The Art of Styling Sentences

• There are 20 patterns (with variations).

• Practicing what these patterns can do will show you a way to improve your writing and understanding of correct punctuation.

• The patterns have been divided by grade levels.

The Art of Styling Sentences

What is a Sentence? an effort to communicate a complete thought

• What? (communicates the confusion or surprise of the speaker)

• Stop! (issues a simple command to an intended audience)

• Drats! (expression of emotion)

Basic sentences have a subject and verb

I fell.

The cat ate.

subject verb

Basic sentences have a subject and verb

I fell.

The cat ate.

Basic sentences have a subject and verb

I fell

Thecat ate.

.

Basic sentences have a subject and verb

I fell

The cat ate.

.

gray

awkwardly

Single Modifier

I fell awkwardly.

The gray cat ate.

Single Modifier

I fell awkwardly.

The gray cat ate.

Phrases as modifiers

I fell awkwardly.

The gray cat ate.

Phrases as modifiers

I fell awkwardly

The gray cat ate.

.

with yellow eyes

to the stage

Phrases as modifiers

I fell awkwardly

The gray cat ate.

.

with yellow eyes

to the stage

Clauses

• Independent clauses--complete thoughts that can stand on their own as complete sentences

• Subordinate clauses--may have a subject and verb, but are ultimately an incomplete thought

Dependent ClausesAfter the mean neighborhood dog left,

the gray cat with the yellow eyes ate.

I fell awkwardly to the stage when the choreography required me to spin in a circle.

Subordinate ClauseTest:Read it. If the thought is incomplete, then it is subordinate.

complex sentence:dependent clause + independent clause

complex sentence:independent clause +

dependent clause

Sentence types

Simple Sentence--a single independent clause

I fell.

Sentence Types

Compound sentence--has 2 independent clauses, makes two statements or has two or more

subject/verb combinations

I fell and I cried.

Sentence Types

Complex sentence--contains an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses

I fell awkwardly to the stage when the choreography required me to spin in a circle.

Sentence Types

Compound complex sentence--has two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent

ones.The crowd booed and then they threw rotten apples at me when I

fell on the stage.independent clause + independent clause +

dependent clause

We’re almost finishedappositive--a word or description that renames

something elsewhere in the sentence

Billtried to ask the new girl out.

We’re almost finishedappositive--a word or description that renames

something elsewhere in the sentence

Billtried to ask the new girl

out., my awkward cousin from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania,

You should be comfortable with:• subjects

• verbs

• dependent clauses

• independent clauses

• appositives

• simple sentences

• compound sentences

• complex sentences

• compound complex sentences

If you are not comfortable with any or all of these:

COME TO TUTORING SOON!!!