Download these are exactly what you do to a sentence when you add on a free

Well, the free part means it moves around and the modifier part means it modifies something.
That tells me nothing!
Free modifiers are words and phrases the author tacks
on to a sentence to make the sentence better.
Okay. Free means you can tack on the modifier wherever you want to - at the beginning and end of a
sentence are common. You can even push apart a sentence and stick in the modifier within the
sentence itself.
revise
…these are exactly what you do to a sentence when you add
on a free modifier!
Look at these synonyms for modifiers: adapt, adjust, amend, transform,
Here is an example, just to get you started:
"Instantly the table was brilliant with light, and the cone of the shade threw its brightness
straight downward, leaving the corners of the bunk house still in dusk."
John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
http://greatsentences.blogspot.com/2007/06/compound-complex.html
Let’s look at openers today. Openers are a type of free modifier.
Here’s the thing to remember with ALL types of free modifiers. The writer tacks them onto
(or into) a sentence. The sentence still exists without the modifier! Openers are always followed
by a comma. Where to put the comma? After the opener / before the complete sentence begins!
Each of the examples shows how we can take 2 boring sentences with boring “be” verbs, and
jazz them up.
She was angry. She glared at her boyfriend.
Because she was angry, she glared at her boyfriend.
Her eyes were squinting as she glared angrily at her boyfriend.
Eyes squinting, she glared angrily at her boyfriend.
She was furious; she glared at her boyfriend.
Furious, she glared at her boyfriend.
She was unhappy and upset. She glared at her boyfriend.
Unhappy and upset, she glared at her boyfriend.
She glared at her boyfriend because he was looking at another girl.
While he was looking at another girl, she glared at her boyfriend.
She glared at her boyfriend as she was sitting in the passenger seat.
Sitting in the passenger seat, she glared at her boyfriend.
Appositives are very common type of free modifier, but because they have this fancy word,
we think they are hard to figure out. They’re
not hard!
Appositives are nouns or noun phrases placed next to another word in the sentence to enhance it
and give it more meaning.
These examples will help you understand appositives.
Lou Epstein, the oldest, shortest, and baldest of the three Epstein brothers, barely
looked up from the cash register when Alfred entered the store.
Robert Lipsyte, The Contender
“Mom and Dad rushed in, side by side for a change, happy that I was not dead.”
Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls P. 9
“O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, show us the threat.”
Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian P. 59
http://www.greatsentences.blogspot.com/p/parts-of-sentences_28.html
Get it? Appositives are another way to combine 2 sentences. But it could be that the author wrote
a sentence, such as Lou Epstein barely looked up from the cash register when Alfred entered the
store, and decided to move apart the sentence to add some info or just jazz up his sentence. The
same old subject + verb + prepositional phrase + adverbial phrase gets BORING!
Lou Epstein
looked up
from the cash register
when Alfred
entered the store.
How do YOU write appositives? After you Throw Up, you go back and STAR revise.
The Add part in STAR means you look for boring sentences and combine them OR you
look at ways you can add free modifiers. This is the art of writing. This is why it takes a
great author a long time to write a book. These writers spend a lot of time just sitting
there, staring at their computers, wondering how to improve one sentence.
That
can
take
all
day!
Closers are a very common type of free modifier. I’m sure by now you
can figure out what they do! They are tacked onto a complete sentence,
preceded by a comma. Just like that sentence. I just wrote a closer! See,
we do them all the time .
Here’s an example:
He sat by the windows, hunched down in a rocking chair, scowling,
waiting.
(Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird)
Instead of writing:
“Jem sat by the windows. He was hunched down in a rocking chair,
scowling, waiting,” Harper Lee wrote a stark and beautiful sentence.
She used fewer words and had no boring “be” verbs – remember those?
Am, is, are, was, & were. Those are boring! Using free modifiers and
smashing sentences can often eliminate all or all but one “be” verb.
Anytime you can get rid of a Boring “be” verb is a good time!
What are these? Less common than openers, closers, and appositives,
these free modifiers take some thoughtfulness by the writer. You
probably won’t write them when you’re Throwing Up. Instead, during
STAR revision, you will Add them – sparingly. You probably wouldn’t
have Adjectives out of order more than 2 times in an essay. But when
you add them, you get the attention of your reader!
What do they look like?
Plain sentence: A beautiful girl with green eyes was sitting alone in the
coffee shop. A chair was empty beside her, waiting.
Revised with this type of free modifier :
A girl, beautiful, with green eyes, sat alone in the coffee shop, an empty
chair beside her, waiting. (No “be” verbs in this sentence! It took me 10
minutes to write this…rearranging, deleting, starting over, deleting…
they aren’t easy to write.)
Or
A beautiful green-eyed girl sat alone in the coffee shop; a chair sat
beside her, empty, waiting. (No “be” verbs in this sentence!)
What do adjectives-out-of-order do to the reader? They Force her or
him to slow down and take notice.
Absolutes are a fabulous way to get rid of Boring
“be” verbs. His arms were folded…His scar was still
prickling…His mind was full by smashing two
sentences together!
Absolutely our last free modifier!
Jerry Stephen, Avon HS football player and class of 2012, was a master
of absolutes. You can be, too!
Again, looking at examples will help you understand this free modifier
(Notice the commas surrounding absolutes & absolute phrases.)
Radley had been leaning against the wall when I came into the room,
his arms folded across his chest.
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
"He looked down at his handiwork for a few more seconds, then
walked away, his scar still prickling a little, and his mind full of
those things that had come to him in the grave, ideas that had taken
shape in the darkness, ideas both fascinating and terrible."
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling, p. 481
Absolutes = modifiers made by combining:
noun + participle
OR
noun + adjective
arms folded = noun + past participle
scar prickling = noun + participle
mind full = noun + adjective
Here are other examples:
Teeth chattering, we waited for hours in the bitter cold.
Sails flapping, the boat tugged at its mooring.
The participle may be expanded into a participle phrase -Sails flapping in the brisk morning breeze, the boat tugged at its mooring.
1). Noun and adverb phrase - Ram sat back comfortable, feet up on the desk.
2). Noun and adjective - Muscles taut, he hefted the barbells to his chest.
3). Noun and adjective phrase - She waved to the crowd, her face radiant with triumph.
4). Noun and adverb - Shoulders hunched, Ronaldo zigzagged past the linebacker.
We can use various absolute phrases in succession - Hair golden, eyes blue, body slender and
tanned, he personified the California look.
Note - We can put an absolute phrase at the beginning of a sentence or at the end, setting it off
with a comma.
We can also put an absolute phrase in the middle.
e.g - The speaker, his voice trembling with rage, denounced the hecklers. (Note the pair of
commas.)
After you have viewed all 6 videos, it is time to take this quiz.
Turn this into Mrs. Handlon when you are finished.
1. What are three purposes of free modifiers?
Enhance a sentence, make a sentence better, add information, jazz up
a sentence, combine two sentences, get rid of “be” verbs.
2. Free modifiers that open a sentence are followed by a ______________.
Comma
3. Free modifiers that come in the middle of a sentence are surrounded
by ________________.
Commas
4. Free modifiers that close a sentence are preceded by a _______________.
Comma
5. List 3 be verbs:
Am, is, are, was, were, be
6. What is “smashing sentences”?
Putting/combing/ smashing two sentences together.
7. Explain what appositives are.
Appositives are nouns or noun phrases placed next to another word in the
sentence to enhance it and give it more meaning.
8. Write adjectives out of order to jazz up this boring sentence:
"My father is trying to decide which of his eight children he will take with him to the
county fair."
9. List 3 synonyms for modify and explain how each serves to make writing
better. You have to think about each of the synonyms and their subtle
meanings.
10. Write a sentence with an absolute:
 Open Microsoft Word. Either open a new document or an existing document.
 2
Click the location in the Word document where you would like to embed the PowerPoint
file.
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 3
Select "Object" from the "Insert" menu.
 4
Click "Create New" or "Create From File" to insert your object. Create New allows you to
create a new presentation; click "Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation" to create a new
presentation for your Word report. Create From File allows you to browse for an existing
PowerPoint presentation. Either way, you have the option to display the presentation as an
icon or link instead of the full presentation.
 5
Click "OK" once you’ve chosen the PowerPoint presentation to embed in your Word
document.
 6
Alter the size of the PowerPoint object to better fit the Word document.
Read more: How to Embed PowerPoint Files into Word | eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/how_4500588_embed-powerpoint-files-word.html#ixzz1ylQzwHYb