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I have nor reference information. But my personal experience with students,
especially when they move from personal narraitive writing to academic
scientific writing, sentence combining helps a lot> I remember somebody says
that academic discourse is not natural, it is learned, not acquired.
Sentence combing helps thewriter to see the complexity of idea relations.


>From: Russ Hunt <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: CASLL/Inkshed <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Sentence combining as test item?
>Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 14:48:38 AST4ADT
>
>I recently recieved a question from a teacher friend here in New
>Brunswick (Susan MacDonald, for those who might remember her from
>previous Inkshed meetings).  She's concerned about the provincial
>grade 11 English test. The province is proposing a new item for the
>test.  This is part of it:
>
>                 ----------------
>Student instructions:
>
>Sentence Combining
>
>Combine each group of sentences into one effective sentence.
>
>    a. All of the original ideas must be included in each newly
>    constructed sentence.
>    b. Do not add any new ideas.
>    c. Your score will be based on effective combination of ideas,
>    correct spelling and punctuation.
>    d. If you have difficulty with a particular group of sentences,
>    go on to other sentences and come back to the difficult group when
>    you have time.
>
>Sample item D
>
>    1. Ian Rankin is one of the most famous writers of the twentieth
>        century.
>    2. Rankin was born in Edinburgh.
>    3. Rankin has written six detective novels.
>    4. One of these novels won the prestigious "Golden Dagger
>         Award".
>    5. The winning novel is titled The Hidden Highway.
>
>Sample item F
>
>    1. Freud and Jung "discovered" the unconscious in the nineteenth
>        century.
>    2. Each had a very different view of this mental space.
>    3. For Freud the unconscious was a savage place which harboured
>        humanity's primitive instincts.
>    4. For Jung the unconscious was a place which contained
>        humanity's collective wisdom.
>
>                 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>
>She asked me what I thought about it, and whether I knew of research
>bearing on issues of current views of sentence combining, whether
>testing sentence combining is a useful strategy, and whether the
>likely consequence of including such an item -- that teachers would
>be more likely to include formal sentence combining instruction in
>their classrooms -- was one to be desired.  (My own immediate
>question is why in Heaven's name anyone would attempt to construct
>one Frankenstein sentence which included all this stuff, but let that
>pass.  You can also let pass my ignorance about who Ian Rankin, "one
>of the most famous writers of the twentieth century" is, or what Doug
>Vipond pointed out, that it's got Jung in the wrong century.  Unless
>you think someone should care at least distantly about what they're
>writing.)
>
>I'd be grateful for any thoughts or (especially) references on this,
>and I'll pass them on to her.
>
>                                   -- Russ
>                                 __|~_
>Russell A. Hunt            __|~_)_ __)_|~_    Professor of English
>St. Thomas University      )_ __)_|_)__ __)  PHONE: (506) 452-0424
>Fredericton, New Brunswick   |  )____) |       FAX: (506) 450-9615
>E3B 5G3   CANADA          ___|____|____|____/    [log in to unmask]
>                           \                /
>       ~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.StThomasU.ca/~hunt/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>                 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>   To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
>    [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
>        write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
>
>    For the list archives and information about the organization,
>the annual conference, and publications, go to the Inkshed Web site at
>          http://www.StThomasU.ca/inkshed/
>                  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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                -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
  To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
   [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
       write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]

   For the list archives and information about the organization,
the annual conference, and publications, go to the Inkshed Web site at
         http://www.StThomasU.ca/inkshed/
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