different things that attach to it and
to pile on relative clauses using commas. This particular sentence
emerges so broadly, even escaping grammar itself in a way, that it ● Use the following sentence frame
brings in another “who” in a more universal sense to offer a theme at to begin, choosing an unnamed
the end. person who is important to you
(ex: best friend, mother,
Teacher’s Note: Spend time with the sequencing and looking at the grandfather): I think often of my
choices that were made—simpler first (“sat with daughter”) and then _______ who ________, who
deeper (“reminded me to never forget what it felt like to be a child”) _______, who ________.
#13 - Becomes ___ Becomes ___ Becomes

From James Joyce’s Ulysses
God becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle

goose becomes featherbed mountain.
Technique Explanation: in this case, Joyce uses this to progress
Potential Application Prompts [2]:
towards diminishment, going from all-powerful “God” to “barnacle
goose” and then an inanimate object, ultimately. However, this ● Think of your feelings over the past week,
technique could be employed in many ways—including narratively and begin with “My ______” (insert
(see prompt to the right). feeling) before adding at least four
becomes to show how it has shifted.
Teacher’s Note: Would make for a great opening line to a narrative
● Think of a “favorite” in your life that has
or to begin a concluding paragraph. Also is a great place to push
changed many times (song, food, snack,
students to intentionally break parallel structure (ex: one intangible friend, etc.) and use the sentence frame
alongside many tangibles) with “becomes” to list this out.
#14 - …Nor This Nor This Nor That

From Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian
In the neuter austerity of that terrain all phenomena were bequeathed a strange
equality and no one thing nor spider nor stone nor blade of grass could put
forth claim to precedence.
Technique Explanation: The repetition of nor thricefold in this
sentence serves to structurally support the idea of “no one thing” Potential Application Prompt:
(which begins the listing of nor). Instead of just saying “no one thing
● Have students begin by writing about
could put forth claim to precedence,” the listed examples assert the
someone or something they believe
idea with the examples. strongly about (ex: I believe that
education is _______)
Teacher’s Note: Could be a fun pairing to expand beyond the typical ● Have them add “and no one thing” (or
“neither/nor” construction (or as an extension for students ready to “neither”) with three nor’s
move past). ● Then have them come up with the closing
phrase (and explain why to a partner)
#15 - Compound Verb Repetition (No Commas)

From Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian
The flames sawed in the wind and the embers paled and deepened and paled and deepened like the bloodbeat of some living
thing eviscerate upon the ground before them and they watched the fire which does contain within it something of men
themselves inasmuch as they are less without it and are divided from their origins and are exiles. For each fire is all fires,
the first fire and the last ever to be.
Technique Explanation: though McCarthy’s writing is known for much

else, this quick move jumps off the page in a way—instead of just using the
compound verb once (“paled and deepened”) he instead employs it twice
● Step 1: write a sentence and identify the
with his well-known absence of commas, which adds emphasis as well as
verb (or have the class all start with the
an idea of infinitude to the sentence (tying into the final sentence in the
same model sentence)
same above. ● Step 2: turn that verb into a compound
verb (challenge: make it three instead of
Teacher’s Note: it could be interesting to find sentences with multiple just two)
verbs and to explore as a class which of those instances of verbs would ● Step 3: create the same repetition within
make more of an impact to turn into compound/repeated verbs like the the sentence and then reflection on how
McCarthy example that repetition itself could add meaning
#16 - Parallelism Across Semicolon

From Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From The Goon Squad
The problem was precision, perfection; the problem was digitization, which
sucked the life out of everything that got smeared through its microscopic
mesh.
Technique Explanation: the repetition on both sides of the Potential Application Prompt:
semicolon (anaphora use of “The problem was”) forces the reader to
consider how the first half (“precision, perfection”) is also the same, ● Ask students to think of an internal
in a way, as the second half (“digitization”). The work done in the or external conflict a character is
latter half with “microscopic mesh” is an added flex worth noting, but facing (or, for narrative writing,
not required. themselves) and use this as a
model.
Teacher’s Note: Doesn’t just have to be “The problem was,” but ● Flip it for students, potentially as a
using that opening could make for a fantastic opening to an essay for
closing reflection: what is the
a hook!
answer?
#17 - Anaphora (complex) → Anaphora (simple)

From Louise Erdrich’s The Round House
We passed over in a seep of sorrow that would persist into

our small forever. We just kept going.
Technique Explanation: The level of prose and description in the Potential Application Prompt:
first sentence is elevated with multiple flexes and devices ● Write a longer sentence with at least one
(alliteration: “seep of sorrow” and oxymoron: “small forever”). literary device that starts with “I,” “You,” or
However, the second sentence is only four words—with the contrast “We” and then follow it up with a
sentence that is 5 words or fewer that
emphasized by the anaphora of “we.”
begins with the same word but no
devices.
Teacher’s Note: Great conversation-starter around how contrast in
not just sentence length but the level of prose within them can add ● Sample: I grade the growing, menacing
meaning, as the “simple” second sentence is arguably the more collection of essays at a slow pace, one
powerful one here. that never keeps up with the mocking
notifications of even more submissions. I
just keep grading.
#18 - Em Dash—Some _____, Some _____

From Megha Majumdar’s A Burning
“That is how my life is going forward—some insult in my

face, some sweet in my mouth.”
Technique Explanation: before the em dash, Majumdar chooses to
offer a broad declaration (“That is how my life is going forward”) and Potential Application Prompt:
then follows by two very specific, different answers to that
● Give students the first part of the framing
declaration, both introduced with “some” and divided by a comma.
to copy down and then complete.
Examples:
Teacher’s Note: the idea of nuance/complexity is achieved here, but ○ That is how high school is,
also a particularity. Rather than saying “My life is a combination of ultimately—some _______, some
being insulted and finding sweet things,” the author chooses this _______.
framing. What is the impact of this? ○ That is how friendship goes—
some _______, some _______.
#19 - Contrasting Definitions (+ Parallelism?)

From Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing
Weakness is treating someone as though they belong to you. Strength
is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves.
Technique Explanation: The more straightforward technique Potential Application Prompt:

here that is easier to replicate is back-to-back sentences that
declaratively offer separate definitions of opposites (Weakness v. ● Take one of the following “pairs”
Strength). The “level-up” move by Gyasi, of course, is the and write back-to-back competing
chiasmus-like parallelism that inverts the idea of belonging in definitions of each:
each sentence. ○ Love v. Hate
○ Friendship v. Family
Teacher’s Note: the effective use of this technique would be a ○ Hope v. Fear
fantastic way to open or close a narrative or essay. ○ Kindness v. Meanness
○ War v. Peace
sentences #20-#26
Sentences Elevated by Innovative
Elements
#20 - Reimagining of an Idiom/Popular Aphorism

From Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Sadie liked the phrase “an abundance of caution.” It reminded her of a murder of crows, a flock of seagulls, a pack
of wolves. She imagined that “caution” was a creature of some kind—maybe, a cross between a Saint Bernard and
an elephant. A large, intelligent, friendly animal that could be counted on to defend the Green sisters from threats,
existential and otherwise.
Technique Explanation: Zevin takes a generic phrase, “an

abundance of caution,” and reimagines it first by making comparisons Potential Application Prompt:
linguistically to other “idiom groupings” in our culture but then by ● Provide a list of 10-15 popular wisdoms,
imagining it as an analogical “creature” itself (or two creatures, in this idioms, or aphorisms in our culture, and have
case, made hybrid). students pick one to focus on
● Give them one of the two sentence frames to

Teacher’s Note: This is a great way to celebrate innovative, divergent
“reimagine” with:
thinking in your classroom—as you could also give every group the ○ It reminds me of…
same phrase/idiom to work with, and see who comes up with the most ○ I imagine “_____” to be a creature of
insightful and imaginative rendering of it! some kind—maybe a…
#21 - The Allusion Becomes The Verb

From Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
And my seven-year-old world humpty-dumptied, never to be put

back together again.
Technique Explanation: the technique here is quite-straightforward in that

Angelou, instead of referring in the typical way of allusion (ex: “became Potential Application Prompt:
something like what Humpty Dumpty experienced) transforms the allusion
● Offer 4-5 different famous fairy tales and/or
into a verb itself—even going as far as to use the lowercase to make it seem
fables (potentially having students debrief
that much more natural as a technique, despite its inventiveness.
each first to make sure they have a general
idea of their plot/meaning)
Teacher’s Note: there may be some historical allusions that aren’t
appropriate to do this with (“Holocaust,” etc.) and that discussion might be ● Have a competition within the class of who
appropriate before setting students free with this. can write a sentence to best describe what
high school is like using this technique and
one of the provided fairy tales/fables.
#22 - Tone Shift Via Unlikely Simile (Conceit)

From Chaim Potok’s The Gift of Asher Lev
You do not answer. That is called ambivalence. I am glad you save it for Brooklyn
and do not put it into your art. Ambivalence in art is like piss in coffee.
Technique Explanation: The simile employed here takes a formal, Potential Application Prompt:
lofty phrase (“Ambivalence in art”) and compares it immediately to
“piss in coffee,” shifting abruptly to the unexpected, even vulgar. ● Have a conceit competition as a class:
task each group with coming up with a
Rather than relying on the expected comparison, it offers a
broad/formal concept and then comparing
new/innovative way to understand the concept—and also refreshes it to the starkest, most unexpected object
the overall tone. (ex: piss in coffee) along with an
explanation as to why they made that
Teacher’s Note: Great to pair the use of this technique with the idea comparison, too.
of “cliche” and why relying upon overused concepts and comparisons
can make writing stale and limit the impact of what you’re trying to ● Groups can then present from there!
#grabsomepopcorn
achieve as far as meaning.
#23 - Personification of Emotion/Idea

From Akwaeke Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji
…his grief was chasing him from room to room, begging him to spend some time
alone with it. They all knew what would happen when that time came: it would
slice behind his knees and knock him down…
Technique Explanation: Emezi here takes the grief that Chika is

feeling after losing his son and turns it into a human-like antagonist, Potential Application Prompts (2):
someone who not only is “chasing him” and “begging him” but also ● Think of an emotion you’ve felt in the past 24
willing to physically assault him (“slice behind his knees and knock hours and the describe that emotion like it is
him down”). This takes an intangible emotion and renders it not only a person: what is it doing, and to whom?
tangible but threatening. (Include several things, not just one)
● Give the class a shared emotion/idea to

Teacher’s Note: The key here is to go beyond the first sentence, I’d personify (ex: “Procrastination”) and then
argue, and to take the first step of personification into a more- have them brainstorm/collaborate on how it
extended/-developed form. can become an Emezi-like person in writing.
#24 - Universalizing Personification

From Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half
This river, like all rivers, remembered its course. They floated
under the leafy canopy of trees, begging to forget.
Technique Explanation: the object being described here

(“This river”) is already personified (“remembered”) but in Potential Application Prompt:
this case the added detail in the commas “(like all rivers”)
● Write a simple sentence using
gives it a more-universal description. personification with an object in the
room (ex: “This desk ______) and
Teacher’s Note: Start with a simple personification and then rewrite that sentence with the
then add in the “like all _____” phrasing, and then have a added phrase (ex: “like all desks”).
discussion about what is gained (or lost) by adding this to ● As a class, narrow down to the top
the existing personification. five in the room then vote on #1
#25 - Collection of Different Metaphors for a Single Thing

From Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street
In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it
means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father
plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.
Technique Explanation: in the opening of the canonical chapter from this

novella “My Name,” Cisneros lists off a collection of similes and Potential Application Prompt
metaphors all meant to describe the narrator’s name (Esperanza). Some
have positive connotations and some have negative connotations; some are ● Narrative: have students use the “My name”
framing and make a list of 3-4 similes or
more ambiguous than others. This offers far more complexity than a single
metaphors similar to the example about their
metaphor would have, then.
own name (give them flexibility in what name
they choose, too)
Teacher’s Note: This can be used as an anaphora, too, with the repetition
giving it more structure (see example in slide notes), but the Cisneros ● Make a T-chart, either as the writer or as the
version has much more fluidity and range. reader: what is similar about all of the
similes/metaphors? What is different?
sentences #26-#30
Miscellaneously Meaningful
(i.e. I just think these are cool)
#26 - “Half by ______, Half by ______”

From Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club
I think now that fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention.
But somehow, when you lose something you love, faith takes over.
Technique Explanation: with an eloquent turn of phrase here, Tan

divides “fate’s origins” into even halves: expectation and inattention.
This is a straightforward way to introduce nuance into a concept and ● Give each group in class a collection of
also to do so in a way that adds sentence variety, too—and in this words (ex: education, friendship, love,
case, the parallel structure (3 words for each phrase) adds to the idea etc.) and ask them to create sentences
of an even division. for each using the “half by/half by” frame.
● Have groups share out and create a list

Teacher’s Note: it might be helpful to offer other framings for
for each word—then have individuals
students to try out, too, such as “mostly by ___, yet also somewhat by vote/explain their choice for best
______” or “always by ____, never by _____.” sentence and why.
#27 - “To Describe _____ Would Be To Write About _____”

From Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its
perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.
Technique Explanation: this technique formalizes itself with Potential Application Prompt:
the opening infinitive (“To describe”) and then moves into the
● Have students pick a person in their life
subjunctive (“would be to write about”), a collision of the who means a lot to them and use the
declarative and the imaginary—which is what writing is, after frame (“To describe ____ would be to
all. And memory, too, which is part of what Angelou’s memoir write about…”) and then submit them
project examines, ultimately. anonymously via a Google Form
● The next day, read through them on the

Teacher’s Note: This would make for a great narrative screen one at a time for not only a peer
brainstorm activity for a longer project. modeling exercise but also a community
builder.
#28 - “To Have _____” → “Was to _____”

From Ayad Akhtar’s Homeland Elegies
To have lived through events like these so young was to know that murder is not
an abstraction or something perpetrated only by evildoers. Good people could kill
and be killed.
Technique Explanation: the formality that comes with this sentence Potential Application Prompts:
structure is a way of elevating an idea within broader prose (“To have
lived” instead of “Living”) and takes an experience and turns it into ● Give everyone in class the same “first
an identity or theme (especially if you include “know” to lead off the part” (ex: To have been a high school
second part. freshman was to know that…) and see
what the class comes up with.
Teacher’s Note: This format tends to make for a longer sentence,
which can be coupled with a quite-shorter one afterwards (like this ● Have students brainstorm narrative
one does), and might be a nice extension to this structure. events in their own life to create their
own “To Have” → “Was To” sentence
to share
#29 - Going Precise + Going Broad in the Same Sentence

From Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West
It might seem odd that in cities teetering at the edge of the abyss young people still go to class—in this case an
evening class on corporate identity and product branding—but that is the way of things, with cities as with life, for
one moment we are pottering about our errands as usual and the next we are dying, and our eternally impending
ending does not put a stop to our transient beginnings and middles until the instant when it does.
Technique Explanation: a masterful sentence on display here from Hamid,

he at first uses em dashes to narrow to a specific type of class (“an evening Potential Application Prompt:
class on corporate identity and product branding”) but then a moment later
takes the idea of cities and makes it broader (“with cities as with life”). ● Offer students a complete frame to
complete for this complicated technique:
Teacher’s Note: the ability to do both things within a sentence is difficult ● Throughout the school day students go
to pull off, admittedly, but it shows how a writer can zoom in and out, and a to class—in this case a _____ class on
discussion about this “zooming” feels fruitful, I think! ________—but that is the way of things,
with school as with life, for
__________________…
#30 - “How ____” (Precise) + Comma + “How ____” (Broad)

From Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven
Jeevan found himself thinking about how human the city is,
how human everything is.
Technique Explanation: Emily St. John Mandel moves from a specific Potential Application Prompts (2):
observation about the city (“how human the city is”) to a much broader,
macro observation about life itself (“how human everything is”), repeating ● Complete the following sentence frame:
the word how and using just a comma to list that broader follow-up. This The other day I found myself thinking
also structurally opens up the sentence in the same way we often think about how _____________, how
ourselves—from a specific observation to a deeper, more profound ____________.
realization.
● Scaffolds to offer: give students a
Teacher’s Note: the sentence structure of a “comma + repeat” can be used descriptor word to begin with, a topic to
in other ways, too, and is a really cool writer’s move for students to master.
focus on, or even the final part to work
backwards from (ex: “how exhausting
school can be”)
sentences #31-#40
the Brian Doyle sentences
(just read them.)
#31- Back-To-Back-To-Back-To-Back Adjectives

from Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Voladoras”
Hummingbirds, like all flying birds but more so, have incredible
enormous immense ferocious metabolisms.
Technique Explanation: in this sentence, Doyle uses four adjectives Potential Application Prompt:
in a row without commas—“incredible enormous immense
ferocious”—to structurally intensify the “metabolisms” being ● Think of a person who means a lot
described, with the overuse of adjectives without pause adding even more to you and four adjectives that
more emphasis on just how overwhelming the metabolisms are, you could use to describe them, and
according to Doyle. then write a sentence that uses them
in a way similar to Doyle.
Teacher’s Note: guide students to think carefully about the words
● Sample: I spend all weekend chasing
you choose here, like ingredients in a recipe. Don’t just toss them in
around my precocious petulant
randomly. Each of the four words Doyle selects offer different,
precious perfect son.
brilliant connotation to his prose.
#32 - The Semicolon-Phrase Story

from Brian Doyle’s “Two on Two”
I got hurt, as most everyone does eventually; I got hurt enough to quit; back
pains then back surgery then more surgeries; it was quit or walk, now I walk.
Technique Explanation: in a stringing-together of details via semicolons,

Doyle takes his own experience with back pain and surgery and in quite- Potential Application Prompts [2]:
simple language turns it into a full narrative: the ubiquitizing of injury; the
● Have students think about a list of events that
consequence internally for his soul; the struggle; and then the choice
have happened to them in the past few days
towards a tepid hope. The semicolons tie it together, and in this way can be
(or even on a single day)—and use this
an efficient, artful way to infuse an anecdote into a broader sense of sentence as a model to describe them.
writing.
● Have students reflect on the past year, using
Teacher’s Note: This is a great way to talk about how semicolon listing the “I got” phrasing along with the semicolons
doesn’t require independent clauses, as there is not only a sentence to describe it in a single “semicolon-phrase”
fragment but also a comma splice in this example. story sentence.
#33 - Semicolon; Em Dash—List with Participles

from Brian Doyle’s “The Achoviad”
He is a sort of anchovy, as are we all; so I sing our collective salty song—the song of fast, mysterious,
open-mouthed creatures, traveling with vast schools of our fellows, listening intently, savoring the least
of our brethren, and doing our absolute level best to avoid the wolf herring.
Technique Explanation: this is a three-part technique that, if employed

well, is quite a flex. The first part is an observation before the semicolon
(“He is a sort of anchovy, as are we all”) and then what follows is a Potential Application Prompt:
consequence of that observation that is not just the singular “so I sing our
collective salty song” but a list that follows the em dash, made longer by ● Provide the following starter for
adding four present participle phrases. students to build from:
Teacher’s Note: This is definitely a higher-level move that is one of the
I am a sort of __________, so are we
most challenging on this slide deck—but it is also an example of how
all; so ___________— [list at least 3
sentence techniques can be combined together (a good point to make when
things with present participle phrases]
explaining).
#34 - Repetition of Participles to End a Sentence

from Brian Doyle’s “The Deceased”
I stand here now with the shovel thinking of the parents, proud of their progeny, but not bereft of their
spirited company, and now alone in their echoing nest, busying themselves with quotidian duty; and soon
this will be me, trying not to call our children every day, trying to celebrate their independence, trying
not to wallow in memory.
Technique Explanation: this is similar to the previous technique, but

this time there is no em dash and the participle phrases are repeated
(“trying” x3) that evolve from a specific action—not calling one’s
● Give students the following sentence
children—to a more positive connotation (“celebrate”) to a more
stem: This is me, [participle] _______,
negative one (“wallow”). The repetition of “trying” also emphasizes [participle] _______, [participle]
the effort itself being made by the narrator. _______.
● If you want, you can offer them
Teacher’s Note: the variation between the different phrases and how different words to choose from instead
they evolve is the nuance that really takes this from pure repetition to of just trying (ex: hoping, forgetting,
a deepening of meaning. fearing, etc.)
#35 - “There Are” → “There Is” Anaphora

from Brian Doyle’s “Tigers”
There are a lot of wires and tubes. There is a heart monitor running from his chest to a machine the size
of a dryer. There is a breathing tube planted in his nose. There is a blood pressure monitor attached to his
big toe. There is a drainage tube running from his chest to a clear plastic box on the end of his bed.
Technique Explanation: Doyle repeatedly uses “There is” to begin Potential Application Prompts (2):
each sentence following the opening “There are a lot of wires and
tubes.” By doing so, the anaphora structurally demonstrates ust how ● Picture a place that matters to you in your
head, and list out at least 5 specific
many wire and tubes there are, but the technique of using “There is”
details about it—then create a “There is”
also emphasizes precision, giving careful attention to each individual paragraph about that place.
component.
● Think of the students in the classroom
Teacher’s Note: this is a clean, accessible way to have students work currently. Without using names (and
on descriptive writing, especially if they can move from a brainstorm potentially using some imagination), write
list to full sentences like this—and then potentially even narrow it a “There is a student who _____”
paragraph with at least 5 sentences.
down in revision.
#36 - Repeat for Emphasis/Expansion within Em Dashes

from Brian Doyle’s “Dawn and Mary”
Dawn and Mary jumped, or leaped, or lunged toward the sound of bullets. Every fiber of their
bodies—bodies descended from millions of years of bodies that had leaped away from danger—
must have wanted to dive under the table. That’s what they’d been trained to do.
Technique Explanation: the added explanation within the em dash follows

the noun it is describing (“bodies”) and begins with that same noun Potential Application Prompts (2):
(“bodies”) for emphasis, including a repeat of that same word within the
● Provide students with the following two sentences
description. The technique places extra scrutiny on the word itself, which in
to choose from to choose a focus word (“bodies”
this case is purposeful in that it is showing how humans are naturally in the example) to begin an em dash with—then
inclined to veer away from danger rather than to leap into it, underscoring have them explain their choice.
the heroism of these two women. ● Samples:
○ The chaos of the hallways in the school
building was both thrilling and draining.
Teacher’s Note: starting with pre-provided sentences without the em dash ○ The drive to school in my father’s truck
and then having students decide which word to begin with and what they always felt like an eternity, no matter how
could add is a really helpful scaffold. fast he drove.
#37 - The Drastically-Unbalanced Semicolon

from Brian Doyle’s “100th Street”
After a few seconds one of the firemen nodded to everyone, and the other fireman made a slight
gesture of acknowledgement with his right hand, and the bartender set two beers on the bar, and
everyone sat down again, and everything went on as before; but not.
Technique Explanation: whereas semicolons are typically for balance

between the two parts of a sentence, in this case Doyle has an extensive list
of details via compound sentence 5x to begin, and then a two-word
● Think of your most interesting day of the
fragment in the latter half. This of course shifts the vast majority of the
past week, and list either five things you
weight to the front end and all the details for this concluding sentence of
did over the day or five things that
the essay, and then places a snapshot-like emphasis on the final two words happened in one experience during the
that signal how everything really is different. day.
● From there, trade sentences with
Teacher’s Note: It would be helpful to begin with the skill of the extended someone and have them write a fragment
compound sentence first—and then to discuss how to add the fragment ending for after the semicolon that is 5
post-semicolon ending as a class. words or less.
#38 - The Extra-Long Parenthetical within the Em Dashes

from Brian Doyle’s “Because It’s Hard”
I was in a monastery the other day and got to talking to a monk who, when I asked him why he was a monk—why he
volunteered for a job liable to loneliness, a commitment to an idea no one can ever prove or document, a task that entails
years of labor in the belief that somehow washing dishes and cutting grass and listening to pain and chanting in chapel
matters in the long scheme of things—said, because it’s hard.
Technique Explanation: This structural move disrupts the expected minor

addition to a sentence that an em dash parenthetical typically affords, Potential Application Prompt:
instead inverting to expand the parenthetical so much (in this case, by
listing) that it is easy to forget the original sentence…and that itself here is ● Use the following sentence frame to
the point, too, as the entire premise of the sentence overall is that the replicate this technique:
difficulty is the point, within the context of the essay. ○ The day before yesterday was
quite a day—[list out several things
Teacher’s Note: Of course this would be a skill to introduce post em dash that happened with at least 50
introduction, but I think it also would go well with a parallel structure words]—because ___________.
○ Note: you can use a different day,
lesson as far as listing—especially listing beyond single words but instead
if you want!
phrases.
#39 - Alternating Sentences/Stories…Until Collision

from Brian Doyle’s Mink River
The loose log waggles and shimmies its way out from among its brothers. Red Hugh curses the fecking milk cans.
The log truck lurches and bounces. Red Hugh curses the fecking road. The loose log wriggles and skids. Red
Hugh curses his fecking wife. The log truck hits a bump. [...] The loose log slams through the windshield of Red
Hugh’s truck and hits him in the chest so hard that…
Technique Explanation: This entire chapter from Mink River is Potential Application Prompt:
premised on two separate stories: the story of Red Hugh (beginning
all the way with his genealogical history) and the story of a Douglas ● On a Google Document, create a T-chart
and write a 3-4 sentence story on each
Fir tree (that eventually becomes a stray log that falls off the truck).
side about two different people/objects
Every other sentence alternates from one story to the other until they that will eventually collide (or meet one
literally collide. another).
● Once finished, color-code it (see above)
Teacher’s Note: You could show the class how this would look if the and then weave them into a single
stories were separated by paragraphs rather than by individual, paragraph—with the challenge being how
alternating sentences—what is gained from that clearer delineation, to write that final sentence that brings
them together.
and what is lost?
#40 - Compound Verb for Storytelling

from Brian Doyle’s “What Were Once Pebbles Are Now Cliffs”
Time stutters and reverses and it is always yesterday and today. Maybe the
greatest miracle is memory. Think about that this morning, quietly, as you watch
the world flitter and tremble and beam.
Technique Explanation: Doyle uses multiple sentences with

compound verbs here that each tell a story within themselves as a ● Give students several sample sentences with
structure: [1] “stutters and reverses” shows hesitation and nostalgia; only a singular verb and have them change
[2] “flitter and tremble and beam” is almost a Hero’s Journey” of them to include a compound verb (or even
multiple)—then have them partner with
verbs itself.
someone to reflect on the choice they made
and how it changed the meaning of the
Teacher’s Note: the specific choice of word for each verb is sentence overall.
especially important in this sentence structure that highlights the verb ● Example: think of the first part of the sample
above and how it would be different if it was
—so potentially looking at where this area can improve is the follow- just Time reverses and it is always yesterday
up/feedback focus and today.
That’s it for now!

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what is this project?

#1 - Colon → If ____ Semicolon → If ___

Technique Explanation: Gyasi uses both a colon and then a

#2 - Leap Across the Semicolon

Technique Explanation: In the first part of the sentence (before the

Technique Explanation: Especially in the final sentence, Conrad

#4 - The Acquiring (or even Cluttering) of Commas

#5 - [Rhetorical] Question? Answer: _______

Technique Explanation: rhetorical questions are a fantastic

#6 - List (First!) + Semicolon + Summation

Technique Explanation: Harbach in this sentence almost seems to

#7 - Dichotomy: “Only” the Passive and Active [Verbs]

He saw only those who were there to be saved, and

#8 - The Standalone List as a Sentence

Anything can be a shell, Reuven. Anything. Indifference,

#9 - The Single-Word Pivot: “No.”

Technique Explanation: this is a relatively- straightforward- Potential Application Prompt:

#10 - Accruing Participial Phrases

Technique Explanation: Potok in this instance takes a sentence that

#11 - Listing of “Not-This-But-That’s” via Semicolons

Technique Explanation: the anastrophe to begin (“fantasy it was”)

#12 - Who _____ + Who _____ + Who _____

Technique Explanation: the simple description of this is to take a

#13 - Becomes ___ Becomes ___ Becomes

God becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle

#14 - …Nor This Nor This Nor That

#15 - Compound Verb Repetition (No Commas)

Technique Explanation: though McCarthy’s writing is known for much

#16 - Parallelism Across Semicolon

#17 - Anaphora (complex) → Anaphora (simple)

We passed over in a seep of sorrow that would persist into

#18 - Em Dash—Some _____, Some _____

“That is how my life is going forward—some insult in my

#19 - Contrasting Definitions (+ Parallelism?)

Technique Explanation: The more straightforward technique Potential Application Prompt:

#20 - Reimagining of an Idiom/Popular Aphorism

the sentences (with technique highlighted)

Technique Explanation: Zevin takes a generic phrase, “an

● Give them one of the two sentence frames to

#21 - The Allusion Becomes The Verb

the sentence (with technique highlighted)

And my seven-year-old world humpty-dumptied, never to be put

Technique Explanation: the technique here is quite-straightforward in that

#22 - Tone Shift Via Unlikely Simile (Conceit)

#23 - Personification of Emotion/Idea

Technique Explanation: Emezi here takes the grief that Chika is

● Give the class a shared emotion/idea to

#24 - Universalizing Personification

Technique Explanation: the object being described here

#25 - Collection of Different Metaphors for a Single Thing

Technique Explanation: in the opening of the canonical chapter from this

#26 - “Half by ______, Half by ______”

Technique Explanation: with an eloquent turn of phrase here, Tan

● Have groups share out and create a list

#27 - “To Describe _____ Would Be To Write About _____”

● The next day, read through them on the

#28 - “To Have _____” → “Was to _____”

#29 - Going Precise + Going Broad in the Same Sentence

Technique Explanation: a masterful sentence on display here from Hamid,

#30 - “How ____” (Precise) + Comma + “How ____” (Broad)

#31- Back-To-Back-To-Back-To-Back Adjectives

#1 - Colon → If __ Semicolon → If _

#12 - Who ___ + Who _ + Who ___

#13 - Becomes _ Becomes _ Becomes

#18 - Em Dash—Some _, Some _

#26 - “Half by , Half by ”

#27 - “To Describe _ Would Be To Write About _”

#28 - “To Have _” → “Was to _”

#30 - “How ” (Precise) + Comma + “How ” (Broad)