Writing with Style Writing and Style Manual Poway Unified School District

Writing with Style Writing and Style Manual
Poway Unified School District

SENTENCE PARTS AND TYPES

Parts of speech | Clauses and phrases | Constructing sentences | Sentence types

Parts of Speech

The parts of speech are the building blocks that make up sentences. The term parts of speech refers to the way that words are used in sentences. There are eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.

Noun
For additional help using nouns see Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/nouns.htm

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns may be common or proper. Proper nouns are capitalized.

Common:	brother	newspaper	beach
	democracy	baseball

Proper:	Grand Canyon	Michael Johnson	Sea World
	Paris

Nouns may also be grouped as concrete, abstract, or collective.

Concrete nouns name a tangible thing, something that can be touched or seen.
	White House	soccer	ice-cream
	friend	guitar

Abstract nouns name something that cannot be touched or seen, such as an idea, doctrine, thought, theory, concept, condition, or feeling.
	Christianity	illness	love
	excellence	prejudice	joy
	euphoria

Collective nouns name a group or unit.
	faculty	audience	school
	herd	San Diego Chargers

Nouns may also be grouped by their function in a sentence: subject, object, complement, appositive, or modifier.

Pronoun
A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. The noun or pronoun that the pronoun refers to or replaces is called its antecedent. See the section on Pronoun Agreement for more about antecedents. For additional help using pronouns see Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/pronouns1.htm.

Personal pronouns change form to indicate case, gender, number, and person.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS	SINGULAR			PLURAL
PERSONAL PRONOUNS	1^stperson	2^ndperson	3^rd person		1^st person	2^nd person	3^rd person
Nominative case:	I	you	he/she it		we	you	they
Objective case:	me	you	him/her it		us	you	them
Possessive case:	my, mine	your, yours	his/her hers/its		our, ours	your, yours	their, theirs

Reflexive pronouns refer back to (or modify) a noun or pronoun. They are formed by adding the suffix –self.

Ryan loves himself more than anyone.

I didn’t realize that she would bring the package herself.

We decided to show ourselves out.

Who or Whom?
Who is a subject case pronoun - it does the action: Who is at the door?

Whom is an object case pronoun - it receives the action: Whom will you take to the dance?

To test which to use, substitute he or him in the sentence. If he fits, use who; if him fits, use whom.

Relative pronouns relate an adjective clause back to the noun or pronoun it modifies. See the section on Essential and Nonessential Clauses for more on using relative pronouns. Relative pronouns are

who	whose	whom	which	what	that

My new jeans, which are fabulous, cost $75.00.
Musicians who practice regularly are most comfortable in front of an audience.

Person or thing?
Use who, whom, or whose to refer to people.
Use that or which to refer to things.

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask a question

who	whose	whom	which	what

What do you want?		To whom am I speaking?
Whose notebook is this?		Which entrée did you order?

Demonstrative pronouns point out, or demonstrate, specific things

this	that	these	those

That is my suitcase.		Those don’t look ripe.

Indefinite pronouns refer to unknown people or things

anyone	someone	either	everybody
nobody	many	several	nothing

Adjective
For additional help using adjectives see Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm

An adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun

Little people peek through big steering wheels.

The strongest man I ever saw wore silver shoes.

An adjective does not always come before the word it modifies

The dentist, daring and diligent, worked on his new patient’s cavities.

Remember that the articles a, an, and the are also adjectives.

Verb
For additional help using verbs see Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/verbs.htm

A verb is a word that expresses an action or a state of being.

An action verb expresses mental or physical action.

speak	compose	drive	participate	catch
hope	believe	approve	understand	choose

A helping verb helps the main verb to express action or to make a statement. The main verb plus the helping verb together make a verb phrase. The helping verb is italicized below.

My dad will work late one or two nights a week when he should be sleeping in his bed.

Verbs of being include all the forms of the verb be:

be	am	is	are
was	were	being	been

Verbs of being also include verb phrases ending in be, being, or been, such as could be, was being, and, could have been.

A linking verb connects the subject of the sentence with a word that describes or explains it. The most common linking verb is be and its forms (above). Other linking verbs include such verbs as smell, look, taste, remain, appear, sound, seem, become, grow, and feel.

In his new carriage, the baby felt cool. He was a driver! He looked more mature.

Verb Tenses
For additional help with verb tenses, see Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/sequence.htm

Verb tenses indicate time: past, present, and future. The six tenses are formed from the four principal parts of the verb:

Infinitive	Present Participle	Past	Past Participle
To march	marching	marched	marched

Regular verbs follow rules when forming the six tenses. Irregular verbs follow no fixed rules; you simply have to memorize them or consult a dictionary. Regular verbs are formed as follows:

Present tense expresses action that is occurring at the present time or action that happens continually, regularly.
I watch	she talks	The band marches every day.
Past tense expresses action that was completed at a particular time in the past.
I watched	she talked	The band marched yesterday.
Future tense expresses action that will occur in the future:
I shall watch	she will talk	The band will march tomorrow.
Present perfect tense expresses action that began in the past but continues in the present:
I have watched	she has talked	The band has marched all fall.
Past perfect tense expresses action that began in the past and was completed in the past:
I had watched	she had talked	The band had marched last week.
Future perfect tense expresses action that will be completed in the future before some other future action or event
I will have watched	she will have talked	The band will have marched 178 days by vacation.

Adverb
For additional help using adverbs see Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/adverbs.htm

An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. An adverb tells how, when, where, why, how often, to what extent, and how much:

Yesterday a fire completely destroyed the home of a family on Hill Street.

Rarely does a fire last so long.

The family looked totally exhausted after hauling out their valuables all day.

Preposition
For additional help using prepositions see Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/prepositions.htm

A preposition is a word (or group of words) that shows the relationship between its object (a noun or a pronoun that follows the preposition) and another word in the sentence.

Prepositions may be simple (at, in, of, to, for, with), compound (without, inside, alongside), or multi-word (in spite of, on top of, aside from, because of).

A preposition never stands alone in a sentence; it is always used in a prepositional phrase with the object of a preposition (a noun or pronoun) and the modifiers of the object:

The pool shark leaned over the ball with a confident smirk on his face.

Standing near the table, he consciously ignored the hisses of the crowd.

Conjunction
For additional help using conjunctions see Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/conjunctions.htm

A conjunction connects individual words or groups of words.

A puffer fish is short and fat.

A tiny bird cannot fly, nor can it feed itself.

There are three kinds of conjunctions:

Coordinating conjunctions	for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so (abbreviated FANBOYS)
Correlative conjunctions (If you use one, you must use the other.)	either… or not only… but also whether… or	neither… nor both… and just… as
Subordinating conjunctions	after, although, as, as much as, as though, because, before, if, in order that, provided that, since, than, though, unless, until, when, where, whereas, while

Interjection
For additional help using interjections see Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/interjections.htm

An interjection is a word or group of words that expresses strong emotion or surprise. Punctuation (often a comma or exclamation point) is used to separate an interjection from the rest of the sentence.

Hey, the boat’s leaking.

Oh, no! I can’t swim.

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CLAUSES AND PHRASES

Clauses
For additional help using clauses see Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/clauses.htm

A clause is a group of words that contains both a subject and a verb.

My uncle looks and walks exactly like Groucho Marx.
subject	verbs

Some clauses can stand alone as sentences; others must be grouped with other clauses to create a complete sentence.

An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence.

Because he looks like Groucho Marx, he won five hundred dollars in a contest.
	independent clause

A dependent clause has a subject and a predicate, but it would be an incomplete sentence by itself. A dependent clause contains a subordinating conjunction (e.g., because) and must be joined to an independent clause.

Because he looks like Groucho Marx, he won five hundred dollars in a contest.
dependent clause

Phrases
For additional help using phrases see Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/phrases.htm

A phrase is a group of related words that works together as a single part of speech. It is not a clause because it lacks a subject and/or predicate.

Running like the Energizer Bunny,…	Under the old refrigerator,…
Lacks a subject	Lacks a predicate

Essential and Nonessential Clauses and Phrases

Essential or “restrictive” clauses and phrases cannot be removed from a sentence without changing its meaning. They usually begin with that or who.

Horses that are overly nervous are usually not good for trail riding.

Carla Davis is the only senior who won scholarships to four colleges.

Nonessential or “nonrestrictive” clauses and phrases add information, but they are not necessary to the meaning of the sentence. They are set off by commas and usually begin with which, whom, or whose.

The new Stallone movie, which has a great soundtrack, starts this weekend.

Joe, whom I love like a brother, is moving away tomorrow.

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CONSTRUCTING SENTENCES

Subject

The subject is the part of the sentence that names the person, place, or thing that the sentence is about. The simple subject is the subject without the words that modify it. The complete subject includes the simple subject and all the words that modify it.

Her older sister makes the best pancakes.

Predicate

The predicate is the part of the sentence that says something about the subject. The simple predicate is the verb or verb phrase without the words that modify it. The complete subject includes the simple predicate and all the words that modify it.

Her older sister makes the best pancakes.

Sentence beginnings

Vary your sentence beginnings to add style and interest to your writing. Some ways to begin your sentences include beginning with the following parts of speech or constructions:

Adjective

Small and green, the turtle stood looking at the audience.
Exhausted, the rabbit fell across the finish line thirty minutes after the turtle.

Adverb

Boisterously, the crowd yelled for David Bowie to get the show started.
Indignantly and arrogantly, the tabby cat turned her back on the cat show.

Prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase contains a preposition (at, on, over, through, under, between, etc.) and the object of the preposition.

During the summer my brother skateboards every day.
In another nine months, the dude will get his driver’s license.

Do I Need a Comma?
Use a comma after a long introductory propositional phrase (four or more words)>

Participial phrase. Since a participle is a verb that can function as an adjective (e.g., melting snow), a participial phrase is one that consists of a participle and its modifiers and complements.

Present	Looking for his mother, the toddler scooted under the clothes rack. Remembering that she had a child, Bertha searched the store for her son.
Past	Exhausted from doing sit-ups, the flabby senior collapsed on the sofa. Purchased just a few days ago, his gold class ring flashed in the sun.

Adverb clause. An adverb clause is a dependent clause that describes how, what, where, when, or why. It always begins with a subordinating conjunction (after, although, as before, when, where, while, etc.):

Before she could give her speech, Clara fell off the stage.
While the paramedics came, they resuscitated her.

Appositive phrase. An appositive phrase consists of a noun and modifiers that stand beside another noun to explain or identify it:

Martin, an innocent bystander, gasped at the crime he witnessed.
A speeding vehicle of joy riders hit my sister’s car, a red Mustang.

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SENTENCE TYPES

Use a variety of sentence types to add style to your writing.

Simple sentences contain just one independent clause.
I hate spiders.

Compound sentences contain two or more independent clauses that are joined by a semicolon or a comma and a coordinating conjunction such as but.
I hate spiders; tarantulas are the worst.
I hate spiders, but I do not mind snakes.

Complex sentences contain an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
Although I do not mind snakes, I hate spiders.

Compound-complex sentences contain two or more independent clauses (underlined) and one or more dependent clauses.

Although I hate spiders, I do not mind snakes, and I like lizards.

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