The Elusive Sentence: Recovering the Rudiments of Writing

Across our nation, many within our educational system complain that America’s children cannot write well. Hatfield and Young assert that the problem lies at the foundation of our pedagogy for writing, that most elementary writing curricula lack rudimentary instruction at the sentence level. The authors introduce a sentence-level writing intervention that explicitly defines the elements found in great sentences. This intervention forms the foundational framework for writing skills acquisition, helping teachers, students, and writers of all ages to understand how to craft well-written sentences and paragraphs. Research supports that the most effective instruction is skills-based and multisensory; therefore, Hatfield and Young also introduce a cognitively differentiated writing model, which uses arts-integrated instruction to enhance learning and memory for other content areas. This writing model is based on best practice and this sentence-level intervention serves as a precursor for mastering the new writing standards for CCSS. It offers novice writers a precise blueprint for what successful writing looks like and clearly defines the elusive sentence.