UBM

SACTEnglish/Reading Summer 2012

Sentence Structure

Today’s Agenda• Review passages.• Review Sentence

Structure.– Watch a few videos!– Yes,

Of the 40 Usage/Mechanics questions, eighteen will test you on your knowledge

of sentence structure.

• Connecting and Transitional Words• Subordinate or Dependent Clauses• Sentence Fragments• Comma Splices• Run-on Sentences• Misplaced Modifiers• Parallelism

Connecting and Transitional Words

• FAN BOYS– For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

• Conjunctive Adverbs– however, also, consequently, nevertheless, thus,

moreover, furthermore, for example• Subordinating Conjunctions– AAAWWWUUBBIS– List of subordinating conjunctions here.

Subordinate or IndependentCLAUSES

• On ACT will be asked to select the most appropriate conjunction.

• What is a clause?– Yes! Has a subject and a verb!

Subordinate•YES, has a S + V•NO, does not express a complete thought.

Independent = Sentence•YES, has a S + V•YES, does express a complete thought.

Sentence Fragments• Most sentence fragments on the English Test will be

subordinate or dependent clauses trying to be complete sentences.

• CAUTION! Fragments may LOOK like a sentence– BUT they do not SOUND like a sentence.

• DO NOT express a complete thought.

• We didn’t go outside. Even though the rain had stopped. – A. NO CHANGE– B. outside;– C. outside; even– D. outside, even

• We didn’t go outside. While the rain continued to fall.– F. NO CHANGE– G. Although the– H. The– J. Since the

Comma Splices

• CS occurs when two independent clauses are joined together by a comma with no intervening conjunction. For example,– Bowen walked to the park, Leah followed behind.

• Three ways to correct a Comma Splice1. , FAN BOY2. . Cap3. ;

Run-On Sentences

• Run-on sentences as comma splices minus the commas.For example,– Joan runs every day she is preparing for a marathon.– John likes to walk his dog through the park Kevin doesn’t.

•Three ways to correct a Run-on Sentence…1. , FAN BOY2. . Cap3. ;

Misplaced Modifiers

• WARNING! Watch for the humor!– Bill packed his favorite clothes in his suitcase,

which he planned to wear on vacation.– Click here for more examples at Grammar Girl’s

Quick and Dirty Tips.– View video here.

Parallelism =

• When you see a list underlined on the English Test, look for a parallelism error.

• Parallelism errors occur when items in a list are mismatched.– WRONG: In the pool area, there is no spitting, no running,

and don’t throw your water bottles in the water. – RIGHT: In the pool area, there is no spitting, no running, and

no throwing your water bottles in the water.• CORRECT THIS ONE:

– The personal ad said that she likes “books, good food, and to take long walks on the beach.”

– Edit these sentences.– Complete these sentences.

Yay!

Work Cited

“ACT Sparks Note Test Prep: Punctuation.” Spark Notes. 2011. Retrieved June 12, 2011, from

http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/act/chapter5section1.rhtml