Sentences

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Brad Reynolds: http://flic.kr/p/wUBS

Form teams

• 3 teams: count off 1 through 3

• Introductions

• Team Name

• Roster

What is a sentence?

• a group of words that are put together to mean something

• "complete" sentence?

• independent clause

• subject + finite verb

Major sentence errors

• Fragment?

• incomplete/subordinate

–"This sentence no verb."

–"A sentence must have a subject and verb. Because grammar."

Major sentence errors

• Comma splice?

• independent clauses joined by a comma alone

–"I don't see the problem, am I missing something?"

Major sentence errors

• Run-on?

• independent clauses joined without conjunctions or punctuation

–"In conclusion, Pluto is no longer a planet no one wants to buy your comic books glass is not a slow-moving liquid."

Types of sentences

• simple: independent

• compound: independent, and independent

• complex: independent + dependent

• compound-complex: dependent, independent, and independent

• punctuation pattern sheet

Jelly beans! Millions and billions of purples and yellows and greens and licorice and grape and raspberry and mint and round and smooth and crunchy outside and soft-mealy inside and sugary and bouncing jouncing tumbling clittering clattering skittering fell on the heads and shoulders and hardhats and carapaces of the Timkin workers, tinkling on the slidewalk and bouncing away and rolling about underfoot and filling the sky on their way down with all the colors of joy and childhood and holidays, coming down in a steady rain, a solid wash, a torrent of color and sweetness out of the sky from above, and entering a universe of sanity and metronomic order with quite-mad coocoo newness. Jelly beans!

—Harlan Ellison , "Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman"

active v. passive

• Passive: grammatical subject acted upon:

"The road was crossed by the chicken."

• Active: grammatical subject performs action of sentence

cc licensed ( BY ND ) flickr photo by Dee Teal: http://flic.kr/p/yEPjh

"Rules" about passive

• Use of the passive voice is a grammatical error.

• Any use of “to be” (in any form) constitutes the passive voice.

• You should never use the passive voice.

What's wrong with passive?

BP regrets that oil was spilled.

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by kris krüg: http://flic.kr/p/8bdR7g

Uses for passive

• avoiding responsibility

• being tactful/avoiding blame

• scientific writing

Recognizing passive?

• "by zombies"

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo by ToM: http://flic.kr/p/bjBJPj

Active or passive? • All men are created equal.

• My taxi hit an old lady.

• We have been cruelly deceived.

• I am tired.

• For of those to whom much is given, much is required.

What makes a good sentence?

• What makes a bad sentence?

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by José María Pérez Nuñez:http://flic.kr/p/7Fa24w

It was a dark and stormy night . . .

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. -Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

"a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels."

As the sun dropped below the horizon, the safari guide confirmed the approaching cape buffaloes were herbivores, which calmed everyone in the group, except for Herb, of course. — Ron D Smith, Louisville, KY

Primum non nocere, from the Latin for “first, do no harm,” one of the principal tenets of the Hippocratic oath taken by physicians, was far from David’s mind (as he strode, sling in hand, to face Goliath) in part because Hippocrates was born about 100 years after David, in part because David wasn’t even a physician, but mainly because David wanted to kill the sucker. — David Larson, San Francisco, CA

Quiz

• Closed book/closed notes

• Put away phones until quiz is over

• You may collaborate with your team

• You are responsible for the answers on your quiz

• You do not have to choose the same answers as your team

1. By this logic, Abraham Lincoln actually killed vampires.

2. I had never been in the place before, I had difficulty in finding my way about.

3. Above all, the people of those Norfolk towns and villages on which we descended for days on end.

4. The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history’s clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.

5. Anna went to make a strong cup of coffee she was falling asleep at her desk.