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Overview
Do your sentences run longer than a page? Or do they hang in the air, waiting for a subject, an object or some punctuation to finish them off?
This easy-to-use guide to sentence writing not only teaches you how to overcome run-ons and sentence fragments, but also all of the sentence construction obstacles encountered by anyone who needs to master (or re-master) the English language—all without making you do a single dreaded diagram! You’ll learn a sentence-combining approach to writing that goes beyond helping you avoid errors by teaching you how to create sound sentences with variety and style.
You’ll also find:
- Clear discussions of rules and strategies for good writing
- Easy-to-understand explanations and plenty of exercises, from fill-in-the-blanks to transforming short sentences into longer and more graceful combinations
- An answer key at the back of the book to encourage you to work at your own pace and check your answers as you go
Even if you can’t spare thirty minutes a day to learn how to write brilliant sentences, Better Sentence Writing in 30 Minutes a Day allows you to customize your learning to take as little as five minutes a day.
Just like its companion guides in the Better English Series, this book is just what the teacher ordered!
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781601636232 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Red Wheel/Weiser |
| Publication date: | 06/23/2023 |
| Series: | Better English |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 226 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Sentence Structure
1.1 Basic Clause Patterns
Some college students can define a sentence, and some can't, but no doubt you know a sentence when you see one. Read the following choices and circle the letter of the one that is a sentence.
(a) Noses entire people's throughout grow lives their.
(b) Their grow lives throughout people's noses entire
(c) Grow lives their people's entire throughout noses.
(d) People's noses grow throughout their entire lives.
Each of the four sentences contains the same words, but only one makes sense — (d). Sequence (d) makes sense because the words in it are arranged in the form of a sentence. Your ability to recognize the sentence shows how natural the sentence pattern is and how much intuitive language skill you already have.
Simple Sentences — Those with One Clause
In order to make good sentences and avoid making errors, we need to develop a basic working definition of a sentence.
Sentences are made up of clauses — sometimes one clause, sometimes more than one. This chapter focuses on simple sentences — those that contain one clause. Later, you'll work with sentences that contain more than one clause.
A clause is a subject plus a predicate. The subject of a clause names something, such as a person, object, place, or idea. The subject is usually one or more nouns or pronouns. The subject might also be a noun substitute.
The predicate makes a statement about the subject by telling something about it. The predicate tells one of two things about the subject: It tells that the subject is performing an action, or it states the condition of the subject.
Finding Verbs in Clauses
The easiest way to analyze a clause is to look first at the predicate. The most important part of the predicate is the verb.
1. Action Verbs — Visible and Invisible
You probably know that most verbs show some kind of action. Sometimes this is visible action, as in she swims or they kissed. At other times, it is invisible action, as in he forgot or we decided.
The verb in our original example sentence shows visible action. Draw a line beneath the verb and write ? above it.
People's noses grow throughout their entire lives.
If you identified grow, you're correct. That's the word that shows the visible action of the subject. What's the subject doing? In this sentence, it's growing.
2. Linking Verbs
Other verbs, such as is and seem, don't show an action; instead, they show a subject to be in a certain condition or state of being. They do this by linking the subject to a word or words in the predicate. These verbs are linking verbs.
Let's look at two example sentences:
The woman is an intern. The students seem confident.
In these sentences, the woman and the students are not performing actions, but they are in a state of being or a condition. We might say that, in the first case, the woman is in the state of being an intern and, in the second case, the students are in the condition of being confident.
There are many linking verbs, such as additional tenses of the verb to be (am, are, was, were, will be, has been, have been, had been, and others) and various forms of the verbs appear, become, feel, look, smell, sound, and taste.
3. The Role of Context
Some verbs are action verbs in one context and linking verbs in another. In sentence (a), is the italicized verb describing an action or a condition?
(a) I smelled the familiar fragrance of Chanel No. 5 in the living room.
In (a), the verb from smelled is describing an action, the action of the subject (I) smelling. Now notice the very different meaning of the same word in sentence (b).
(b) The rotten chicken smelled terrible.
In (b), the subject (chicken), is not performing an action. The verb in (b) shows that the chicken is in a certain condition — the condition of smelling bad.
Finding Subjects in Clauses
Let's return again to our original example sentence:
People's noses grow throughout their entire lives.
To find the subject, simply ask yourself, "What grows?" Noses. The word noses is the simple subject or the key word within the complete subject. The complete subject of any sentence is the simple subject or key word plus all the modifiers attached to it.
Throughout our work with clauses, we'll focus on the key word or words within the complete subject because that's what is most directly tied to the predicate. A key word is what the predicate makes a statement about. And, in the present tense, it's the simple subject with which the verb must agree.
Finding Elements That Complete the Verb
In the sentence People's noses grow throughout their entire lives, nothing is needed to complete the verb grow. Even though four words follow grow in the sentence, those words are not needed for sentence structure. They're needed for the writer's meaning, but not for completing the clause. The subject and verb (noses grow) make a certain kind of sense and give a feeling of completeness.
But there are other verbs that, by themselves, cannot make a complete structure with a subject. Consider these subject and verb combinations:
they desire she said the tree was people need Bill kissed tourists want
These sets leave you hanging, wondering: They desire what? She said what? Bill kissed whom? In each case, the verb needs a word or words to complete its meaning. The words that do this job in the predicate of a clause are called complements and objects. We'll look at their basic types.
1. Subject Complements
One important kind of complement is the subject complement, which follows a linking verb. A subject complement is a noun, pronoun, adjective, or adverb of place that follows a verb in a clause. Here are some sentences in which the subject complements are underlined:
Martha Aliaga is a superb math teacher.
The subject complement answers the question, "Martha Aliaga is what?"
The juniors are our representatives on the committee.
The subject complement answers the question, "The juniors are what?"
James feels wonderful.
The subject complement answers the question, "James feels how?"
2. Direct and Indirect Objects
Direct Objects Linking verbs are not the only kind of verb that needs completion. Another type of verb that needs completion is a kind of action verb called the transitive verb. This is a verb that carries or transfers action from the subject before the verb to the object after the verb.
The words that complete the meaning of transitive verbs are called direct objects. They follow action verbs and answer the question "What?" or "Whom?" A good example is I need you. You is the direct object of the verb need.
Do all sentences with action verbs have direct objects? Let's return to the first sentence we considered: People's noses grow throughout their entire lives. This sentence has an action verb, but it doesn't have an object. The verb grow doesn't need one; noses grow has a sense of completeness. Although grow shows action, here it is not a transitive verb; it's an intransitive verb. It does not move or transport action from the subject to the object. So some action verbs are intransitive, and all linking verbs are intransitive.
So far, we've only looked at linking verbs, because linking verbs are the only kind that are followed by subject complements. In these next sentences, we'll see only action verbs, because action verbs are the kind that take direct objects. We'll label the direct object do and underline it:
do We passed the collection basket.
the direct object answers the question, "We passed what?"
do Frank paid the money.
The direct object answers the question, "Frank paid what?"
One way to check if a word is a direct object is to try using it as the subject of a passive version of the same sentence. If it is a direct object, it will work as the subject. For example, the active sentence We passed the collection basket becomes the passive sentence The collection basket was passed by us.
If a sentence has a linking verb and a subject complement, you won't be able to transform it from active into passive. This transformation works only with sentences that contain direct objects.
Indirect Objects Sometimes the predicate of a clause also contains a word that is indirectly affected by the verb. This word is called the indirect object, and it comes before the direct object. The indirect object tells to whom or for whom an action is done. We'll use IO as the abbreviation for indirect object.
io do We passed the boy the collection basket.
We passed what? The basket. To whom? To the boy.
io do Francie sent Eduardo the money.
Francie sent what? The money. For whom? For Eduardo.
If you are having difficulty keeping direct and indirect objects straight, reconsider the first sentence. Did we pass the boy from person to person? Or did we pass the collection basket? Which word is directly affected by the verb passed? It's basket — the direct object. The word boy is only indirectly affected, so it's the indirect object.
Some common verbs that are followed by both indirect and direct objects are the forms of bring, buy, give, lend, offer, sell, send, and write. Try writing a few simple sentences with these verbs, and you'll probably automatically create clauses with both indirect and direct objects.
3. Object Complements
Some direct objects need a little something extra. They themselves need to be completed by an object complement. This word clarifies the meaning of the verb in a sentence or makes the meaning richer. The object complement always follows a direct object, and it helps to complete a direct object by identifying or modifying it.
Object complements are often found in clauses with verbs such as appoint, choose, consider, elect, make, name, and think. These verbs have one thing in common: They all roughly mean to make or consider.
We'll use ob com as our abbreviation. Here are some examples:
do ob com We painted the town red.
Can you see how this sentence means roughly the same as "We made the town red"?
do ob com Gerald called his mother a saint.
This sentence is similar to "Gerald considered his mother a saint."
Like subject complements, object complements can be nouns or adjectives. Clauses with object complements don't occur as often as the other types of clauses we've examined.
Summary of Basic Clause Types
There are five basic types of clause.
Exercise 1.1
In the following sentences, label the subject s, the verb v, the direct object do, the indirect object io, the subject complement sub com, and the object complement ob com.
1. His motive was mysterious.
2. I bought the suit.
3. The woman in the second row coughed.
4. Caroline gave Steven a choice.
5. The nectarines feel ripe.
A note on multiple parts: In the remaining exercises, you may find clauses with more than one key word in the subject or more than one verb, complement, or object. In the following sentences, use the blanks provided to identify the multiple parts that appear in italics:
1. Rose, gray, and white are her favorite colors. ______
2. He loves and respects her. ________
3. The little girl is curious and spunky. ________
4. I bought fudge, cashews, and a newspaper. ________
5. The architect gave her clients and the entire audience a real surprise. ________
6. The release of the movie made him rich and famous.
7. The decision surprised Isaac and angered Anna. _______ _______
Item 1 has three key words in the subject. Item 2 has two verbs. Item 3 has two subject complements. Item 4 has three direct objects. Item 5 has two indirect objects. Item 6 has two object complements. Item 7 has two verbs (surprised and angered) and two direct objects (Isaac and Anna).
Exercise 1.2
Label the parts of the following simple sentences, using s for subject, v for verb, do for direct object, io for indirect object, sub com for subject complement, and ob com for object complement. Remember: Find the verb first.
1. Serious baseball fans consider Nolan Ryan a superb major league pitcher.
2. According to statistics, the typical major league pitcher shows hitters his best stuff at age thirty.
3. But a recent baseball season was Ryan's twenty-fourth in the big leagues.
4. According to the radar guns, at this point in his long career, his fastballs sometimes reached speeds of one hundred miles per hour.
5. Ryan's amazing fastball made his curveball more effective.
1.2 A Closer Look at Subjects
Let's take a closer look at the subject of the clause. Simple subjects or key words within complete subjects are nouns, pronouns, or noun substitutes. The key word might be a single noun, a single pronoun, or a combination of the two.
Nouns
You might remember that a noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea. In this definition, the word thing means a concrete noun, something you can touch or experience through one of the senses, and the word idea means an abstract noun, something that you can't touch, something intangible.
These nouns are arranged in their respective groups:
Persons Places Things Ideas
accountant kitchen butter success doctor city magazines memories mothers Idaho toothpaste cheerfulness Santa Claus Disneyworld Kleenex Judaism
As you can see, nouns can be singular (one) or plural (more than one). Some are capitalized, and some are not.
1. The Noun-Marker Test
All of the listed nouns, except the capitalized ones, can follow the words a, an, or the, which are called noun markers, because they signal or "mark" the appearance of a noun. For instance, you can say an accountant, the kitchen, the butter, and a success. But you cannot get the same sense of completeness by saying a beautiful or the scary, because beautiful and scary are adjectives, not nouns.
2. The Subject Test for Nouns
Another way to see if a word is a noun is to try to use it as the subject of a sentence. If a word can be used in this way, it's either a noun or a pronoun.
Let's say, for instance, that we want to see if decorate and decoration are nouns. We can try each as the subject of a sentence:
(a) The decorate lit up the room.
(b) The decoration lit up the room.
This test quickly shows us that decoration is a noun but decorate is not. If you need to practice identifying nouns, try the next exercise.
Exercise 1.3
In each of the following pairs, one word is a noun and one is not. Use the noun-marker test or the subject test to decide which one is the noun. Then circle the noun in each pair.
1. begin, beginning
2. prediction, predict
3. organization, organize
4. liar, lied
5. gently, gentleness
6. decide, decision
7. allow, allowance
8. reliability, rely
9. collection, collect
10. defy, defiance
Most of the nouns in Exercise 1.3 are idea nouns; they're abstract. Notice how often they have the same word endings. Here are five common noun suffixes: -ance, -ity, -ment, -ness, and -tion.
Pronouns
Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns. We use them to avoid repeating a noun over and over. For example, instead of writing, "Dancing is a popular form of exercise. Dancing burns up two hundred to four hundred calories per hour," a student might want to change the subject of the second sentence to the pronoun It, which, in the context, would clearly mean dancing.
This chapter focuses on the pronoun's ability to function as a subject. But pronouns can do all sorts of other things in sentences, too. Let's look at three groups of pronouns that can be used as subjects of independent clauses. (Pronouns can be subjects of dependent clauses, too.)
It's not necessary to memorize these pronouns in their three groups, but it's essential to know that they are pronouns and can be the subjects of sentences.
Noun Substitutes
In addition to nouns and pronouns, other constructions can work as subjects. These are words, phrases, or clauses that perform the same job as a noun. (Aphrase is any series of two or more words that is less than a clause. A phrase might have a subject-type word or a word from the verb category, but not both.)
Let's look at a few examples of the main types of noun substitutes. In each case, a phrase does the same job a one-word noun could do.
1. Infinitive Verb Phrases
An infinitive verb phrase is any verb preceded by the word to. Examples are to walk, to sing, to dream. Look at this sentence:
To decide is to take a risk.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Better Sentence-Writing In 30 Minutes a Day"
by .
Copyright © 1995 The Career Press, Inc..
Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Preface,
Chapter 1 Introduction to Sentence Structure,
Chapter 2 Sentence Combining: Basic Strategies and Common Problems,
Chapter 3 Punctuating Sentence Combinations,
Chapter 4 Revising Sentences,
Chapter 5 Free Exercises in Sentence Combining,
Chapter 6 Revising at the Word Level,
Answer Key,
Sources,
Index,