Subject: The person or thing performing the action in the clause. For purposes of our combining, a subject is more than one word long.
Sentence Combining:
Consists of combining different clauses to get different results out of your sentences.
These combinations require us to use various grammatical devices and various forms of punctuation.
Definitions:
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Subject: The person or thing performing the action in the clause. For purposes of our combining, a subject is more than one word long. |
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Predicate: The action being performed. For purposes of our combining, a predicate is more than one word long. |
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Independent Clause (IC): An IC is a group of words consisting of a subject, a predicate, and a complete thought. It can stand alone as a sentence. |
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Dependent Clause (DC): A DC is a group of words which cannot stand alone as a sentence. It frequently has the subject and predicate, but lacks a complete thought. |
Remember:
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1) Each clause must be separated by something, or you will have an error. |
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2) Good writing consists of multiple sentence types. Variety is key. |
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3) The more advanced your sentence types, the more advanced your writing will be, and thus, the higher the grade. |
Sentence Types:
1) Simple Sentence: Consists of a singe IC.
EX: He ran.
Subject: He
Predicate: Ran
EX: The greasy man with the sweaty mustache ran to KFC and slipped on chicken fat eating the boneless barbecue wings.
Subject: The fat man with the sweaty mustache
Predicate: ran to KFC and slipped on chicken fat eating the boneless barbecue wings
2) Compound Sentence: Consists of two IC’s combined together.
A) comma plus coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
EX: He ran, and he fell.
EX: He fell, so he got back up.
B) semicolon (;)
EX: He ran; he fell.
EX: He ran; he won the race.
C) semicolon plus conjunctive adverb plus comma (indeed, consequently, therefore, however, meanwhile, furthermore, moreover, nevertheless, etc.)
EX: He ran; indeed, he won the race.
EX: He ran; nevertheless, he lost the race
EX: He ran; meanwhile, his heart was about to explode.
D) There are other methods as well, including the colon (:), dashes (--), and
correlative conjunctions (both…and, either…or, etc.)
3) Complex Sentence: Consists of an IC joined with a DC.
NOTE: The DC requires a subordinate clause (after, although, before, unless,
until, while, once, even though, because, even if, even, whether, as if, etc.)
A) IC before DC, use a subordinate clause and no punctuation.
EX: He ran although he lost the race.
EX: He lost the race even though he ran as fast as he could.
B) DC before IC, start with subordinate clause and use a comma in the middle.
EX: Because he ran as fast as he could, he heart exploded.
EX: Even if he lost the race, he won a personal victory by completing it.
4) Compound-Complex Sentence: Two IC’s joined with one DC using any of the methods above.