'Sentence Models for Creating Writing' by Christopher Youles.

Sentence Models for Creating Writing by Christopher Youles is a handy book for English teachers who are looking for some granular guidance on helping pupils improve their writing at sentence level. Just 87 pages long, it is accurately subtitled ‘A practical resource for teaching writing.’

Youles divides the book into chapters directed at Action, Setting the Scene, Character Description, Feelings, Physical Effects, Thoughts, The Senses and Dialogue. He provides ‘formulas’ for practice: for instance,

‘IN A…’ + CHARACTER + ACTION

In a field full of wildflowers, they stood beneath an ancient oak tree.

He was standing in the middle of a frozen wasteland.

Some might feel that this is going to lead to formulaic writing, but in fact for pupils without the deep instinctive feeling for sentences that their teachers have, practising these can be fun, and can free up ideas and opportunities. They certainly should not be worked on for a long time, but 15 minutes in a lesson could be fruitful, and the more pupils are aware of precision in writing, the better. (On page 51, I would cut down two sentences: ‘I set off, and a feeling of dread filled me on the way’, and ‘A feeling of happiness spread through her as she set off down the country lane’, editing them into ‘I set off, and dread filled me on the way’ and ‘Happiness spread through her…’).

To cite an unlikely source, as the former Welsh rugby captain Alun Wyn-Jones said on Irish television about a recent World Cup match,

From structure comes flow.