The Art of Styling Sentences
The Art of Styling Sentences
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There are 20 patterns (with variations).
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Practicing what these patterns can do will show
you a way to improve your writing and
understanding of correct punctuation.
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The patterns have been divided by grade levels.
What is a Sentence?
an effort to communicate a complete thought
•
What?
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Stop!
(issues a simple command to an intended audience)
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Drats!
(expression of emotion)
(communicates the confusion or surprise of the speaker)
Basic sentences have a subject and verb
The cat ate.
I fell.
subject
verb
Basic sentences have a subject and verb
The cat ate.
I fell.
Basic sentences have a subject and verb
The cat ate.
I fell.
Basic sentences have a subject and verb
The gray cat ate.
I fell awkwardly .
Single Modifier
The gray cat ate.
I fell awkwardly.
Single Modifier
The gray cat ate.
I fell awkwardly.
Phrases as modifiers
The gray cat ate.
I fell awkwardly.
Phrases as modifiers
with yellow eyes
ate.
The gray cat
I fell awkwardly
to the stage
.
Phrases as modifiers
The gray cat with yellow eyes ate.
I fell awkwardly to the stage
.
Clauses
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Independent clauses--complete thoughts that can stand
on their own as complete sentences
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Subordinate clauses--may have a subject and verb, but
are ultimately an incomplete thought
Dependent Clauses
complex sentence:
dependent clause + independent clause
After the mean neighborhood dog left, the gray cat with the yellow eyes ate.
complex sentence:
independent clause + dependent
clause
I fell awkwardly to the stage when the choreography required me to spin in a circle.
Subordinate ClauseTest:
Read it. If the thought is incomplete, then it is subordinate.
Sentence types
Simple Sentence--a single independent clause
I fell.
Sentence Types
Compound sentence--has 2 independent clauses, makes
two statements or has two or more subject/verb
combinations
I fell and I cried.
Sentence Types
Complex sentence--contains an independent clause and
one or more dependent clauses
I fell awkwardly to the stage when the choreography
required me to spin in a circle.
Sentence Types
Compound complex sentence--has two or more
independent clauses and one or more dependent ones.
The crowd booed and then they threw rotten apples at me when I fell on the
stage.
independent clause
+
independent clause
+
dependent clause
We’re almost finished
appositive--a word or description that renames something
elsewhere in the sentence
Bill tried to ask the new girl out.
We’re almost finished
appositive--a word or description that renames something
elsewhere in the sentence
Bill , my awkward cousin from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania,
tried to ask the new girl out.
You should be comfortable with:
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subjects
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verbs
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dependent clauses
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independent clauses
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appositives
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simple sentences
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compound sentences
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complex sentences
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compound complex sentences
If you are not comfortable with any or all of
these:
COME TO TUTORING SOON!!!