Transcript The Art of Styling Sentences

The Art of Styling
Sentences
Ch. 1
Mr. Ward
English 2/H
What exactly is a sentence?
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A sentence expresses a complete thought and
contains a subject-verb combination.
Most sentences have two parts: the subject,
which is a noun or pronoun, and the verb.
Sometimes a sentence can be a single word:
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What?
Nonsense!
Jump.
What, and Nonsense communicate a complete
thought. Jump has an unspoken “you” as the
subject.
AKA, the “you- understood”
Subject ll Verb
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Let’s break up some simple sentences into
their parts, using vertical lines to separate
different parts.
Throughout the slides,
Subjects will be underlined once, Verbs twice
Fish ll swim.
Koalas ll eat.
With descriptive words (modifiers) added:
The bright yellow fish ll swims swiftly and beautifully.
The cute koalas in the trees ll eat eucalyptus leaves.
Most Common Sentence Patterns
Name
Task
Declarative: A sentence may make a statement.
Interrogative: May it also ask a question?
Imperative: Use it to give an order.
Exclamatory: What great emotion it can express!
When you add descriptive words, the sentences get
longer. Some sentence have phrases—a group of words
that have no subject-verb combinations and usually act as
a modifier. There are several kinds of phrases.
Prepositional phrase: begin with a preposition (in,
on, at, under, and so on) (for example, in the park
, on the table, over the door)
Participle phrase: begin with the present and the
past participle (for example, leading the pack,
grown in the summer)
Infinitive phrase: begins with the infinitive (to plus the
verb) (to play tennis, to stop the project)
You might also expand the basic sentence
with clauses –a group of words
containing a subject-verb combination that
can express a complete thought, but may
not:
Independent clause:
makes a complete statement
communicates an idea by itself
Dependent clause:
modifies part of another clause
does not communicate a complete thought
may be a part of another clause
Independent and dependent clauses can be combined to
form various types of sentences. The most common
types of sentences are:
Simple:
makes a complete sentence
is an independent clause
has only one subject-verb combination
Compound:
makes two or more statements
has two or more independent clauses
has two or more subject-verb combinations
Complex:
has an independent clause
has one or more dependent clauses functioning as modifiers
Compound complex: has two or more independent clauses
has two or more subject-verb combinations
has one or more dependent clauses functioning as modifiers
Subject and verbs
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Sometimes there will be more than one
subject that will come before the (ll) line.
There might also be more than one verb as
well.
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Note that between each Subject Verb combo, you
will need a new (ll) line.
John and David ll raced cars but drove safely.
Sentences can have something extra, but still have one
pair of vertical lines. With transitive verbs (verbs that
describe an action the subject performs) you need a direct
object (DO). A DO receives the action of the verb an
answer the questions “What?” or “Whom?”
Examples:
DO
Jason ll lost his skateboard.
DO
DO
Tamara ll forgot her books but passed the test.
Certain verbs, listed below, are linking verbs
and may have a subject compliment –a
noun, pronoun, or an adjective—that
renames or describes the subject.
Being verbs
am, are, is, was, were,
be, being been
Verbs of sensation
feel, taste, hear, etc.
Other linking verbs
appear, become, seem
The following sentences illustrate the S-V
combination with one or more subject
complements.
Examples:
SC
Princess Diana ll was an idol to many.
SC
English class ll is the highlight of my day.
Subject Compliment (SC)
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Flea markets ll may be ________ or
_______, ________ or _________,
________ or __________.
You can add modifiers to any part of the
sentence or phrases.
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We will mark main clauses by putting a (ll)
between the Subject and Verb, and dependent
clauses will have (l) between subjects and verbs.
We will put brackets […] around dependant
clauses.
Dependant and Independent clauses.
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Long or short sentences ll can sometimes
communicate effectively the most difficult
ideas in the world.
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(Simple sentence, compound verb)
Sterling silver [that l may cost $800 a place
setting] and small kitchen appliances like can
openers or toasters [that l are considered too
basic] ll are no longer popular wedding gifts.
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(Complex sentence with 2 dependent clauses)
Now lets break a whole sentence into its
parts. When making a mechanical analysis
of any sentence use the following labels to
identify the various parts.
S—subject
V—verb
SC—subject compliment
C—conjunction
O—object of preposition
object of infinitive
P—preposition
M—modifier
IO—indirect object
OC—object compliment
DO—direct object
Illustration of the sentence analysis
M
M
M
S
V
M
The Rundown, dirty shoes appeared unbelievably
SC
P M
O
incongruous on the model.
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Write an original sentence using the same parts
as the last sentence.
M M M S V M SC P M O
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