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Write a paragraph of exactly three sentences about a well-known person. You may begin only one sentence with the person’s name, and only one sentence with he/she. Suggested people:
IMahatma Gandhi. IIJulius Caesar. IIIJane Austen. IVHenry VIII of England. VAlexander the Great. VINapoleon Bonaparte. VIILeonardo da Vinci.
Adapted from an exercise in Think and Speak (1929) by NL Clay.
Assess the punctuation of this sentence, according to the author’s own principles.
“I have some satisfaction in reflecting, that, in the course of editing the Greek text of the New Testament, I believe I have destroyed more than a thousand commas, which prevented the text being properly understood.”
Describe the view from one of the following, as you recall it or as you see it in your mind’s eye.
IAeroplane. IIBridge. IIICliff. IVHill. VTower.
Based on an exercise in School Certificate English Practice (1933) by NL Clay.
Speak these words out aloud:
Don’t do that again!
See if you can express the following four moods. How does your intonation change? What physical gestures do you feel compelled to use?
IAnger. IIFear. IIIDeprecation. IVExpostulation.
What pictures come into your mind? Try to describe them.
Note: Deprecation expresses ‘I’d rather you didn’t’. An expostulation is an exclamation of protest, a frustrated outburst.
Expanded from an exercise in A Year’s Course in Speech Training (1938) by Anne H. McAllister.
Join each group of ideas together to form a single sentence, in as many different ways as you can. You may change any words you like so long as the overall meaning remains the same. See if you can work in one or more of the words suggested.
1 Alf wanted to stay at the crime scene. He wanted to go home with the news. He could not decide what to do.
Between. Happen. Tear.
2 I sat for forty-five minutes. I could see the Ladies’ Room door. I never saw her come out.
Tell. Visible. Watch.
Sentences based on the novels of Dorothy L. Sayers. Developed from an exercise in Exercises 12-13 (1933) by NL Clay.
Express in other words:
1 It is a consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery.
2 Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.