Basic Sentence Structure

Maxwell HillSM 217

9/14/2010

Basic Cornerstone

Without structure…prose is impossible

Just a little refresher

Bring to life by using variety of structure

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/William Shakespeare

Subject/Predicate

Subject- what the sentence is about

Predicate- tells something about subject

Verb by itself not necessarily a predicate

http://www.cdc.gov/youthcampaign/Verb Campaign

Independent vs. Dependent

Complete Thought

Ex: Kelli Donahue teaches class.

Incomplete Thought

Ex: When Kelli Donahue teaches class, the students listen.

Sentence Types

Simple- one independent clause (ic) and no dependent clauses (dc).

Compound- multiple ic but no dc.

Complex- one ic and at least one dc.

Compound Complex- multiple ic and at least one dc.

Other Grammar Terms

Conjunction- connects words, phrases or clauses

Adjective- modifies a noun

Adverb- modifies a verb

To Get Help

OWL- owl.english.purdue.edu/

Sweetland Writing Center- lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ Purdue University OWL

References Bisignani, Dana, and Brizee Allen. "Purdue OWL."

Welcome to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). Purdue University, 29 June 2010. Web. 11 Sept. 2010. <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/730/1/>.

Megginson, David. "The Structure of a Sentence." UOttawa. University of Ottawa. Web. 14 Sept. 2010. <http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/ sntstrct.html>.