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Sentence craft and academic register
Can do: Varies sentence structure deliberately and writes in an appropriate register without sounding stilted.
Why it matters
By high school, style carries marks. Overwritten thesaurus prose loses as many marks as flat prose.
What it looks like when it's wobbly
Either everything is simple and choppy, or it's stuffed with long words used slightly wrongly.
⏱️ Two-minute check
"Read this paragraph aloud. Does it sound like a person who knows what they're talking about?"
Solid looks like: Clear, varied, no words they couldn't define.
The full activity for this topic · 20 minutes
Three Sentence Shapes
- 1Teach three shapes: simple, one with a subordinate clause first, one with a colon or dash.
- 2Rewrite one paragraph using each shape at least once.
- 3Ban every word they can't define without looking it up.
- 4Read aloud and mark anything that sounds like it's trying too hard.
- 5Compare with a well-written published paragraph on a similar topic.
If it's too hard
Combine choppy sentences using one subordinate clause.
If it's too easy
Rewrite a paragraph in three registers — formal, plain, conversational — and say which fits the task.
Say this
"Do you actually know what that word means? If not, use the one you do know — it'll read better."