Basic Sentence Add-ons: Phrases shows you how to add
various kinds of phrases to your writing.

Why use phrases when you can get your point across with basic sentences? Sentences without phrases make paragraphs choppy and dull. Phrases allow you to get rid of needless repetition and to show relationships between ideas. Don't take my word for it. Check out these sentences without phrases and then see what happens when you add in a few. By the way, I'll be using the story "Hansel and Gretel" for most of my examples.

Here is a paragraph containing sentences without phrases:

Once there was a woodcutter. He was poor. He had a wife. He had two children. His wife was the children's stepmother. They lived near a dense forest. There was a famine. The family did not have enough food. It was night. The woodcutter could not sleep. He worried. He was afraid his family would starve. He told his wife. His wife made a suggestion. They could lose the children. The forest was a perfect place.

Now, let's see the same story, this time with phrases.

Once there was a poor woodcutter who lived near a dense forest with his wife and two children. There was a famine in the land, and the woodcutter could not provide enough food for his family. He lay sleepless in bed every night and worried they might all starve. One night he told his fears to his wife, who was the children's stepmother. She suggested the two of them could survive if they took the children into the forest and lost them.

As a reader, which story would you rather read?