DIE, COMMA SPLICE,
DIE!
How to write better sentences and
“kill off” the comma splice.
What is a sentence in English?
aka. What is the anatomy of a
sentence?
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A sentence is a group of words with a
verb. It starts with a capital letter and
ends with a stop, such as a full stop, a
question mark (?) or an exclamation mark
(!).
These are the ONLY three ways to
finish writing a sentence.
What is a group of words without a
verb?
This is called a phrase.
Examples:
 William Shakespeare, the greatest
playwright.
 As the students were eating.
 Not allowing bubble gum at school.
 School Rules.
 Sultan, the dog.
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What does a sentence have to
consist of ?
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A sentence MUST consist of the following:
It MUST have a subject and
It MUST have a verb
It MUST have a predicate.
E.g., The students (subject = who or what?)
applauded the speaker. (predicate)
Everything in the sentence from the verb
on is the predicate.
What is a clause? (not claws!)
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A sentence consists of one or more
clauses.
This is an example of one clause: The
students applauded the speaker.
Why is it one clause?
Because it only has one verb. What is the
verb in the above sentence? _______
What is a sentence with only one
clause called?
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It is called a simple sentence. The word
“simple” in terms of sentence construction
means one verb and one clause only. It
can also be called “an independent
clause.” It is called independent because it
doesn’t need anything else around it to
make sense; it can make sense on its
own.
Furthermore, …….
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Sentences can (but don’t have to, contain) objects.
For example:
The students applauded the speaker.
The students = subject
Applauded = verb
The speaker = object
If you add the verb to the object, then Applauded
the speaker = predicate.
Use this code to analyse
sentences.
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Bracket the subject
(
)
Underline the verb
______
Bracket the object
(
)
Square bracket the predicate.[
]
Try the following exercises now.
Revise new learning:
 The students. (Is this a sentence? If not,
why not? What is it? ____________
 The students applauded.
 The students applauded the speaker.
Try the following now, using the
given code.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
The students opened their laptops.
The students loved the hamburgers.
The students clapped.
The students disagreed with the teacher.
The Spanish students love Glendowie College.
The Year 9 ALP students are working very hard this year.
The ALP classes will soon perform in the Night of the Notables.
The Night of the Notables is a fantastic event for parents.
Parents love to see their sons/daughters in the Night of the
Notables.
The Social Sciences teachers will grade the performance.
Here is a home-learning activity to
reinforce your in-class learning
today
Please use distributed worksheet.
What happens if I don’t want to use
just simple sentences? How do I
join two sentences together? How
do I vary my sentence structures?
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Rule 1: Join sentences by using one of
the following co-ordinating conjunctions:
(and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet)
They are the “glue” to get two or more
sentences to stick or adhere to each other
What happens when I use a
comma?
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A comma is NOT one of the three stops. (.
! ?)
A comma is not a co-ordinating
conjunction (and, etc)
A comma cannot therefore join sentences
together. It is too WEAK a join. And we all
know what happens to objects that are
weakly glued together; they break apart
easily.
Rule 2
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When you don’t want to use a connecting
word, you can use a semicolon.
But use it sparingly because it is generally
only used for writing a sentence in which
you want to use or emphasise a balance
or a contrast: e.g.,
“I came; I saw; I conquered.” Julius
Caesar
Saturday was sunny; Sunday was cloudy.
When do I use however correctly?
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However is used when you write a
sentence but you want to start the next
sentence with a contrasting idea, e.g.,
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Saturday was sunny. However, Sunday
was overcast.
However should never be used to join
sentences together.
Join the following sentences by using the
appropriate co-ordinating conjunctions
More fine-grained analysis ….
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We have learned how to analyse a
sentence into its component parts:
subject, object, predicate, verb.
Now, we can start to analyse sentences in
a more fine-grained way.
When we analyse a sentence according to
the parts of speech it has in it, we call this
parsing.
Analyse the following sentences
1. The boy climbed a tree.
 What is the subject of the sentence?
 What is the predicate of the sentence?
 What is the definite article?
 What is the indefinite article?
Analyse this next sentence
The boy climbed a tree quickly.
•
What word is the adverb?
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Why is that word the adverb?
3. The swarthy boy climbed a tree quickly.
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What word is the adjective?
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Why is it an adjective?
2.
Analyse this sentence
4.
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The swarthy boy climbed the tall tree
quickly and saw the valley.
What word is the co-ordinating
conjunction?
Where does the second clause start?
What is the verb in the second clause?
What type of sentence is the one above?
Simple or compound.
There are three different types of sentences
in English
1.
2.
3.
A simple sentence which has one verb.
The boy climbed the tree.
A complex sentence which has more than one verb
and the clauses are joined by relative conjunctions.
The boy climbed the tree while he was crying.
A compound sentence which has more than one
verb and the clauses are joined by co-ordinating
conjunctions.
The boy climbed the tree and saw the valley.