The sentences in this paragraph are bracketed to signal coherence. Explain why the brackets are where they are.
{ For several years, my husband fought to
persuade the Mexican government not to build the world’s largest saltworks in
San Ignacio Lagoon. The Mexican
government was in partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation. San Ignacio Lagoon is a bay in southern Baja
where gray whales come each year. The
whales breed and calve and nurse their young.
This was an argument he ultimately won. } { Each year, we visited the lagoon. There, the gray whales swim up to the little dories. The dories are called pangas. } { The mothers push their babies up to
the pangas. They let you touch
them and pat them. Sometimes they even
let you put your arm in their mouths and scratch their hairy, smelly
tongues. } { We slept in tents and listened to them at night. }
Compare the “smooth” paragraph below with the “choppy” version above. Identify words that were added, moved, or changed to create correct clause-combining grammar. Identify clause-combining strategies by their technical names.
For
several years, my husband fought to persuade the Mexican government, which was
in partnership with Mitsubishi Corp., not to build the world’s largest
saltworks in San Ignacio Lagoon, a bay in southern Baja where gray whales come
each year to breed and calve and nurse their young (an argument he ultimately
won). Each year, we visited the lagoon
where the gray whales swim up to the little dories, called pangas. The mothers push their babies up to the pangas
and let you touch them, pat them, sometimes even put your arm in their mouths
and scratch their hairy, smelly tongues.
We slept in tents and listened to them at night.
Some short, choppy
sentences need to be combined. Put
brackets where sentences should be combined.
Hint: the best solution involves five pairs of brackets. Not every sentence needs to be bracketed
with another sentence.
I arrive at the plant the following Tuesday. I am ready for work. The
plant is massive. Its exterior is put together much like the Job Center—quickly,
cheaply, and piece by piece. At 3 p.m.
sharp, Javier gathers up the new recruits.
He is my orientation leader. He
escorts us into a small classroom. The
classroom contains a prominently displayed sign. "Democracies depend on the political participation of its
citizens, but not in the workplace." It is written in both English and Spanish. The message is clear in any language.
Find (a) one place where
a comma must be changed to a semicolon, (b) one place where and
must be inserted after a comma, (c) one sentence where of the and
who can be added to combine sentences, (c) one sentence where who
and did so because can be added to combine sentences, and (d)
one comma that must be deleted.
My co-workers on Saw Lines 1 and 2, are an interesting and diverse
bunch. _____ 20 or so workers _____ keep the lines running, two (excluding
myself) are white Americans. Most white workers left area poultry plants during
the region's economic boom of the 1990s, those who remain tend to fall into two
categories. An older group has been
working at Tyson for more than 20 years, they have found a niche and hang on to
the benefits that seniority bestows. A few white workers _____ started at Tyson
more recently _____ poultry is one of their few options.