CONSTRUCTING SENTENCES:
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In formal academic writing sentences have to be complete and correct. What is a sentence? Are your sentences always complete and correct? If not, read on.
A sentence contains a subject and a verb. It may also have an object and adjectives and adverbs, e.g. the fundamental purpose of language is to make sense.
There are three types of sentences:
- simple: one subject and one verb, e.g. children like fruit
- compound: two equal clauses, e.g. children like fruit and it is good for them
- complex: with one or more subordinate clauses, e.g. children like fruit because it is good for them
A sentence consists of one or more clauses.
A clause is a group of words containing:
- subject + verb
An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence, e.g.
- children like fruit.
subject + verb
A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence e.g. because it is good for them = this is a fragment.
Problems with sentences
What can go wrong? The following tasks highlight some typical problems.
Sentence fragments are incomplete sentences or parts of sentences. Remember that a complete sentence must contain at least one main or independent clause.
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