WHAT IS A SENTENCE?LESSONS 8-9

Part Three

Visible Speech

a short course in the

fundamentalsof writing / lesson eight

By Joe Napora

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What is a sentence?

What is a sentence?

Answer:

Organized Writing

Hey! Isn’t this the same answer for “What is an essay and what is a paragraph?”

Yes, but it is organized differently.

How is a sentence organized?

Sentences can be organized in the most simple manner: by type.

They are either complete sentences, or they are incomplete.

A complete sentence contains a subject, a verb, and most often an object phrase.

An incomplete sentence is fragmented: it usually doesn’t contain a complete verb.

Complete Sentences

A complete sentence has a subject and a verb, and usually a phrase.

Subject = S

Verb = V

Phrase = P

Subjects

Subjects can be people, objects, events, and ideas.

Subjects are usually in the most important part of the sentence, the first part.

John, Mary, Men, Women, my uncle, chairs, dogs, the World Series, freedom, next year

John loves Mary.

“John” is in the most important part of the sentence.

Verbs

Action. Making connections. Relationships.

MOVEMENT is the main function of verbs, movement that affects the subject.

Subjects run, walk, and sleep.

Subjects are and will be.

And it’s verbs that allow subjects to move, and movement draws attention to our sentences.

Object Phrases

Remember the equation S + V + P?

P = Object Phrase

A phrase comes in many shapes, does many things, and attaches to the main sentence in many ways.

Phrases

Here is a simple sentence:

John drives. [S + V]

Add an object phrase:

John drives to the park. [S + V + P]

Add more phrases:

According to Mary, John drives to the park in the morning. [P + S + V + P]

Fragmented Sentences

Incomplete sentences usually result from writing a phrase as if it were a complete sentence.

According to Mary. [P]

John drives to the park in the morning. [S + V + P]

This is the end of lesson 8

Simple and Complex Sentences

Lesson Nine

Visible Speech

a short course in the

fundamentalsof writing / lesson nine

By Joe Napora

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Making Sentence SENSE

The object of writing is to make sense of our ideas to other people. One way to do this is to write clearly, starting with standard sentences.

A standard sentence is one that makes SENSE.

SENSE =

Standard

ENglish

SentencE

More SENSE

The Basic SENSE sentence can easily be expanded to make your sentences more interesting, varied, rhythmic, attention getting.

John loves Mary.

According to Alice, John loves Mary.

According to Alice, John loves Mary, who he met last week.

This is the end of lesson nine