Instructions: Join each group of sentences below into a single and effective complex one. Feel free to re-order sentences and phrases, and/or eliminate redundancies and subordinate clauses. Use appositives and employ absolute phrases to connect ideas, coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so_) preceded by a comma, or use subordinating conjunctions (_who, which, that, although, because, since, though, if, as if, and others). Try reading your new sentences out loud. Have fun!

GROUP 1

1. I walk into a car repair shop that is located on Central Avenue.

2. It is next to the Bob and Tom’s Fish and Fry.

3. Bob and Tom’s Fish and Fry is a place I have eaten before.

4. It is located in Albany.

5. It is located in the outskirts of Albany.

GROUP 2

1. I moved to downtown Albany last year when my wife and I bought a house.

2. No—it’s not because we bought a house.

3. I got my first teaching job here at a small Catholic college.

4. Then we bought a house.

5. The house was built in 1876.

6. I said it was my first teaching job.

7. Wait; that came out wrong.

GROUP 3

1. I have not gone onto a second teaching job.

2. In fact, I don’t have another teaching job lined up.

3. The house has a nice yard, a television, and posters of Flash Gordon.

4. Sometimes, late at night, I cruise adult websites.

5. I just went to a website that advertises to have “many of your favorite adult film titles available online.”

6. It has been 28 years since my last confession.

7. I am a fan of the Mike Hodges’s adaptation of Flash Gordon, Flash Gordon (1980).

8. I’ll admit: I did do some phone interviews to check out the academic market.

9. Flash Gordon has many incarnations on page and screen, including a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

GROUP 4

1. Jean-Michel Basquiat is a neo-expressionist artist.

2. That reminds me.

3. I once went to a retrospective of Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn.

4. I lived there before I moved to Albany.

5. Albany is the capital of the State of New York and the county seat of Albany County.

6. I miss the glory days of Christy Canyon, Seka, and Ginger Lynn.

7. The website says it offers several versions of Flesh Gordon (Michael Benveniste and Howard Ziehm, 1974).

GROUP 5

1. After moving from Brooklyn, we lived in a neighborhood in the so-called midtown section of Albany.

2. The so-called midtown section is also called the Pine Hills neighborhood.

3. We bought a house in Albany at the height of the housing bubble.

4. Even if I wanted to interview for another job we would still be stuck here in Albany.

5. It would be nice to teach at a college that isn’t so Catholic.

6. The college isn’t affiliated with the church.

GROUP 6

1. One version of Flesh Gordon is dubbed in French.

2. Its subtitle reads: Destination: Planète Porno.

3. Students here are sometimes too easily offended.

4. Bob and Tom is also the name of a morning radio show in Toledo and Indianapolis, Indiana.

5. The Bob and Tom Show is syndicated across the country.

6. I read somewhere that Basquiat was an angry and frustrated child.

GROUP 7

1. The shrimp was rather plain-tasting.

2. By which I mean there was no spice in the breading that surrounds the shrimp.

3. Some spices I like are: curry, black pepper, cumin, and oregano.

4. I was delighted to find the website offers many adult take-offs of popular movies.

5. Examples of take-off adult film titles include Fleshdance, American Booty, and Assablanca.

6. Many students might think classic adult film titles are offensive.

GROUP 8

1. I am not looking for another teaching job.

2. My students should not worry that I am leaving.

3. It’s just that during this time of year, the tenure-track postings appear everywhere.

4. Any of those spices mentioned above would work in a dish with fried, breaded shrimp.

5. Other examples of classic adult film take-off titles include On Golden Blonde, Bi-Curious George, and Good Will Humping.

6. I would doubt I would go to all the trouble to teach somewhere else where the same problems would occur.

7. It is the early fall.

GROUP 9

1. I forgot to tell you why I went to a car repair shop.

2. My car was smashed in a parking lot near our house in Albany by a much larger car.

3. The driver said she “didn’t notice anything” hitting her car.

4. She must have been watching a DVD in her SUV.

5. I called the lady a “fucking idiot.”

6. She sideswiped the Honda and now I have to take it to the shop.

7. I held my tongue after that.

8. The lady looked genuinely surprised at my foul mouth.

9. We waited for the Albany cops to come.

10. The lady had a set of rosary beads hanging from her rear-view window.