Write On Season 2, Episode 5: Show Business: Sentence Length

The Dreamer: Review 1

Henry reveals to Miss Newton the lessons he has learned through daydreams. Flashbacks retell the need for concrete nouns, the difference between sentences and fragments, commas used with appositives and commas in a series.

Perchance to Dream: Review 2

When Miss Newton criticizes one of his daydreams, Henry tells her of how he learned correct use of the semicolon, quotation marks, and hyphens.

Curses, Foiled Again: Parallelism

The Night Before: Effective Subordination

The Pharaoh's Daughter: The Outline

The Almost Dangerous Game: The Topic Sentence

""You are playing a dangerous game,"" Morton scolds when Henry's latest story lacks a topic sentence. This leads to a dream sequence in which Henry and Miss Newton wash up on an island. He accepts the challenge to write a cohesive paragraph. If the enemy (Morton) spies the mistake, Henry will lose.

Happy Daze: Paragraph Development through Details

The Old Man and the Paragraph: Paragraph Development through Comparison

The Scarlet Pen Pal: Paragraph Development through Contrast

A Critical Lapse: Paragraph Development through Cause and Effect

Miss Newton is scheduled to appear in a play, and Henry has been asked to review it. Sadly, Henry falls asleep in the office, dreaming of Miss Newton's stellar performance. He ends up faking a review, which doesn't fool Mr. Morton any–not when a strike closed the theater.

Gone with the Paragraph: Paragraph Development through Definition

I, Henry: Unity

Scribbling Beauty 1: Coherence 1

Scribbling Beauty 2: Coherence 2

The Rocking Horse Writer: Emphasis 1

Their Finest Paragraph: Emphasis 2

The Case of the Missing Editor: Tone

Transition Trek: Transitions

The Devil and Henry Kent: Rewriting

On a March day, Henry doesn't believe Mr. Morton's advice that good writing comes from rewriting. That leads to Henry's deal with the Devil: he can write anything he wants in one draft. The Devil will take care of the rest, until the end of the month. Come April Fool's Day, who knows what will happen?

An SOS: Loose, Lose / Passed, Past

Jungle Madness: Amount, Number / Fewer, Less

The Revengers: Could Have, Should Have

Beau Jest: Affect, Effect

MacHenry: Awful, Terrible, Nice

Morton claims Henry's casual use of ""awful,"" ""terrible,"" and ""nice"" embarrasses him almost to death. That drifts Henry into a tragic parallel of Macbeth.

Henry Kent, Tycoon: Practical, Practicable / Raise, Rise

Henry's Angels: Regardless, Uninterested, Stationary

Leo Claws: The Business Letter

Dream Weaving: Review 3

Dream On: Review 4

Finally, Mr. Morton learns that Henry's daydreams are his way to learning good writing skills.