Of the six traits of writing, sentence fluency is often the most difficult to master. Varying sentence structures in order to make the words flow is something that takes practice and revision. Here are 4 ways to improve sentence fluency that you can include as strategies with your homeschool curriculum.
Read it aloud.
The very first thing to do before revising essays for sentence fluency is to read the piece out loud. Your children may want to read the piece to you, to themselves, or even record their reading to play back and examine. Remind them to pause at commas and end punctuation marks like periods, question marks, and exclamation marks. If the sentences are mostly short or incomplete, then it may sound choppy and abrupt. If the clauses tend to run-on, your child will be reading without a breath. If oral fluency or reading skills are a struggle for your child, you may want to start by reading their piece aloud to them, practicing the same techniques.
ABC the paragraphs.
This strategy will definitely help vary the sentence structure and starting words. Have your child circle the first letter of every sentence. If any letters repeat in a paragraph, have them change the starting word or phrase of the repetitive sentences. For example, if one sentence reads, “The best place to take a vacation is Disney World.” and another sentence reads, “The rides in the Magic Kingdom make me want to stay forever.”, the students may revise to say, “Disney World is the best place to take a vacation.” or “With out-of-this world rides, I could stay at the Magic Kingdom forever.”. For an added challenge, try to vary the first letter in every sentence in the essay.
Combine simple sentences to form compound sentences.
Teach your child to join two simple sentences with a coordinating conjunction to form compound sentences. Think of the acronym, FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). Join two sentences with a single subject and predicate with a comma then a “FANBOY” to create lengthier sentences. Do not do this for every single sentence. Short sentences intermingled with compound sentences will help with the flow. Consider the sentences, “Vacationing to the beach can be an amazing experience for a family.” and “Trips to the mountains fill our hearts with joy.” As a compound sentence, these sentences combine to read “Vacationing to the beach can be an amazing experience for a family, but trips to the mountains fill our hearts with joy.”
Use dependent clauses to start sentences.
Adding a dependent clause followed by a common in front of or behind an independent clause can make sentences stand out and vary. Dependent clauses have a subject and a predicate, but because of the addition of a subordinating conjunction, they cannot stand alone. An example is “Because there are so many places for families, Florida is our favorite vacation destination.” The dependent clause “Because there are so many places for families” gives additional information to the independent clause, “Florida is our favorite vacation destination.” while adding sentence variety.
Grab your free Sentence Fluency Worksheet by signing up for the newsletter.
Sentence fluency is a difficult trait to teach and revise. These 4 ways to improve sentence fluency in writing are perfect to help with the revision process. When writing a rough draft, encourage your children to write freely. They can then go back and use these techniques to revise for this important trait.