Serendipitous
Fortune Cookies
(phrases versus clauses)

This writing prompt generator was proposed by Nevada teacher Corbett Harrison while attending a teacher in-service sponsored by the Northern Nevada Writing Project.

Writer Instructions:

If you like this writing prompt, devote a page in your journal or your Writer's Notebook to some favorite fortunes you create here. Come back to the page and write about your favorite fortunes at a later date.

Ready to make a fortune cookie fortune?

Press the buttons below to make a variety of fortunes that might be found in a cookie.  The third button below will give you a phrase or a clause to end each fortune. Talk with your teacher and be able to know whether you are receiving a phrase or a clause with each button click.

Once you are an expert in phrases and clauses, decide on on perfect fortune to base a story on. Write your fortune down.

Then, imagine a character just finishing a great Chinese dinner.  Write that character's story moments before he/she opens their cookie.  Or write about the character's day the day after he/she receives the fortune.

A writer's challenge:  To prove you understood the difference between a phrase and a clause, consider highlighting all your story's phrases in one color and highlighting all your story's clauses in another color.