Nuts and Bolts of Sentence Style: Teacher’s Notes

MECHANICS

IMPORTANT TERMS
A CLAUSE is any subject-verb unit. “Shaving in the bathroom” is not a clause. “I was shaving in the bathroom” is a clause (so is just “I was shaving.”)

A PHRASE is any group of words lacking a complete subject and verb. “Shaving in the bathroom” is phrase, not a clause. Phrases alone cannot be sentences.

Examples:
Sheila skates is a clause. It can be a sentence.

Sheila skating is a phrase. It cannot be a sentence.

1. Remember, a clause is a subject + a verb. However not all clauses are sentences. To be as sentence, a clause must be independent (it must make complete sense on its own).

Dependent Clause: Has a subject & verb, but is not a sentence.

After Jim punched the banana vendor. [Fragment]

Words that make clauses dependent are called subordinators. After, because, while, since, until, due to, before, and so on are all subordinating words or phrases.

Independent Clause:Has a subject & verb, and can be a sentence.

Jim punched the banana vendor.

A rhetorical fragment is when an author deliberately uses a fragment for creative effect. Avoid these in formal writing! Save them for poems and stories.

Rhetorical Fragment: I won’t pay. Not until you apologize.

Remember: All sentences are clauses, but not all clauses are sentences.

2. Introductory elements (phrases and clauses). When you start a sentence with a phrase or clause that is not the main sentence, you must set it off with commas.

Introductory phrase: Until then, I won’t pay.

Introductory clause: Until you give me an apology, I won’t pay.

3. Commas with series. A series is three or more items in a list. Having TWO items is not a series, it is a compound element and does NOT take commas.

Series:I donated shoes, balls, and rackets.

Compound: I donatedballs and rackets.

4. Commas connecting clauses: If you connect two independent clauses (two sentences) with a FANBOY (for/and/nor/but/or/yet/so), you must use a comma. If you take away the FANBOYS, you must use a semicolon.

Coordinator:I was sued by Jimmy, but I don’t think it’s fair.

Semicolon: I was sued by Jimmy; I don’t think it’s fair.

You may ask: Can I use a semicolon AND a coordinator? You can. But don’t. It usually sounds dumb.

5. Commas with nonessential information. “Nonessential” information is material that can be taken out of a sentence without confusing its meaning.

Nonessential: The police officer, who happened to be passing by, gave me a warning.

Essential: The police officer who pulled me over is the one that I want to talk to.

6. Commas with conjunctions: subordinators and coordinators

Subordinators: These words make a clause dependent on other information to complete the meaning:

BECAUSE I couldn’t stop.
BEFORE Marvin punched the bunny.
UNTIL you quit texting me.

Coordinators: These conjunctions are used with commas to connect grammatical units.

I got a headache, and you gave it to me!
Until now, I never did understand Public Enemy, nor would I buy their albums.
We tried to stop the car, but the brakes failed.

7. Colons that introduce: Colons introduce lists and statements that do not flow as part of a complete sentence.

Lists: After her bath, my dog stopped doing all these annoying things: shedding, whining, and breathing.

Complete sentences: Tyrone made the following statement about bunnies: “I do not fear them, but they do fear me.”

8. Semicolons that connect sentences: Semicolons connect complete sentences that you do not wish to use a comma/FANBOYS combination with.

Tell Moriarti I’m coming for him; actually, I think I will tell him myself.

9. Dashes that set off phrases: Dashes can take the place of commas, parentheses, or colons to interject phrases that contain extra thoughts or ideas. Dashes can be effective, but should be limited in use and only used when you are certain they are correct.

Mary Grace—our Chief Editor of the last two years—graduated last year.

10. Parallel structure (sentence order): Parallel sentence structure is when grammatical formations are consistent.

Before he died, he was really into gambling, racing, and ice fishing. [NOT …gambling, racing, and to ice fish.]

I felt overwhelmed and underpaid. [NOT “…overwhelmed and like they didn’t pay me.”]

11. Objects: Objects are the words that receive the action of transitive verbs. Transitive verbs carry physical or mental action (“hits, means, directs, pushes, names”). If you can do something TO somebody or something else, the verb is transitive.

Direct Object: Direct objects receive transitive verb action.
Tim mailed the letter. Then he named his baby.

Indirect Object: Indirect objects answer the question “to whom/to what” is the direct object intended.

Tim mailed Bob the letter. I gave his baby a birthday present, even though he doesn’t appreciate it.

12. Predicates: Predicates are words or entire phrases that contain the descriptions that completed intransitive verbs such as “is/are, feels, looks.” Intransitive verbs do not carry action; rather, they establish a state of being or existence.

Predicate noun: I am the sheriff. You can be the deputy.

Predicate adjective:Marissa feels blue. However, she still looks nice.

13. Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement: An antecedent is the word that comes before another word that agrees with it grammatically. If JOHN ate HIS dinner, then “his” agrees with John because it is possessive and masculine. “John” would be the antecedent because it comes before the pronoun.

Certain pronouns are often treated as plural that are actually singular: Anybody, somebody, everyone, someone, each, every.

Everybody out there had better grab his or her stuff because I am coming them all.

14. Phrases: Certain phrases are used to add descriptive power to boring or unclear sentences. Depending on how they are made, these phrases have different names.

Appositives: These rename the subject word.

My dad, the cop, arrested me for disorderly conduct.

Gerunds: These are made of the -ing form of verbs, and behave as nouns.

I really hate being hit in the face. She doesn’t like eating salad.

Infinitives:These are made of the infinitive form “to” + verb. These behave as either nouns, adjectives, or adverbs:

Noun: I don’t want to play (“to play” is the direct object).
Adjective: Jackson is the man to kill(“to kill” describes “man,” answering what kind)
Adverb:To get home, you turn at the mill (“to get home” describes the verb “turn”)

15. Subject Verb Agreement: Subjects and verbs must agree in person and number. Tricky subjects sometimes cause problems…especially when there’s more than one subject of a sentence.

See the exercise for explanations and examples.