Writing with Style Writing and Style Manual
Poway Unified School District

SENTENCE PARTS AND TYPES

Parts of Speech

Parts of speech refer 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

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:

guitar White House soccer ice-cream friend

Abstract nouns name something that cannot be touched or seen, such as an idea, doctrine, thought, theory, concept, condition, or feeling:

joy Christianity illness love euphoria excellence prejudice

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).

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.

Text Box: 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. Ryan loves himself more than anyone.

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

We decided to show ourselves out.

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.

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?

Text Box: Person or thing?

Use who, whom, or whose to refer to people.

Use that or which to refer to things.

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

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

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 very is be and its forms (above). Other linking verbs include such verbs as smell, look, taste, remain, appear, sound, seem, become, and grow:

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

Verb Tenses

Verb tenses indicate time: past, present, and future. The six tenses are formed from the 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 have watched she will have talked The band will have marched 178

days by vacation.

Adverb

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 grungy after hauling out their valuables all day.

Preposition

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 phrasal (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.

Conjuction

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: and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet

Correlative conjunctions: either… or neither… nor

not only… but also both… and

whether… or 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

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:

Cool, the boat’s leaking. Oh, no! I can’t swim.

CLAUSES AND PHRASES

Clauses

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

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

Under the old refrigerator,… Running from the Energizer Bunny…

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.

CONSTRUCTING SENTENCES

Subject (Write for College 807-808)

Predicate

Sentence beginnings

Vary your sentence beginnings to add style to your writing. Try writing some sentences beginning with each of the following:

Adjective: word(s) that describe a noun:

Small and green, the turtle stood looking at the audience.

Exhausted, the rabbit fell across the finish line thirty minutes after the turtle.

Adverb: word(s) that describe a verb:

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.

Text Box: Hint: Use a comma after a long introductory prepositional phrase (four or more words).

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

During the summer my brother skateboards everyday.

In another nine months, the dude will get his driver’s license.

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

Text Box: Hint: A dangling participle occurs when it’s unclear to the reader what the participle modifies. To avoid this, keep the participial phrase and the noun it modifies together. 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: a dependent clause (subject and verb that can’t stand alone) 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: a noun and its modifiers that stand beside another noun to explain or identify it:

An innocent bystander, Martin gasped at the crime he witnessed.

A red Mustang, my sister’s car was hit by a speeding vehicle of joy riders.

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 like and:

I hate spiders; tarantulas are the worst.

I hate spiders, but I do not mind snakes.

Complex sentences contain an independent clause (underlined) and one or more dependent clauses (italicized):

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 (italicized):

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

SOLVING WRITING PROBLEMS

Run-ons and Fragments

Avoid fragments and run-ons, including comma splices.

A fragment is a group of words written as a sentence but missing a subject, a verb, or some other essential part. The missing element causes it to be an incomplete thought:

Fragment: Mark Twain said that at the age of fourteen. He was convinced that his parents were among the stupidest people on the face of the earth. (This is a fragment followed by a sentence. Correct it by combining the fragment with the sentence.)

Sentence: Mark Twain said that at the age of fourteen he was convinced that his parents were among the stupidest people on the face of the earth.

Fragment: When he reached twenty-one. (This clause does not convey a complete thought. What happened when he was twenty-one?)

Sentence: When he reached twenty-one, he was amazed at how much they had learned in only seven short years.

A run-on sentence is the result of two sentences run together without adequate punctuation or a connecting word:

Run on: Smoke started billowing from under a Rolls Royce in Beverly Hills then the driver doused the flames with a bottle of Evian water.

Correct: Smoke started billowing from under a Rolls Royce in Beverly Hills; then the driver doused the flames with a bottle of Evian water. (Semicolon has been added.)

A comma splice is a sophisticated kind of run-on sentence in which two sentences are connected (“spliced”) with only a comma. A comma is not strong enough to connect two independent clauses; a period, semicolon, or conjunction is needed:

Splice: The two teams faced off, neither one could make any yardage.

Correct: The two teams faced off, but neither one could make any yardage.

(Conjunction has been added.)

Splice: My brother just got his senior yearbook, he was voted “most likely to have his picture in the yearbook again next year.”

Correct: My brother just got his senior yearbook. He was voted “most likely to have his picture in the yearbook again next year.”

(Comma has been changed to a period.)

Text Box: A semicolon is often the best way to correct a comma splice. Splice: Our Boy Scout leader said that if we get lost in the woods at night, we should get our bearings from the sky, a glow will indicate the nearest shopping center.

Correct: Our Boy Scout leader said that if we get lost in the woods at night, we should get our bearings from the sky; a glow will indicate the nearest shopping center.

(Comma has been changed to a semicolon.)

VERB PROBLEMS

Shifts in Tense

Avoid unnecessary shifts in tense of verbs. Switching back and forth between present, past, and/or future tense creates an awkward and confusing effect. Stick to the tense you start with unless there is an excellent reason for changing:

Wrong: The disc jockey reads the dedication but failed to play the song.

present past

Right: The disc jockey read the dedication but failed to play the song.

past past

Subject and Verb Agreement

Make sure that a verb agrees with its subject (singular or plural):

A young woman lives next door. Young women live next door.

Singular subject and verb Plural subject and verb

Hint: Do not be confused by other words coming between the subject and the verb:

The student as well as her parents is invited to honors night.

singular subject singular verb

Use a plural verb with compound subjects connected with and:

Making the soccer team and keeping up my grades are my two highest priorities.

Use a singular verb with these singular indefinite pronouns: either, neither, one, everybody, another, anybody, everyone, nobody, everything, somebody, and someone:

Everybody is going to the dance after the game.

Either Joe or Sal is giving me a ride home at 11 p.m.

Hint: Do not be confused by other words coming between the pronoun and the verb:

Each of the three girls is planning to buy a new outfit for the dance.

singular pronoun singular verb

Some other indefinite pronouns (all, any, half, most, none, and some) may be either singular or plural depending on the meaning of the sentence:

Some of the show was hilarious. Some of the actors were hilarious.

All of the homework seems simple. All of the exercises seem simple.

Half of the popcorn was gone. Half of the cokes were gone.

When the subject follows the verb, as in questions and in sentences beginning with here and there, be careful to find the subject and make sure that the verb agrees with it:

There are many hardworking students on the honor roll this semester.

plural verb plural subject

Active and Passive Voice

Text Box: Hint: Any form of the helping verb be (be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been) is a clue that your sentence may be written in passive voice.

To change to active voice, begin with the person or thing doing the action. For a stronger writing style, use active verbs, whenever you can, rather than passive verbs. With passive verbs the subject of the sentence is the receiver of the action; passive verbs make writing slow moving and impersonal.

Passive: The island was deluged by a hurricane.

Active: A hurricane deluged the island.

Passive: A dangerous rescue was made by volunteers after dark, but no sharks were encountered.

Active: Volunteers made a dangerous rescue after dark but encountered no sharks.

PRONOUN PROBLEMS

Pronoun Agreement

Make sure that a pronoun agrees with its antecedent. The antecedent is the noun (or pronoun) that the pronoun refers to or replaces:

When Matilda dances, she makes the whole dance floor sway and bounce.

antecedent pronoun

Use a singular pronoun to refer to such antecedents as each, either, neither, one, anyone, anybody, everyone, everybody, somebody, another, and nobody:

Everybody must learn how to turn his car alarm off.

Either Sue or Jane needs to let me borrow her vocabulary book.