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English III AP/IB: Class Opener Packet
Sentence Structures—Simple Sentences
At the beginning of every class, look at the board, then immediately begin working on the
specified class opener assignment. I will take up this packet for a grade.
1. Simple sentence
A sentence with a single independent clause (may have long phrases within it). Though it
can contain a compound subject or a compound verb, it cannot have more than one
independent clause.
Rhetorical effects:
 A string of short, simple sentences show observations without creating order.
 When used after a string of longer sentences, they also highlight certain important things
against a background of other things.
Examples:
o “Many other advantages might be enumerated.” Swift, “A Modest Proposal”
Here, the speaker includes this short sentence in the midst of much longer ones illustrating the advantages
of using Irish children for food. The simple sentence highlights the irony.
Assignment: Write three simple sentences in a row about this classroom.
Words of the day – Vulgar & Discourse
2. Appositive phrase
A phrase (no subject or verb) that renames a noun, located either at the opening of a sentence
before noun, or directly after noun.
Punctuation Rules: always separated from the sentence with a comma or commas.
Examples:
--Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a farce ridiculing all stereotypes of medieval culture,
provides the audience many moments of laughter.
--A lying extortionist, the Summoner might be considered the most corrupt character in
The Canterbury Tales.
Assignment: Imitate one of these two examples below. WoD – Pedantic & Colloquial
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3. Rhetorical Thesis (see board) WoD – Hamper & Noxious
4. Repeat-word modifier (this is not a literary term—Degen made it up)
End the original sentence with a comma, repeat a key word, and then continue elaboration.
Example:
As the Houston Rockets’ Yao Ming looks around at his fellow All-Stars this weekend in
Atlanta, he will see players with championship rings, players averaging double figures in
both points and rebounds, players with hip sneaker commercials, players with mad hops,
mad tops, and tattoos.
Jack MCCallum “Sky Rocket” Sports Illustrated
Assignment: Imitate the sentence above in the space below. WoD – Pompous & Linguistic
5. Analysis modifier (Not a literary term; Degen made it up)
End the original sentence with a comma, choose a noun that emphasizes details you have just
cited, and then continue the analysis.
Examples:
 “The storm of sound beat at them, an incantation of hatred.” Golding, Lord of the Flies
The narrator emphasizes the power of the boys’ yelling in this scene, right before Piggy dies, with a simple
sentence and an appositive phrase.
 “Bob Cratchitt’s office fire is smaller than Scrooge’s, an ironic detail considering Bob’s
heart is warmer than his employer’s.”
Assignment: Imitate one of the two examples above. WoD – Strident & Conciliatory
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6. Creative Writing:
Finish this dialogue:
“Don’t you wish all these lazy immigrants would either learn to speak English or get the hell out?” he
asked, his voice angry.
“Actually, I’m an immigrant,” I said, catching him off guard.
WoD – Nuance & Nullify
7. Present participial phrase
Modifies a noun or pronoun, contains a present participle (ing verb) and any complements or
modifiers, located directly before or after word it modifies.
Punctuation rules: Follows noun it modifies, use commas at start and end of the phrase.
Examples:
 “Scrooge ends the conversation abruptly, indicating that since his nephew has expressed
no financial motives, there exists no other reason to hold a conversation with him.
 The chief led then, trotting steadily, exulting in his achievement.
Assignment: Imitate one of the two examples above. WoD – Capricious & Concise
8. Past participial phrase
Modifies a noun or pronoun, contains a present participle (ed verb) and any complements or
modifiers, located directly before or after word it modifies.
Punctuation rules: Follows noun it modifies, use commas at start and end of the phrase.
Example:
Strauss’s ideas about ideas took the usual path, picked and poked and punched, mutating
here, understood selectively there.
Assignment: Imitate the example above. WoD – Eloquent & Lyrical
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9. Rhetorical Thesis (see board) WoD – Replete & Reprehensible
10. Absolute phrase
Contains a noun followed by a present or past participial (sometimes omitted in the case of
implied being) and located at the opening or closing of the sentence.
Punctuation rules: separate it from the sentence with a comma.
Examples:
 Beowulf defeats Grendel with his bare hands, his strength invincible. (implied being)
 A young Mexican woman, softened and dispirited by recent childbirth, dressed in the
elegant, perpetual mourning of her caste, came up slowly, leaning on the arm of the Indian
nurse who carried her baby, his long embroidered robe streaming over her arm almost to
the ground.
--Katharine Ann Porter Ship of Fools
Assignment: Imitate one of the examples above. WoD – Inexorably & Insidious
11. Gerund phrase
Acts as a noun—as subject, direct object, indirect object, predicate nominative, object of
preposition, or appositive.
Punctuation rules: No comma unless it is a nonessential appositive.
Examples:
 Irving Kristol, an early Straussian, advised Reagan and Rumsfeld and their staffs of the
need to stop coddling hungry children, educating the poor, and helping the aged, the
infirm, victims of prejudice (direct object).
 The teacher offered replacing the test grade with another project (direct object).
Assignment: Imitate one of the examples above. WoD – Motif & Satirical
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12. Creative Writing (see board) WoD – Blatant & Plausible
13. Review phrases with simple sentences
Assignment:
Imitate and identify the phrases in the sentence below:
Since Straussians revel in the difficulty of the master’s work, they attract very bright students,
many of whom will remain in the academy, producing other Straussian scholars, writers,
activities, and members of government at every level, a cadre that will soon begin to think of
itself as a class, that class for which Plato could find no better name than gold.
WoD – Feigned & Ambivalent
14. Review phrases with simple sentences
Assignment:
Imitate and identify the phrases in the sentence below:
I remember the auction, remember the sagging face of the widow whose home was being sold,
remember my father telling her he would prize that walnut, remember its brown skin, wrinkled
like her tragic face.
WoD – Effusive & Exquisite
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