Persuasive Writing: Sentence Structure

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Persuasive writing is writing used to convince someone to agree with your point of view or act upon something.

No matter what type of writing you are doing, it is essential to write complete sentences and avoid writing sentence fragments or run-on sentences.

Take out a piece of paper and pencil. As you watch the video below, take notes on what a fragment and run-on sentence are and how to fix them.

• Did you find out what a sentence fragment is?

If you said that it is not a complete sentence because it is missing the naming part (subject) or the telling part (verb), then you are correct!

A sentence fragment does not make a complete thought — it leaves part of the information out of the sentence.

Look at the following sentences and see if you can guess what is missing.

Remember, it is essential to write complete sentences so your audience does not get confused by the holes left from the information that you did not give them.

• When you start writing, do you tend to write on and on without using any punctuation marks?

Many young people do this, which is easy to fix. When you do your revisions for a piece, look for run-on sentences. Ensure your paragraphs are not just one long sentence without punctuation marks.

Read your paragraph aloud and listen for when the thought is complete. It should have a subject and a verb and make a complete thought.

Look at the paragraph below. Read it out loud to yourself to see if you can decide where end punctuation and new capital letters should go.

A long time ago, a princess lived in a faraway land this princess was lovely and kind she was never rude or mean to anyone, even if they were rude. One day, a little boy approached the princess and asked, “Why are you so nice to everyone?” The princess replied, “Because that is how I want to be treated" the little boy thought about that for a while and said, “I want to do that, too.” The princess smiled at him, and he went on his way.

• Could you pick out places to add punctuation marks?

Look at the corrected paragraph and find the corrections.

A long time ago, a princess lived in a faraway land. This princess was lovely and kind. She was never rude or mean to anyone, even if they were rude. One day, a little boy approached the princess and asked, “Why are you so nice to everyone?” The princess replied, “Because that is how I want to be treated." The little boy thought about that for a while and said, “I want to do that, too.” The princess smiled at him, and he went on his way.

There are other ways to fix run-on sentences, such as inserting conjunction, colon, or semi-colon. Before moving on to the next section, say out loud what a sentence fragment is and how to fix a run-on sentence.

Now, move to the Got It? section to practice fixing sentence fragments and run-on sentences.