Informative Answers:
The Paradox
The major difference between speaking and writing is that whereas we speak while we are thinking; when we write, we think about and plan our grammatical sentence construction.
In the first lesson at KingsCalendar on improving Oral English, it was said that an informative answer is one that gives more information than was specifically requested in a question.
In Grammar however, and informative answer is really just a compound-complex sentence.
In order to give really informative answers, one must be able to construct grammatically correct sentences.
In the "Text Box" opposite, a Compound-Complex sentence is described as one in which there are 2 or more independent clauses and 1 or more dependent clauses.
If you had to introduce yourself and were told to pack as much information into 4 or 5 sentences as possible, your first sentence might look like this:
My name is ____ and I am a 21 year old Sophomore English Major studying at _____________ university.
Here you have answered 5 questions:
"My name is Bill" is a simple sentence and in the 'introduction example' above, it is an independent clause.
"I am a 21 year old Sophomore English Major" is a simple sentence and in the 'introduction example' above, it is an independent clause.
"studying at ______ university" is a dependent clause.
So the 'introduction example' sentence provided above has 2 independent clauses and one dependent clause. It is a Compound-Complex sentence. With a little bit of work, you can even extend the sentence to include more information.
So Remember:
The art of using informative answers, is just the art of constructing grammatically correct Compound-Complex Sentences.
| Text BoxByron Bay at Dawn - N.S.W - East Coast Australia  |
Lesson 2: Speaking and Writing
Subpages (1):
Planning to Write an Essay, Speech or Thesis
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