Improve Simple Sentences and Spot Mistakes

When we evaluate, we look at our writing and we think about what looks good.

Then we look at it again and think - what can we improve?

We need to read very carefully when we evaluate, check our punctuation, spelling and focus on improving our language.

Evaluating can include:

> Adding in more exciting adjectives

> Adding adverbs to describe how something is happening

> Subordination - extending, linking and improving our sentences using words like when, because and if.

Evaluating our writing helps us to make it more interesting and it helps our imaginations build a better picture.

Let’s read the sentence below and evaluate it together.

The dog barked when it saw the postman.

What is good about this sentence? They have used a subordinating conjunction ‘when’ to join two shorter clauses together.

What could we improve?

We could add more detail and this is often the best way to make our writing more interesting.

So what can we add detail to?

We have the subjects: the dog and the postman that we could add more description to.

Was it a little, brown dog? Or a giant, spotty dog?

What was the postman like? Was he a smiley, friendly postman? Or a grumpy, mean postman?

Let’s try : The little, brown dog barked at the friendly, red-faced postman.

What do you think? Better already!

In this activity, we will look at some sentences and see if we can improve them and pick the best words to use.

Let's use our 'evaluating eyes' to look for ways we can improve things!

Good luck.