This searchable deck allows teachers to find model sentences that relate to different writing focuses by searching through the file. Students can expand writing skill by modeling their sentence constructions after masters.

1. Hyphens
Prepositional Phrases
Phrasal Verbs
Vivid Descriptions
Vivid Verbs
Characterization
Simile
Adverb Clause
Participial Phrase
its/it’s
Personification
Compound Predicate
Compound-Complex
Adverb Phrase
Hyperbole
Past Progressive
Gerund
Adjective Phrase
Idiom
Adjective Clause
Simile
Metaphor
Past Perfect
Beginning sentences
Present participle
Word Choice
Noun Clause
Compound Sentence
Parallel Structure
Predicate Nominative
dialogue
than/then
me/I
To search for model sentences, go to HOME/FIND or EDIT/FIND
and type one or more of these terms.

2. Edwards, Kim. The Memory
Keeper’s Daughter, 3.
A few flakes first, in the dull grey late
afternoon sky, and then wind-driven
swirls and eddies around the edges of
their wide front porch.
hyphen, prepositional phrase, vivid description

3. Sewell, Anna. Black Beauty, 3.
There were six young colts in the meadow
besides me; they were older than I was;
some were nearly as large as grown-up
horses.
hyphen, semicolon,

4. Singer, Isaac Bashevis. The
Spinoza of Market Street.
Dr. Fischelson was a short, hunched man
with a grayish beard, and was quite bald
except for a few wisps of hair remaining at
the nape of his neck. His nose was as
crooked as a beak, and his eyes were
large, dark, and fluttering like those of
some huge bird.
characterization, simile

5. Boyne, John. The Boy in the
Striped Pajamas.
On this particular day, however, since it
was a Saturday morning and was so
sunny, he was not so perfectly
groomed.
transition, prepositional phrase, compound predicate,
complex sentence

6. Patterson, James. Maximum
Ride.111
After the fireball from Big Boy disintegrated,
the cabin burned brightly, its old, rotted
wood consumed as instantly as kindling.
Flames reached for the sky, licking at the
green trees nearby, snaking along the
ground as brittle brown pine needles
caught fire.
Prepositional phrase, vivid description, vivid verbs,
Adverb Clause, Participial Phrase, its/it’s

7. Malmar, McKnight. “The Storm.”
She inserted her key in the lock and turned the
knob. The March wind snatched the door out of
her hand and slammed it against the wall. It
took strength to close it against the pressure of
the gale, and she had no sooner closed it than
the rain came in a pounding downpour, beating
noisily against the windows as if trying to follow
her in.
Personification, Compound Predicate, Participial
Phrase, Compound Sentence, infinitive

8. Lawrence, D.H. “The Rocking-
Horse Winner.”
She inserted her key in the lock and turned the
knob. The March wind snatched the door out of
her hand and slammed it against the wall. It
took strength to close it against the pressure of
the gale, and she had no sooner closed it than
the rain came in a pounding downpour, beating
noisily against the windows as if trying to follow
her in.
Personification, Compound Predicate, Participial
Phrase

9. Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. 98.
As I began to play, the boy
disappeared, the color ran out
of the room, and I saw only my
white pieces and his black ones
waiting on the other side.
Parallel structure, Compound-Complex Sentence,
Participial Phrase, Possessive Pronoun

10. Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. 98.
A light wind began blowing
past my ears. It whispered
secrets only I could hear.
“Blow from the South,” it
murmured. “The wind leaves no
trail.”
Personification, Dialogue, Pronouns

11. Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club.
244.
My mother did not say anything.
She remained on the ground, her
back as rounded as the turtle in the
pond. She was crying with her
mouth closed. And I began to cry in
the same way, swallowing those
bitter tears.
Simile, infinitive, prepositional phrase, participial
phrase

12. Hemingway, Ernest. A Farwell to
Arms. 61.
The drops fell very slowly, as they fall
from an icicle after the sun has gone.
Simile,

13. Felton, Harold W. “Pecos Bill and
the Mustang.”
He could shoot a bumblebee in the eye
at sixty paces, and he was a man
who was not afraid to shake hands
with lightning.
Hyperbole, Prepositional Phrase, Infinitive Phrase,
Compound Sentence, Predicate Nominative, Adverb
Phrase

14. Felton, Harold W. “Pecos Bill and
the Mustang.”
There was pin wheeling, high diving,
sun fishing, high flying, and all other
tricks of a bucking horse.
Gerund, parallel structure, adjective phrase,
prepositional phrase

15. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth.
“Paul Revere’s Ride.”
Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and
street,
Wanders and watches with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
Transitions, assonance, alliteration

16. Wright, Richard. “The Rights to the
Streets of Memphis.”
Hunger had always been more or less at
my elbow when I played, but now I
began to wake up at night to find
hunger standing at my bedside, staring
at me gauntly.
Compound-Complex Sentence, metaphor,
personification

17. King, Coretta Scott. “Montgomery
Boycott.”
Rosa Parks was not in a revolutionary
frame of mind. She had not planned to
do what she did. Her cup had run over.
Simple Sentences, infinitive, idiom

18. Goodman, Ellen. “The Suspected
Shopper.”
It is Saturday, Shopping Saturday, as it’s
called by the merchants who spread
their wares like plush welcome mats
across the pages of my newspaper.
capitalization, adjective clause, simile, prepositional
phrase

19. Spinelli, Jerry. Crash, 83.
On the football field I don’t run around
people, I run through them. Life is
football. For a couple minutes there, I
had forgotten.
Beginning Sentences, Metaphor, Past Perfect

20. Yolen, Jane. Sword of the Rightful
King, 40.
Kay was a thin, still boyish-looking young
man who tried to appear older by
sporting a flowing moustache.
Characterization, hyphen, present participle,
adjective clause

21. Yolen, Jane. Sword of the Rightful
King, 326.
Crestfallen, the boy stood up and looked
at his boots as if he did not know where
else to look or how to make his feet
carry him away.
Characterization, Sentence Beginnings, infinitive
phrase, phrasal verb,

22. Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger
Games, 182.
Gale always says I remind him of a
squirrel the way I scurry up even the
slenderest limbs. Part of it’s my weight,
but part of it’s practice.
Characterization, Noun Clause, Compound
Sentence, Word Choice

23. Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief,
13.
Apart from everything else, the book thief
wanted desperately to go back to the
basement, to write, or to read through
her story one last time.
Sentence Beginning, infinitive phrase, parallel
structure

24. Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief,
48.
Insane or not, Rudy was always destined
to be Liesel’s best friend. A snowball in
the face is surely the perfect beginning
to a lasting friendship.
Sentence Beginning, noun phrase, predicate
nominative,

25. Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief,
209.
Outside, a mountain of cold November
air was waiting at the front door each
time Liesel left the house.
Drizzle came down in spades.
Dead leaves were slumped on the road.
Sentence Beginning, personification, word choice,
prepositional phrase

26. Armstrong, William H. Sounder, 21.
“You know who I am,” said the first man
as he unbuttoned his heavy brown coat
and pulled it back to show a shiny
metal star pinned to his vest.
Sentence Beginning, dialogue, characterization,
infinitive phrase, prepositional phrase

27. Armstrong, William H. Sounder, 106.
Suddenly the voice of a great coon
hound broke the sultry August
deadness. The dog dashed along the
road, leaving three-pointed clouds of
red dust to settle back to earth behind
him.
transitions, characterization, word choice, present
participle, infinitive phrase, prepositional phrase

28. Avi. The True Confessions of Charlotte
Doyle, 143.
Up I went. The rain hissed. Thunder
boomed. Lightening cracked. Human
cries came too, shouts that rose up
through the maelstrom, words that I
couldn’t catch.
simple sentences, word choice, adjective clause

29. Krauss, Nicole. The History of Love, 3.
I often wonder who will be the last
person to see me alive. If I had to bet,
I’d bet on the delivery boy from the
Chinese take-out. I order in four nights
out of seven.
noun clause, adverb clause, phrasal verb,
characterization

30. Krauss, Nicole. The History of Love,
190.
Slowly, the truth dawned on Rosa:
something terrible had happened. It
was grotesque, really; it made her sick
to her stomach just to think of it. And
she was partially guilty.
Sentence beginnings, colon, semicolon, compound
sentence

31. Welty, Eudora. The Optimist’s
Daughter, 51.
The McKelva house was streaming light from
every window, upstairs and down. As Tish
passed the row of parked cars and turned
up the driveway, Laurel saw the daffodils
were in bloom, long streamers of them
reaching down the yard, hundreds of small
white trumpets.
word choice, complex sentence, metaphor

32. Welty, Eudora. The Optimist’s
Daughter.
In a kind, faraway tenor, he began to
hum as they went along. He seemed to
have put something behind him tonight.
He was recovering his good spirits
already.
infinitive phrase, complex sentence, predicate
nominative, past progressive

33. De Rosnay, Tatiana . Sarah’s Key,166.
I had never seen Edouard drive so fast.
Drivers brandished furious fists.
Pedestrians scooted aside with terror.
We did not say a word as we hurtled
along, but our silence was a warm,
excited one.
word choice, compound-complex

34. Burns, Olive Ann . Cold Sassy Tree,
108.
Lying there in the dark, thinking about
Aunt Loma, I got really mad. She could
of at least pretended to be glad I’d
escaped from the jaws of death on that
trestle.
Sentence beginning, infinitive phrase, prepositional
phrase, metaphor

35. Burns, Olive Ann . Cold Sassy Tree,
89.
“Shet up, Cretia,” whispered Miss Looly.
“Hit ain’t for us to ast sech questions.
Hit were the Lord’s will for the boy to
live. All we got to do is be thankful.”
dialogue, characterization, word choice

36. Hiaasen, Carl . Hoot, 87.
The man’s job title was Vice-President
for Corporate Relations, and his name
was Chuck Muckle, which Curly
thought would be more suitable for a
circus clown.
characterization, relative clause, compound-complex

37. Aeschylus . Prometheus Bound.
Prometheus: Mad I may be – if it is
madness to loathe one’s enemies.
dialogue, characterization, infinitive, dependent
clause, apostrophe

38. DiCamillo, Kate . The Tale of
Despereaux, 146.
“And Mig, still hearing nothing, knocked
yet again.”
present participle, adjective phrase

39. DiCamillo, Kate . The Tale of
Despereaux, 76.
“A mouse with red thread,” boomed the
voice, “Oh, yes, Gregory knows the
way of mice and rats. Gregory knows.
And Gregory has his own thread,
marking him. See here, mouse.”
word choice, dialogue, first person, characterization

40. Conroy, Pat . The Prince of Tides, 358.
After ten hours of hard driving and two
stops for gas, the city of Miami rose out
of the sea as we drove past the sign for
the Hialeah racetrack.
commas, adjective phrase, personification, adjective
clause, subordinating conjunctions

41. Conroy, Pat . The Prince of Tides, 578.
I stood on the verandah of the Newbury
mansion watching the moonlight ignite
the marsh like some dream of altered
gold.
simile, word choice, prepositional phrase, participial
phrase, adjective phrase

42. Dessen, Sarah . Lock and Key, 25.
Downstairs in the foyer, I got my first
lucky break in days: the alarm wasn’t
set. Thank God.
characterization, colon, comma,

43. Dessen, Sarah . Lock and Key, 99.
At first, it’s just a rumbling, punctuated by
the occasional shout: the kind of thing
that you’re aware of, distantly, and yet
can still manage to ignore.
word choice, infinitive, relative clause, prepositional
phrase

44. Burns, Olive Ann . Cold Sassy Tree,
89.
“Shet up, Cretia,” whispered Miss Looly.
“Hit ain’t for us to ast sech questions.
Hit were the Lord’s will for the boy to
live. All we got to do is be thankful.”
dialogue, characterization, word choice

45. Anderson, Laurie Halse. The Silver
Chair, 14.
“It must be a dream, it must, it must,”
said Jill to herself. “I’ll wake up in a
moment.” But it wasn’t, and she didn’t.
dialogue, characterization, compound sentence.

46. Anderson, Laurie Halse. Forge,
109.
 “Snow began to fall from mushroom-colored
clouds as I made yet another dreary trip to the
woodlot.”
hyphens, adverb clause, complex sentence,
adjective phrase, prepositional phrase