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I can use complete sentences to write an interesting description.

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Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2023), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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Key learning points

A complete sentence needs a subject and a verb
A subject is a person or thing doing the action and a verb is the word which describes this
A sentence fragment is grammatically incorrect because it does not include either a subject or a verb
Sentence fragments should be identified and corrected if they are found in your writing
Subjects and verbs need to be in agreement with each other, meaning the verb needs the correct ending

Common misconception

Students may use sentence fragments in their work

Showing exactly how sentence fragments obscure meaning and explaining why they should not be used

Keywords

Subject - the person or thing performing the verb
Verb - an action, to describe what someone or something does
Nightmarish - scary and haunting
Courageous - to be courageous, means to be brave
Hopeless - if you are hopeless, you do not believe things will get better

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Hello everybody, and welcome to your lesson on using accurate sentences to describe dystopian settings.

I'm Miss Sutherland, and I'll be guiding you through the lesson today.

Our learning outcome is to be able to use complete sentences to write an interesting dystopian description, and our key words for today are, subject, verb, nightmarish, courageous, and hopeless.

We'll learn a little bit about these words throughout the lesson.

We are going to start off by looking at complete sentences.

How do we write complete sentences? We have to make sure our sentences are complete when we write dystopian descriptions, because we want them to make sense, and be clear for the reader.

A complete sentence is made up of a subject and a verb.

The subject is the personal thing performing the verb.

In the sentence, \"She trudged home along the dusty streets,\" \"she\" is the subject, because she is the person performing the verb.

And the verb is an action word.

It tells us what someone does.

In that sentence, \"trudged\" is the verb.

\"She trudged home along the dusty streets.\" That is a complete sentence, because it contains a subject and a verb.

Answer this question.

A complete sentence must contain.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said a complete sentence must contain a subject and verb.

I now want you to identify the subjects and verbs in the complete sentences below.

\"Ash clouds permeated the sky.\" Number two.

\"A sunken woman trudged home along the dusty streets.\" Number three.

\"She wore frayed clothing, coated with grease and sweat.\" Number four, \"The bright light from a billboard exposed the dirt etched onto her cheeks.\" Pause the video, have a go.

Let's go through the answers.

In the sentence, \"Ash clouds permeated the sky,\" \"ash clouds\" is the subject.

They are doing the action in that sentence.

In the sentence, \"A sunken woman trudged home along the dusty streets,\" \"a sunken woman\" is the subject.

She is performing the action in that sentence.

In the sentence, \"She wore frayed clothing, coated with grease and sweat,\" \"she\" is the subject.

And in the sentence, \"Bright light from a billboard exposed the dirt etched on her cheeks,\" the \"bright light\" is the subject.

Now let's go through the verbs.

In the sentence one, \"permeated\" is the verb.

It's the action that the clouds are performing.

In sentence two, \"trudged\" is the verb.

It's the action that the woman is performing.

In the sentence number three, \"wore\" is the verb.

\"She wore\" is what the woman is doing.

And in sentence number four, \"exposed\" is the verb.

The bright light is performing the action of exposing the dirt.

Well done if you got those correct.

In a sentence, the subject and verb have to be in agreement.

If you are writing in the third person, and have a singular subject, you must also use a singular verb.

For example, in the sentence, \"she trudges along the dusty street,\" a singular subject has been used, \"she\".

That means a singular verb must also be used.

\"Trudges.\" \"She trudges along the dusty street.\" The subject and verb are in agreement there.

If you are writing in the third person, and have a plural subject, you must use a plural verb.

For example, \"They trudge along the dusty streets.\" \"They\" is a plural subject, and \"trudge\" is a plural verb.

Therefore, that sentence is in agreement.

Which sentence below does not follow the correct subject verb agreement? Pause the video.

Have a go.

Well done if you said, \"She sprint out of sight\" does not follow the correct subject verb agreement.

That is because \"she\" is a singular subject, but \"sprint\" is a plural verb.

It should say, \"She sprints out of sight.\" I now want you to change each verb in the sentences below, to ensure they agree with the subject.

Ensure you keep the verb in the present tense.

Sentence one.

\"The fog slither through the air, shrouding everything in its grasp.\" Number two.

\"The rain pound on the murky pavement.\" Number three.

\"Citizens quickly runs for cover.\" Number four.

\"The thunder threaten them with its roar.\" And number five.

\"They wonders when they will be safe again.\" Pause the video, and have a go at that task.

Let's go through some answers.

You should have changed sentence number one to, \"The fog slithers through the air, shrouding everything in its grasp.\" Number two, \"The rain pounds on the murky pavement.\" Number three, \"Citizens quickly run for cover.\" Notice how \"citizens\" is a plural subject, and therefore we need the plural verb, run, not runs.

Sentence number four, \"The thunder threatens them with its roar.\" And sentence number five, \"They wonder when they will be safe again.\" Well done on that task.

We are now going to be looking at sentence fragments.

What is a sentence fragment? A sentence fragment is not a complete sentence.

A sentence fragment is missing a subject or a verb.

For example, \"trudged home along the dusty streets\" is missing a subject, because we don't know who is trudging home along the dusty streets.

And, \"The girl,\" is missing a verb.

We don't know what the girl is doing.

Both of those examples were sentence fragments.

I now want you to think about, why should you avoid using sentence fragments in your writing? Pause the video.

Have a think.

Now, you should avoid using sentence fragments because they may confuse the reader, as the reader may not be able to understand what you were trying to say.

And this prevents you from achieving a clear and sophisticated dystopian description.

Well done if you mention that.

What is a sentence fragment? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said a sentence fragment is a sentence that's missing a subject or a verb.

\"Scanned the surroundings for any threat.\" This sentence fragment is missing.

Pause the video and complete that sentence.

Well done if you said it's missing a subject.

In, \"Scanned the surroundings for any threat,\" we don't know who is doing the scanning.

Therefore, that sentence is missing a subject.

Decide whether each sentence below is a sentence fragment or complete sentence.

Number one, \"A cold November morning.\" Number two, \"To work in the dismal rain.\" Number three, \"They wore the same navy aprons, with a red crest etched into the corner.\" Number four, \"Looked down at their devices with vacant expressions.\" Number five, \"Today's rule would be revealed soon.\" Remember, a sentence fragment is missing either a subject or a verb.

Pause the video and have a go at that task.

Let's go through some answers.

\"A cold November morning,\" is a fragment.

It's missing a verb.

Sentence number two is also a fragment.

Sentence number three is complete.

It has both a subject and verb.

Sentence number four is a fragment.

It's missing a subject.

And sentence number five is complete.

Well done.

Now, can you rewrite each fragment, so that it contains a subject and verb? Pause the video and have a go at that task.

Here's what you could have written.

Number one, \"It was a cold November morning.\" Number two, \"Hundreds of people made their way to work in the dismal rain.\" Number three, \"They looked down at their devices with vacant expressions.\" Great job on that task, everybody.

The last part of our lesson is writing complete dystopian sentences.

How do we make sure our complete sentences fit within the dystopian genre? Let's take a look.

We're going to read both of these sentences and discuss how they're different.

\"She walked through the nightmarish city,\" and, \"She trudged through the nightmarish city.\" How are these two sentences different? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done if you noticed that the verb is different in each sentence.

So which sentence fits better in a dystopian world, and why? Pause the video.

Have a think.

We could say that the verb \"trudged\" fits better in a dystopian world, as it has connotations of exhaustion, linking to the dystopian convention of suffering.

Whereas the verb \"walked\" is neutral.

Therefore, we might prefer sentence number two, and we say it fits better in the dystopian genre.

So, if you want to write complete sentences that fit in the dystopian genre, think carefully about your verb choice, because your verbs can make a huge difference on your sentences, as we've seen in those two examples.

Which complete sentence below fits the dystopian genre best? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done if you said, \"She scanned her surroundings.\" Let's have a think about why that fits the dystopian genre best.

Why is \"scanned\" a better dystopian verb than \"gazed\" or \"looked\"? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said it's because \"scanned\" links to analysing your surroundings, and being cautious, because you feel scared.

And that fits the dystopian genre, because as we know, citizens are often fearful.

Now, identify and amend the verb in each sentence so that it better fits a dystopian setting, because right now, all the verbs in these sentences are neutral.

Let's take a look.

\"Sally ate the measly portion of food.\" \"Cristal spoke to her neighbour about a plot to find out the truth.\" And, \"The Power Police watched all citizens 24 hours a day.\" Pause the video and have a go at identifying and amending the verb to fit a gloomy setting, like a dystopia.

Pause the video, have a go.

So, the verb in the first sentence is \"ate\".

The verb in the second sentence is \"spoke.\" And in the third, the verb is \"watched.\" Well done if you've got those correct.

Now, how could we change those verbs to better fit dystopia? Sentence number one could become, \"Sally savoured the measly portion of food.\" Savoured fits the dystopian genre quite well, because it implies that Sally doesn't get that much food, and is therefore appreciating every single mouthful.

Sentence number two could become, \"Cristal whispered to her neighbour about a plot to find out the truth.\" \"Whispered\" fits the dystopian genre, because it suggests that Cristal might be fearful of other people hearing what she's saying.

Finally, \"The Power Police tracked all citizens 24 hours a day.\" That might be a better choice for the dystopian genre, because it implies that the people have no freedom, as they're constantly being monitored.

Well done if you had any other verbs that fit the dystopian genre well.

It's now time to create a paragraph describing a dystopian setting.

So rewrite the sentence fragments below in order to do so.

You should also aim to add your own sentences throughout the paragraph, where you can.

\"Five o'clock in the morning, and still pitch black outside.

Rang inside a small room.

Outside into the nightmarish town.

The darkness.

The vile wind.

The secret path.

If she was not careful.\" Pause the video, and have a go at that task.

Let's go through what you might have written.

\"It was five o'clock in the morning, and still pitch black outside.

A shrill alarm rang inside a small room.

Arya courageously snuck outside, into the nightmarish town.

The darkness suffocated her vision.

The vile wind nipped her chapped skin.

She finally located and carefully examined the secret path.

The abundant cameras would detect her, if she was not careful.\" Every sentence in that paragraph is complete, and we really made an effort to try and match that paragraph to the dystopian genre.

Great job on that task, everybody.

I now want you to self-assess.

And here's how you're going to do that.

First of all, highlight all of the subjects in your work in one colour, and highlight all of the verbs in another colour.

Next, check whether each sentence has both a subject and verb.

Check whether all of your subjects and verbs are in agreement.

And lastly, give yourself a tick where you have chosen a verb that matches the dystopian genre.

That's really impressive.

Pause the video and self-assess.

Brilliant work today, everybody.

Here's what we've learned.

A complete sentence must contain a subject and verb.

Your subject and verb must be in agreement.

An incomplete sentence is called a sentence fragment, and you should avoid using sentence fragments.

Varying verb choice can help us make complete sentences that match the dystopian genre.

I've loved learning with you today, and I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson.

Thank you.

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