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The 1986 Study

Record Number: W4N02

Level Three: Add Clauses

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     Subordinate clauses are in brackets [ ]. / represents the vertical line at the end of a main clause.  The font size of words aleady analyzed has been decreased. The color codes for adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases have been deleted because too many colors seemed distracting. Words which remain to be analyzed are still in 14-point black

     My family has seven people {in it}. / First my dad Note # 1

then my mom then my oldest sister Cyndee and then me and 

Crystal, Tara, and Amanda / they're my youngest sisters. /

My dad is 30 years old and is a chef. / My mom is 28 and

doesn't work. / My oldest sister is 12 / she's {in 7th grade} /

she's a brat. /I'm 9 / and I'm {in the 4th grade}. / My young

sister is 7 and {in 2nd grade} / My other young sister is 2. / And

the other is 3 months old. / Eddie, my dad, Tara, Mom 

Crystal, and amanda have brown hair. / Me and Cyndee

have blond hair. / My, Cyndee, Crystal, and mom have

brown eyes. / Eddi, Tara, and Amanda have blue eyes. /

     I live {in a brick hous} {on fox Dr.} / There are three rooms 

living room, kitchen, and bathroom. / There are four

bedrooms. / I share a bedroom {with my sister} Cyndee. / I

have a basement {with a workshop laundry room and famly room}. /

I have a back yard {with a hammock and clothes line and an ugly 

evergreen bush}. /And {in my front yard} I have some flowers

and bushes. / My house has 13 windows and 3 doors.

Only one bathroom (DO?) / and that's bad! /

     The worst day{in my life }was [Adv to "was" Note  when I was

tired] and [Adv to "was" we had to walk all day {at the zoo}].

We saw the Monkeys, Zebras, prarie dogs, lions, tigers, 

reptiles, birds, and seals. / Then we ate pizza / and I saw

elephant, giraffe. / I was eight / and I didn't like going {to 

the zoo}. / and I got to see the baby hippos / and I don't like

im. / We also got to ride the metro / and it really went fast. /

It made a stop every 12 secounds / and more and more and more 

and more people got on / and I kept on falling down, [Adv to

"kept falling" Because I had to stand [Adv to "had to stand" 

because there was too many people {on the metro}.]] /
 

Notes

1. I haven't been able to go back and find it, but Hunt, O'Donnell, or Loban notes the tendency of young writers to make "lists" (such as this one). I am leaving this list of names unanalyzed because I want to consider them, in Level Five, as appositives, even though, in the overall statistical count, only "Cyndee" is counted as an appositive. (The others are considered as either subjects or complements in a fragment.)
     If I were working with fourth graders, I might simply ignore the problem in punctuation, or I might suggest "First there is my dad, then my mom, ..." Another option would be to suggest a dash ("in it -- first my dad . . . .") I might even go so far as to tell the student(s) that the dash creates an appositive, but I would, under no circumstances, expect fourth graders consciously to master the concept.
 
 

Progress:
Total Words = 322 Words %
L1: In Prep Phrases  57  18
L1A: + Adj. & Averbs 71 40
L2: + S / V / C 158 89
L3: + Clauses 16 94

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