Writing an effective sentence
In order to write an effective sentence, you must be able to recognize and combine
dependent and independent clauses to express complete ideas.
An independent clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb and expresses an
idea completely. An independent clause is a complete sentence. This is an example of an
independent clause:
The dog chewed on its bone.
The subject of this sentence is “the dog”, and the verb is “chewed”. This sentence
completely expresses the idea of what the dog did – it chewed on its bone.
A dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb but doesn’t
express an idea completely. A dependent clause is not a complete sentence. This is an
example of a dependent clause:
While the dog chewed on its bone …
This group of words has the same subject and verb as before, but it doesn’t give the reader
the whole picture. It leaves questions – like what was the dog doing while it chewed on its
bone?
Identifying dependent clauses
Dependent clauses usually begin with key words like because, before, while, when, if, so, and
in order to, to name a few. If you use one of these words to begin a sentence, you must
finish the thought by expressing the idea completely.
An effective sentence combines dependent and independent clauses to express a complete idea
Many students make sentence errors because they do not complete their thought. The
easiest way to create effective sentences that express complete ideas is to combine
dependent and independent clauses. This is an example of a combined sentence:
While the dog chewed on its bone, it growled at me, so I left it alone.
Notice that this sentence has two dependent clauses (“while the dog chewed on its bone”
and “so I left it alone”) and one independent clause (“it growled at me”). Together they
express a complete thought and provide detail to the reader.
For more information about writing effective sentences, visit the Trinity Writing Center’s
website at http://www.trinitydc.edu/offices/writing/index.html.
Trinity Writing Center 5/08