Stringy Sentences Exercises

Hello,
Can you check the answers for me please?

Correct the stringy sentences:-

1- Rubin was two years older than I was, and he was big and husky for his age, and he never had much to say although he had mean-looking eyes that were set far back in his rugged face.

  • Robin was two years older than I was. He was big and husky for his age. He had never had much to say although he had mean-looking eyes that were set far back in his rugged face.

  • Robin was two years older than I was. He was big and husky for his age. He had never had much to say although he had mean-looking eyes. They were set far back in his rugged face.

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The first version looks OK except that you have mistyped “Rubin” as “Robin”, and changed “he never had much to say” to “he had never had much to say” for no obvious reason.

I don’t like the second version so much.

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Thanks

  • When the last of my corn was just going through the grinding stones, Grandpa pushed a lever to one side, shutting off the power, and then he came over and asked Rainie why he was looking for trouble, and asked him why he was always looking for a fight.

[color=blue]- When the last of my corn was just going through the grinding stones, Grandpa pushed a lever to one side, shutting off the power. Then he came over and asked Rainie why he was looking for trouble. He asked him why he was always looking for a fight.

  • When the last of my corn was just going through the grinding stones, Grandpa pushed a lever to one side, shutting off the power. Then he came over and asked Rainie why he was looking for trouble and why he was always looking for a fight.

  • When the last of my corn was just going through the grinding stones, Grandpa pushed a lever to one side, shutting off the power. Then he came over and asked Rainie why he was looking for trouble. He also asked him why he was always looking for a fight.

  • When the last of my corn was just going through the grinding stones, Grandpa pushed a lever to one side, shutting off the power. Then he came over and asked Rainie why he was looking for trouble as well as why he was always looking for a fight.

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I’m not keen on the last one, which rambles a bit at the end, but the others all seem acceptable.

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Thanks

  • I could hear him chuckling as he walked toward his store, and I thought to myself that there goes the best grandpa a boy ever had, and that is just what I thought of my grandpa.

[color=blue]- I could hear him chuckling as he walked toward his store. I thought to myself that there goes the best grandpa a boy ever had. That is just what I thought of my grandpa.

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In my opinion, there’s nothing you can do with that sentence as it is written to stop it rambling and sounding repetitive. It doesn’t matter what punctuation you use, the content is not concise.

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OK what about the following sentence:

  • Many students attend class all morning, and then they work all afternoon and also they have to study at night, so they are usually exhausted at weekends.

[color=blue]- Many students attend class all morning. They work all afternoon. They have to study at night so they are usually exhausted at weekends.

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You are in danger of going to the other extreme: splitting the sentences so much that instead of stringy, they become choppy. Two sentences would be an appropriate length for that, not three.

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Well,
I still don’t get the stringy sentence.I thought I should separate sentences with full-stops “[color=blue].” and remove any “and”.

Can you please help me tell me a good way to solve the stringy sentences?
Can I use only one way to solve any stringy sentence with it?

Not every ‘and’ needs to be removed. In the case of your last example ‘they work all afternoon’ is very short. You have to strike a balance.

This is how I would choose to split the above sentence, though other ways are possible. There is no set formula which will work for every stringy sentence.
Many students attend class all morning then work all afternoon. As they have to study at night, they are usually exhausted at weekends.

Thanks [color=blue]Beeesneees

So, can you summarize how can I solve the stringy sentence in a simple way?
any possible way to remember it.

Not to my knowledge, anyway.
In making shorter sentences you have to ensure that you don’t make them too short and choppy. Each example will require the application of common sense.

So, how can I solve a stringy sentence?
By making it shorter? but not too short so as not to be a choppy one?

Can anyone tell me what does stringy mean again? And how can we correct it?
Is it a very long sentence usually connected together by “and” or “then” and this long sentence is made into separated clauses, and we can correct it by making it shorter? Is that right?

If that is the point of the stringy sentence, then I will return to the previous example which I have taken it from an English website…

- The fame of my dogs spread all over our part of the Ozarks, and they were the best in the country, so that no coon hunter came into my grandfather’s store with as many pelts as I did.

And this is the corrected version. It was also from the website.

The fame of my dogs spread all over our part of the Ozarks. They were the best in the country. No coon hunter came into my grandfather’s store with as many pelts as I did.

Now, I don’t see any shortening in the corrected version at all. All was done is that they removed “and” from the second sentence and replaced the “,” with “.”
[color=red], and they were the best in the country.
[color=red]. They were the best in the country.

They also removed “so that” from the 3rd sentence, and I don’t have any idea why they removed it? They replaced the “,” with “,”
[color=red], so that no coon hunter came into my grandfather’s store with as many pelts as I did.
[color=red]. No coon hunter came into my grandfather’s store with as many pelts as I did.

So, the original version of the example has three sentences.
And the corrected version also has three sentences.

The original version has one sentence.
The shortened versio has three sentences.

Sentences are demarcated with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.
Commas do not end sentences.

I see.

Rubin was two years older than I was, and he was big and husky for his age, and he never had much to say although he had mean-looking eyes that were set far back in his rugged face.

So in this example,
Rubin was two years older than I was, and he was big and husky for his age
Is not two sentences!

I thought that,
Rubin was two years older than I was
Is a sentences and
and he was big and husky for his age
Is another sentences.

So this version is different sentences that each ends with a full stop.
Rubin was two years older than I was. He was big and husky for his age. He never had much to say although he had mean-looking eyes that were set far back in his rugged face.

OK, what about if I made it like this?
Rubin was two years older than I was and he was big and husky for his age. He never had much to say although he had mean-looking eyes that were set far back in his rugged face.

Also, what if I didn’t remove “and”, instead I began them in each sentence?
Rubin was two years older than I was. And he was big and husky for his age. And he never had much to say although he had mean-looking eyes that were set far back in his rugged face.

I could see that this is what you thought, however, it is incorrect. You seem to understand now.

Yes, that has changed one sentence into 3 sentences.

I’ve already explained that there is more than one way to resolve a stringy sentence - that is also acceptable.

Generally you should not start a sentence (after a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark) with ‘and’. There is certainly no reason to start these particular sentences with ‘and’. It is unnecessary and ‘ugly’ as well as being incorrect.

I wondered if Timothy had checked for snakes, and there were also scorpions on most Caribbean islands, and they were deadly, so I wondered if there were any on our cay

Is this correct?

I wondered if Timothy had checked for snakes. There were also scorpions on most Caribbean islands. They were deadly so I wondered if there were any on our way.

Yes, it’s correct but I’d say you’ve overdone it again. You don’t have to turn every single phrase into a sentence. The danger is you make the sentences choppy (too short) instead of stringy (too long and rambling).