Academic Skills Advice
Grammar:
Sentence Structure
This workshop will:
-
Refresh your understanding of grammar terminology
-
Cover subjects and objects of sentences; simple, compound and complex
sentences: and different clause types for speakers of English
-
Provide an opportunity to practice within the workshop and via follow-on
activities for you to be able to continue to improve your grammar
Teaching points:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Subjects and objects in sentences
Complete and incomplete sentences
What a clause is
Different types of clauses and sentences
Directly adapted from Cottrell (2008) and Harrison, Jakeman and Patterson (2012).
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Academic Skills Advice
1. Parts of a sentence
A sentence must have a subject and a verb connected to it; it may also have an
object.

A SUBJECT ‘does’ the ‘doing’ or action of a verb,
e.g. The DOG bit the cat – DOG is the subject as it is doing the biting.

A VERB is the ‘doing’ part of a sentence,
e.g. The dog BIT the cat – BIT is the verb as it is the action

An OBJECT is the one that is having the ‘doing’ or action ‘done’ to it,
e.g. The dog bit the CAT – CAT is the object as it is the thing that is being bitten.
(Pet care tips; advice and information, 2012)
Many English speakers are not aware of their ability to construct sentences correctly
even though they have not been taught these building blocks. However, it is
important in your academic writing to ensure your grammar is correct at all times, as
if you don’t, it could mean your marker has difficulty understanding what you are
trying to say or you could write something with a different meaning to what you
intended.
Which is the subject, the verb and the object of the following
sentences?
Bradford University attracts students from all over the world.
Matt tidied his room and washed the breakfast dishes. It was Mothers’ Day and he’d
forgotten to buy a card and present.
As you can see, the order of these three elements does not have to be object-verbsubject, they can move around. Let’s go back to that pesky dog and victim cat.
The cat was bitten by the dog
object
verb
subject
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Academic Skills Advice
Even though the order of the words has changed, it is still the dog doing the biting
so he/she remains the subject, and the cat is still being bitten and so remains the
object.
Activity 1: Identifying the object and subject
Highlight the object and subject in the following sentences. Check with your
neighbour to see if your results tally.
A. 30 English Language students were invited to participate in the study by their
tutor.
B. The researcher injected the bacterium with solution A.
C. Measuring the model’s speed proved difficult due to problems with the device
the students developed.
D. A high temperature in a patient can indicate the presence of many diseases or
infections.
Arranging these three elements in different ways not only changes how we actually
read the content, but also how we perceive what we have written. The writer wants
us to think or feel a certain way. This is connected with ‘voice’ which is one of the
subjects of another workshop we run.
2. Complete and incomplete sentences
To be complete, a sentence needs a subject and a main verb. As such, it carries an
idea and makes sense on its own. But a sentence does not need an object. See
below:
The results of the experiment were recorded.
subject
verb
If you are unsure about the above example, there is a silent bit – ‘by me’ – which
would be the object, the one who is doing the recording. So it would read:
The results of the experiment were recorded. (by me)
subject
verb
(object)
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Academic Skills Advice
Sentences can also be incomplete due to clauses missing (more about clauses soon)
or missing links between different parts of a sentence.
Let’s look at the sentence below:
Using statistics to confuse the reader as much as anything else.
There is an issue with this incomplete sentence. The first part of the sentence:
‘Using statistics to confuse the reader...’
sets up an expectation that something happened or will happen. You are waiting for
the main verb similar to ‘meant’ or ‘will’ or ‘ensures’ or ‘is’, so it could read…
Using statistics to confuse the reader is a deliberate ploy by the government.
In this sentence we have our expectation met – we know what the confusion over
statistics was for.
Also, what does ‘as much as anything else’ mean? It doesn’t make sense in this
context AND is too vague a phrase to use in academic writing anyway.
Complete or incomplete?
In spite of all the changes that had taken place and how much the situation had
altered in the intervening years.
Activity 2: Complete or incomplete and why? (You’ll get more practice later.)
A. With the arrival of environmental engineering, approaches to some projects
required fresh thinking.
B. It’s about being clear, ensuring your marker is able to see the point you are
making easily.
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Academic Skills Advice
3. What a clause is
Many people find the term ‘clause’ daunting, but a clause is
just a building block of a sentence with each one adding to
the overall detail of a sentence. Without clauses, writing can
be boring and child-like.
 A clause is a group of words that may or may not have a complete meaning
on their own.
 A sentence may contain more than one clause, but must have one main
clause.
4. Different types of clauses and sentences
Main clauses:


a sentence must have one
a sentence may consist only of one clause (all the sentence examples above
are one clause long)
Co-ordinated clauses:
a sentence may consist of two main clauses that make sense on their own, linked by
a conjunction – this is a compound sentence.
Two separate sentences combine into one compound sentence:
sentence and main clause
sentence and main clause
The results of the experiment were recorded. The data was put in a spreadsheet.
The results of the experiment were recorded and the data was put in a spreadsheet.
one main clause
conjunction
one main clause
There are many words that can be used as conjunctions including ‘or’, ‘but’, and ‘so’.
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Academic Skills Advice
Other clauses: a sentence may consist of a main clause and one or more other nonmain clauses which would not make sense on their own; they may follow one
another or one may be within another – this is a complex sentence.
One sentence which is a main clause and one other non-main clause combine into a
complex sentence:
sentence and one main clause
The results of the experiment were recorded.
non–main clause
that more sugar can be dissolved in water the higher the temperature of the liquid
start of original sentence
start of non-main clause
The results of the experiment, that more sugar can be dissolved in water the higher
the temperature of the liquid, were recorded.
end of non-main clause
end of original sentence
Non-main clauses can go in the middle or the end of complex sentences.
A bit more information
-
Clauses are normally separated by commas or conjunctions
A main clause does not does not have to begin a sentence
A clause that is not a main clause does not have to have a verb or subject
Quick reminder - a sentence contains a subject and verb to make sense on its
own
Bored yet?
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Academic Skills Advice
Let’s try putting this all together by re-writing the following so
it makes grammatical sense and is appropriate academic writing.
The jury system is a central plank of the British legal system. A number of critics of it
who say that it is outdated. Many cases too complex for ordinary members of the
public. The result they feel that juries should not be used any longer.
Suggested answer:
Activity 3: Sentences and clauses
Read these paragraphs and highlight where there are errors. With your neighbour,
rewrite the paragraphs so that they contain only complete sentences. To do this you
may need to add linking words to join some sentences together, create clauses
and/or re-word some parts.
a)A number of reasons why the ruling party might lose the next election. The state
of the economy is probably the top one. Many people are losing jobs and businesses
are unable to attract investment. A growing loss of faith in the government.
Suggested answer:
b)TV watchers could not believe how many people the protest attracted. Despite one
of the wettest days of the year. On every street in the city centre, hundreds of
protestors. Carrying slogans and denounced the government’s policies.
Suggested answer:
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Academic Skills Advice
If you would like help with other aspects of grammar such as voice, common
mistake and homophones, or with punctuation we run workshops on these subjects.
You can also visit The Language Centre at Bradford University who will be able to
provided additional support to ALL students:
http://www.brad.ac.uk/study/languages/international-study-centre/
References
Clip art: alarm/tired/question
Cottrell, S. (2008) The Study Skills Handbook, 3rd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Harrison, V., Jakeman, M., and Paterson K. (2012) Improve your Grammar.
Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan
Pet care tips; advice and information (2012) Cat bitten by dog. Available at:
http://www.petcaregt.com/blog/cat-bitten-by-dog.html (Accessed 18.6.2014)
Answers
Parts of a sentence
Bradford University attracts students from all over the world.
object
verb
subject
Matt tidied his room and washed the breakfast dishes.
objectverb subject
verb
subject
It was Mothers’ Day and he’d forgotten to buy a card and present.
ob v
subject
ob
verbs
subject
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Academic Skills Advice
Activity 1: Identifying the object and subject
Underlined is object and emboldened is subject
30 English Language students were invited to participate in the study by their
tutor.
The researcher injected the bacterium with solution A.
Measuring the model’s speed proved difficult due to problems with the device the
students developed.
A high temperature in a patient can indicate the presence of many diseases or
infections.
is this sentence complete or incomplete?
In spite of all the changes that had taken place and how much the situation had
altered in the intervening years.
This is an incomplete sentence. The above clause sets the scene, it sets up an
expectation that although all these changes and alterations have been made,
something will not or has not happened. It’s called a causal link, ie.
X therefore Y
The sentence could read…
In spite of all the changes that had taken place and how much the situation had
altered in the intervening years, education is still the subject of debate regarding
examination pass standards.
X therefore Y
Because even though all these changes and alterations have been made, there is
still room for discussion about examination pass standards.
Activity 2: Complete or incomplete
With the arrival of environmental engineering, approaches to some projects required
fresh thinking.
This sentence is complete. There is a link between each clause. This sentence is
written in a particularly stylistic way so it may be easier to see the link if you
rearrange it:
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Academic Skills Advice
Approaches to some projects required fresh thinking with (meaning ‘due to’) the
arrival of environmental engineering.
So
X therefore Y
and Activity 3: Clauses and sentences
The jury system is a central plank of the British legal system, although a number of
critics of it say that it is outdated with many cases being too complex for ordinary
members of the public. Therefore, they feel juries should not be used any longer.
There are a number of reasons why the ruling party might lose the next election,
with the state of the economy probably being the top one. Many people are losing
jobs and businesses are unable to attract investment generating a growing loss of
faith in the government.
TV watchers could not believe how many people the protest attracted, despite it
being held on one of the wettest days of the year. On every street in the city centre,
hundreds of protestors carried slogans and denounced the government’s policies.
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