Sentence combining is not writing but a silly academic exercise that measures
the compliance of the students we ask to do things like this. This exercise
trivializes writing. I have little doubt that this exercise would baffle (and
repel) many expert writers. Writers don't do things like this.
We need to provoke--and allow--our students to do what writers do: that is to
make a range of difficult decisions about the words and sentences and various
patternings that will best express their meanings in voices appropriate to
them.
Sentences, combined and uncombined, work they express meaning. Exercises like
this encourage students to fake, not make, meaning. Or, they push meaning right
off the agenda. Exercises like this also suggest that longer sentences are
better than shorter sentences.
Remind your evaluation consultants that some of the best writers of the last
fifty years average less than ten works per sentence. These writers missed out
on the combining exercise.
Does that help?
Guy Allen
Coordinator, Professional Writing
University of Toronto
hermanmacdonald wrote:
> Actually, I do need more said. I can't change the minds of evaulation
> consultants by telling them they are using an old test item. What I need is
> strong arguments as to why this test item may not be a valid or reliable
> tool to assess language skills.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Andrea Abernethy Lunsford" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2000 6:53 PM
> Subject: Re: Sentence combining as test item?
>
> > good grief -- New Brunswick has now got a test that is only 25 years
> old --
> > that's probably the best that can be said about this..... Andrea
> >
> > At 02:48 PM 8/12/2000 +0000, you wrote:
> > >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/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > >
> > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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> > > [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
> > > write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
> > >
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> > >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/
> > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> >
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> 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/
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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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