Sentence structure drills:
Print out this lesson and set of drills. Try to master them on your own first. Only then should you seek help from me or an instructor on duty at the WRC. I apologize for the length (if you are paying by the page) but improving sentence structure requires both knowledge and practice.
Sentence structure drills:
To learn how to control sentence structure, the student needs to learn the basic parts of the sentence. Those basic parts are clauses (main and dependant) and phrases. Read the following tutorials on basic grammar points and complete the following drills in order to practice identifying the parts of sentences and practice putting them together into complete and logical sentences. There is a specific order to the exercises to help you develop your basic sentence structure skills.
Remember that there is further explanation and examples in your text book. All of these concepts can be found in your grammar handbook (like Simon and Schuster, Little Brown, etc.) or college writing textbook (Saint Martin’s Guide, English Skills with Readings, etc.). You also can check one of these types of books out at the WRC.
Clauses and phrases:
A clause is a group of words containing both a subject and a verb. A verb is the action of the sentence. A subject is the person or thing (noun or pronoun) that does the action. This action can be just “being” as in the case of the verb “to be.” Some instructors call this the “linking verb.” For example, in the sentence, “I was at the store,” “I” is the subject and “was” is the verb. A clause can be either independent (main clause) or dependant (requiring a main clause to be complete. In the case of “because I went to the store,” the conjunction “because makes it a dependant clause because it can not stand on its own as a complete sentence.
Be careful with things that look like verbs, but aren’t verbs. There needs to be a subject and verb for it to be the verb of a sentence. Things that look like verbs, like “walking to the store” that aren’t actually verbs (there is no actual subject there) are not verbs at all. This is in fact a phrase.
A phrase is a group of words that has no subject verb pairing. Some of these are prepositional phrases that contain a preposition. A preposition is a (usually short) word that shows relationship in time, space or logic like “under,” “over,” “in,” “around,” or “to.” A phrase can also be a verb phrase that contains something that resembles a verb, like an infinitive (to+ verb), or participle (-ing or –ed form), but not an actual subject/verb.
Exercise 1: Identify the phrases as either verb phrases or prepositional phrases. If it starts with a preposition, it’s a prepositional phrase. If it starts with a form of a verb, like an infinitive or participle, then it is a verb phrase.
1) On the beach ____________
2) Under the porch ____________
3) Walking for exercise ____________
4) For another minute ____________
5) To boldly go ____________
6) Down the road ____________
7) To do something good ____________
8) Printed in error ____________
9) On the other hand ____________
10) For fun ____________
Exercise 2: Underline the clause or clauses in each sentence and circle the phrases.
1) In the morning, the man’s nephew walks to work.
2) My friend Desiree goes to the store every day after work.
3) Since he was alone Alex took his favorite book on his walk in the woods.
4) Mike, before getting in the car, threw his jacket in the back seat.
5) In front of the house, Lola sat on the brick wall beneath the tree.
6) Running from the police, the bank robber tripped on the sidewalk.
7) The glamour model looked at the camera with a strange look.
8) )Amazing the crow with a dazzling flurry, the magician pulled a rabbit out of his hat.
9) Because he had a hot dog for lunch, Manuel had a light meal for dinner.
10) After she caught her meal, the red-tailed hawk landed on the pole.
Transitions versus conjunctions:
Transitions are words that direct the flow of ideas from sentence to sentence. A transition can appear in front of a clause and it is still a complete sentence. A transition like “thus,” “however,” “hence,” “then,” or “next” does not make a clause dependant. The clause, “Therefore, I like doughnuts,” is still a main clause and can stand on its own as a short but complete sentence.
On the other hand, a conjunction makes a clause dependant. There are two types of clause: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. Coordinating conjunctions can be remembered by the word “FANBOYS,” which stands for “for,” “and,” “nor,” “but,” “or,” “yet” and “so.” Subordinating conjunctions are other conjunctions like “because,” “since,” “when,” “while,” “though,” or “although.” If you put one of these on the front of a clause, like “But I like doughnuts,” it is a dependant clause and cannot stand on its own as a sentence. Do note that many prepositions (like “while” in the list above), if they are put on the front of a clause then act as (and are) subordinating conjunctions.
Just to be clear, you can put a transition on the front of a clause and it will still be independent, meaning the sentence can stand on its own. A conjunction, subordinating or coordinating, will make the simple sentence incomplete. That means though they may sound similar in meaning, they are actually completely different animals. “But” is a conjunction that makes the clause “But I like Alice,” incomplete. “However” technically means the same thing, but the clause “However, I like Alice,” is a complete sentence. This is why you should practice the difference between transitions and conjunctions.
Exercise 3: First, decide if the following words are transitions or conjunctions. Use a dictionary to check your answers:
1) However ____________
2) But ____________
3) Besides ____________
4) If ____________
5) Before ____________
6) Furthermore ____________
7) Whereas ____________
8) Consequently ____________
9) Unless ____________
10) For instance ____________
11) Whenever ____________
12) Excluding ____________
13) Except ____________
14) Still ____________
15) While ____________
Answers: 1 T, 2 CC, 3 T, 4 SC, 5 SC, 6 T, 7 SC, 8 T, 9 SC, 10 T, 11 SC, 12 T, 13 T, 14 T, 15 SC.
Exercise 4: Identify each clause below as either a main clause (MC) or dependant clause (DC) depending on whether it has a transition or conjunction. Main clauses have a subject and verb and can stand on their own as a complete sentence. Dependant clauses cannot stand on their own, so require a main clause to be complete. There may be a few phrases sprinkled in to make things interesting. Ignore the phrases for your answers.
1) after Doug put on his shoes ____________
2) he walked to the store ____________
3) and bought a bottle of prop wash ____________
4) even though the man was alone ____________
5) he likes pasta ____________
6) however he hated the stromboli ____________
7) but he liked the pizza ____________
8) at the party, before the game, after she got dressed ____________
9) struggling for air, he ran as fast as he could ____________
10) thus he finished his masterpiece ____________
Fragments:
Fragments are incomplete sentences. Editors and instructors mark them “frag,” and they are considered a severe grammar errors and are typical of writers who need more work on their writing before reacing the technical “college level.” To be a complete sentence, a group of words must have one (and only one) main clause that can stand on its own. It cannot be mererly a group of phrases and/or dependant clauses. There must be one main clause there.
Exercise 5: Identify the following as fragments or complete sentences. Don’t consider length. Find main clauses by looking for subject and verb combinations that can stand on their own. If it is a main clause, it can stand on its own. Pay close attention to conjunctions versus transitions in determining if a clause is dependant or not.
1) Arnold the talking pig. ____________
2) Andrew smokes. ____________
3) There are two parties at the beach. ____________
4) He likes tacos. ____________
5) Since he likes tacos. ____________
6) However, he likes tacos. ____________
7) Yet, he likes tacos. ____________
8) Running as fast as he could. ____________
9) Spanning the globe, to gain as much information as possible, the greatest
news organization ever built. ____________
10) Although she had the book, she did not prepare for class.
____________
Repairing fragments:
Fragments can be fixed by either making them complete, or by adding a main clause. For some fragments, the student can merely change a conjunction into a transition to make the dependant clause complete. For other fragments, where there is no clause (dependant or main), the student will have to either add a main clause, or else attach the fragment to another sentence before or after.
Exercise 6: Repair the following fragments. There may be main clauses sprinkled throughout to make it interesting.
1) Going to practice one day.
2) Smiling all the while, since he had a new car.
3) However the wrestler was angry.
4) The rest of the group paying for the ticket and watching the movie.
5) Another time, because I can’t do it right now.
6) If Fred watched TV.
7) Since the beginning of time.
8) After running the race, because he was tired. He sat on the ground.
9) Unless the bill is paid.
10) Once the parade was over. But the street was littered.
Fused sentences:
The fused sentence error is where the student “fuses” or sticks together two complete sentences together into one sentence construction. This is another significant grammar error that suggests a student needs more work on sentence structure. Editors and instructors mark them as “FS.” A fused sentence is the same as the older term “Run-on.” Grammarians no longer use this term because the technical error itself has no relationship to sentence length or how long it seems to “run.” Also, a comma splice is a specific type of fused sentence where the two complete sentences are put together with a comma. These are sometimes marked as “CS.”
To be complete and correct, a sentence must have one, and only one, main clause. There can be only one part of the sentence that can stand on its own. It can have several dependant parts, but there needs to be only one main clause. If there is no main clause, then it is a fragment. If there are two or more main clauses, then it is a fused sentence.
Fused sentences can be repaired in three basic ways. First, the student can simply divide the two sentences by putting a period on the first complete sentence and capitalizing the first letter of the second complete part to make two sentences.
Next, the student can repair a fused sentence by making one of the independent parts of the sentence subordinate to the other part. This can be done by adding a conjunction to one of the clauses to make it dependant. For example, the student can fix the fused sentence “The goat ate my homework, he was hungry” by adding the conjunction “because.” The fixed sentence would read “The goat ate my homework because he was hungry.” This can also be done by changing the subject/verb combination to something dependant. For example, the student can fix the previous example by changing it to “Being hungry, the goat ate my homework.”
Finally fused sentences can sometimes be repaired by using a semicolon. In this usage, a semicolon can hold together two main clauses. Stylistically though, semicolons are often abused. Computer grammar checkers suggest semicolons to disguise student sentence structure problems without understanding the actual sentence. To merit a semicolon, there needs to be some reason to bind the two main clauses together. There needs to be either some interesting parallel structure between the two clauses, or some other compelling reason to put the sentences together. The example “I went to the store; the mail arrives at two,” is technically correct, since it is two main clauses bound together with a semicolon, but it is stylistically inappropriate. There is not enough connection between the clauses to merit using the semicolon. The semicolon usage in Julius Caesar’s famous line, “I came; I saw; I conquered,” is stylistically appropriate because of the poetic repetition. Note that some editors do accept commas for this sentence because the main clauses are so short, but technically it’s begging for semicolons.
Exercise 7: Repair the following fused sentences. To do so, check for subject and verb combinations to find the clauses. Then determine if they are main or dependant clauses. Correct sentences can contain only one main clause, but they can also have several dependant clauses and/or phrases. The exercises below may contain both dependant and main clauses as well as phrases, and not all are fused. Do not “fix” correct sentences.
1) He walks to school every morning, however he appreciates an occasional ride.
2) Smile she said, the photographer took the picture.
3) Louise was a Native American, she came from the Maidu tribe.
4) Johnny Depp made a good pirate, yet he was better in Cry-Baby.
5) The new iPhone is a wonderful device, it gets Twitter.
6) The robot welded the car, by the way it is more accurate than a human.
7) The British claimed to have won the war of 1812, incidentally the United
States also did.
8) Abraham Lincoln was our greatest president, he won the Civil War and freed
the slaves.
9) Warren G. Harding was our worst president, consequently he was involved in
scandal.
10) In the morning the garage door was stuck, however it was better by lunch.
Sentence structure in practice:
Exercise 8: Punctuate and capitalize the following paragraph logically.
After school, my friends and I would go to 7-11 to play video games we had consoles at home, but it was good to get out of the house however we sometimes came across some scary people there once there was a tall, muscular man loitering outside who had a tattoo on his face and a pit bull while we were leaving he started following us as we walked faster, he would walk faster and his dog was looking at us with a mean glare we stared to run consequently he yelled, “Hey, guys, you dropped your keys!” feeling a sense of relief we thanked him he is now a good friend.
Further work on sentence structure:
Exercise 9: First identify the type of sentence structure error by marking “frag” for fragments, “fs” for fused sentences or “c” for correct sentences in the small space provided. Then correct all errors, if applicable. Watch out for transitions versus conjunctions.
1) Straining, grasping for the goal, yet he has yet to ever make it. __________
2) Unable to proceed, the man gave up, he had had enough. __________
3) The cat left paw prints on my car, he’s in trouble. __________
4) Michele drives a Honda Accord, however Brandy drives a Chevy Camaro.
__________
5) So, he ate his lunch in peace. __________
6) And he donated all of his money to Haiti because he is such a giving person
__________
7) Though he is the right person for the job. __________
8) To aim for the stars is what my students should strive for. __________
9) Thus he broke the speed limit so he could get home on time. __________
10) Burned to the core, the breakfast ruined beyond repair. __________
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