Below is a teaching plan for ESL students who may often write short sentences and who may need instructions on how to insert more ideas in one sentence.

Grammar FOUNDATION FOR CONNECTING IDEAS

It might be a bit weird for English learners to find that "however" and "but" are used differently in written English. In spoken English, because the sentence and the situation when people talk are often not complicated, we may easily find what is contrary to what else. However, in articles in which several ideas are combined closely, without following the certain rules of "however" and "but," writers can confuse it their readers. Consider the following sentence for example.

You are poor because I am rich however I like you

It is easy to find that there are three ideas in this line: you are poor, I am rich, I like you. But how are these ideas connected? It is pretty messy.

It seems that "however" links I-am-rich with I-like-you. It is also possible that "because" links I-am-rich with you-are-poor. In order to make it easier understand, people who speak English make the following rules:

• words like "because" only connects ideas within one sentence.
• words like "however" connects ideas between the main clauses of different sentences.

Then, if this sentence is written like this:

You are poor because I am rich. However, I like you.

I am rich is the cause of You are poor. But despite the fact, I still love you. (This sentence implies that you are not absolutely poor, but relatively poor compared to me.)

If this sentence is written like this:

You are poor. Because I am rich, however, I like you.

then I am rich is the cause of I like you. It implies that I know you are absolutely poor, but I have money, so I have the financial support to love you. "However," in this sentence, then connects you are poor to I like you.

Conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs

A complete explanation for this part in Chinese can be found on this link. If you do not read Chinese, no worries. I will briefly summarize the key points as follows.

We have roughly separated words like "because" from words like "however." Now, I will give you a complete table that categorizes all the commonly used idea connectors. Words like "because" are named CONJUNCTIONS, while words like "however" are named CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBS, by boring grammarians. You don't have to memorize the terms. All you need to do is to remind yourself whether this word is used as "because" or "however."

Conjunctions

First, we have seven conjunctions that are called coordinating conjunctions. They are used to connect two complete clauses in one sentence. They are always used between the two clauses and usually preceded by a comma. They are:

for / and / nor / but / or / yet / so

Some people use the acronym FANBOYS to remember them.

Another cluster of conjunctions is called subordinating conjunctions. There are a bunch of conjunctions of this type. Their usage follow the following rules:

• They can be put at the initial position of a sentence or between two clauses
  • Because I am poor, I cannot afford the computer. (initial position)
  • I cannot afford the computer because I am poor. (between two clauses)
• They make the idea starting with the conjunction less important the other one (in almost every case).
  • Although I like you, you are poor. (to the reader, you are poor is what the writer wants to say)
  • Although you are poor, I like you. (to the reader, I like you is what the writer wants to say)

Here is a table for subordinating conjunctions:

A Teaching Plan for Connecting Ideas

Objectives

• Weigh the importance of different ideas and translate the importance into a sentence-level production
• Acquire metacognitive skills to analyze how effective writers connect ideas in their articles
• Learn commonly used techniques to connect ideas in writing composition

Teaching Plan

Step 1: Analyze the importance of ideas

Although advocates of organic food maintain that organic produce is healthier than conventionally grown produce because it has more vitamins and minerals, this assertion is not supported by scientific research.

Q1: how many ideas do you think are presented in this sentence?

Q2: Sort out the importance of these ideas from most important to least important.

Key conclusions: [1] more important ideas should be in the main clause; [2] more important ideas should be in the positions of subject, verb, or object.

Step 2: How to connect ideas?

Although advocates of organic food maintain that organic produce is healthier than conventionally grown produce because it has more vitamins and minerals, this assertion is not supported by scientific research.

in the above sentence, ideas are connected by words like although / that / because. These are called conjunctions.

One review published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition provided analysis of the results of comparative studies conducted over a span of 50 years; researchers consistently found no evidence that organic crops are more nutritious than conventionally grown ones in terms of their vitamin and mineral content.

In the above sentence, ideas are added to the sentence as modifiers either for nouns or for verbs.

Step 3: An example

Connect the ideas below.

[1]Some researchers examined almost 250 studies.

[2]These researchers are from Stanford University.

[3]The studies compare the nutritional content of different kinds of organic foods with that of their nonorganic counterparts.

[4]These researchers found very little difference between the nutritional content of different kinds of organic foods and that of their nonorganic counterparts.

How do we connect these four ideas in one sentence?

First, we need to evaluate which idea is the most important one. Obviously, [4] is more important because this idea should support the claim of the paragraph that there is no difference between organic foods and nonorganic foods in terms of nutritional value.

Then, we find that [1] and [2] add details to researchers, so we insert [1] and [2] as modifiers to [4] ; we find that [3] adds details to the studies mentioned in [2], so we insert [3] into [2] to modify these studies.

Answer: Stanford University researchers who examined almost 250 studies comparing the nutritional content of different kinds of organic foods with that of their nonorganic counterparts found very little difference between the two.

Step 4: Your turn

Students are first encouraged to finish either step 2 or step 3 and then are grouped to discuss their writing production. During the discussion, they should present their final sentence and state their reasons why they connect these ideas in that way.

Students should be aware that:

• some ideas are more important than other ones;
• regardless of how they arrange these ideas, they should defend their sentences.

Step 5: Your summary

• What have you learned during the writing and the discussion?
• How are you able to use these techniques in your future writing?

Step 6: Homework

• Finish the third sentence and explain your reasons why you organized it in that way.
• Find a sentence in this passage or in other passages that contain more than 3 ideas. Analyze how the author places the ideas in the sentence and explain why. Do you agree with it or do you have a better way to rearrange the ideas?

The Hype of Healthier Organic Food (Exercise)

*This passage is adapted from one SAT Language and Writing passage. This passage discusses whether organic food is healthier and deserves the high price consumers pay for it.

Some people buy organic food because they believe organically grown crops are more nutritious and safer for consumption than their conventionally grown counterparts, which are usually produced with pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. In the name of health, these consumers spend $1.60 for every dollar they would have spent on food that is conventionally grown. Scientific evidence, however, suggests that consumers do not reap significant benefits, in terms of either nutritional value or safety, from organic food.

Although advocates of organic food maintain that organic produce is healthier than conventionally grown produce because it has more vitamins and minerals, this assertion is not supported by scientific research. For instance, one review published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition provided analysis of the results of comparative studies conducted over a span of 50 years; researchers consistently found no evidence that organic crops are more nutritious than conventionally grown ones in terms of their vitamin and mineral content. Similarly, _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.(BLANK 1)

Connect the ideas below and fill in Blank 1 above.

[1]Some researchers examined almost 250 studies.

[2]These researchers are from Stanford University.

[3]The studies compare the nutritional content of different kinds of organic foods with that of their nonorganic counterparts.

[4]These researchers found very little difference between the nutritional content of different kinds of organic foods and that of their nonorganic counterparts.

Evidence also undermines the claim that organic food is safer to eat. While researchers have found lower levels of pesticide residue in organic produce than in nonorganic produce, the pesticide residue detected in conventional produce falls within acceptable safety limits. According to such organizations as the US Environmental Protection Agency, the minute amounts of residue falling within such limits have no negative impact on human health. Moreover, _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.(BLANK 2)

Connect the ideas below and fill in Blank 2 above.

[1] Consumers are concerned about ingesting pesticide residue.

[2] They can eliminate much of the pesticide residue.

[3] One way to eliminate the pesticide residue is to wash or peel produce before they eat it.

Based on scientific evidence, organic food offers neither significant nutritional nor safety benefits for consumers. Proponents of organic food, of course, are quick to add that ____________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________. (BLANK 3) Research regarding these issues is less conclusive than the findings regarding nutritional content and pesticide residue safety limits. What is clear, though, is this: if a consumer ’ s goal is to buy the healthiest and safest food to eat, the increased cost of organic food is a waste of money.

Connect the ideas below and fill in Blank 3 above.

[1] There are numerous other reasons for these proponents to buy organic food.

[2] For example, these proponents desire to protect the environment from potentially damaging pesticides.

[3] These proponents also prefer the taste of organically grown foods.

Answers

Blank 1：

Stanford University researchers who examined almost 250 studies comparing the nutritional content of different kinds of organic foods with that of their nonorganic counterparts found very little difference between the two.

Blank 2：

consumers who are concerned about ingesting pesticide residue can eliminate much of it by simply washing or peeling produce before eating it.

Blank 3：

Proponents of organic food, of course, are quick to add that there are numerous other reasons to buy organic food, such as a desire to protect the environment from potentially damaging pesticides or a preference for the taste of organically grown foods.

More Exercises for Connecting Ideas