Introduction to sentence structure

First and foremost, I noticed that most of the students are weak in their writing due to the difficulty in making even a simple sentence. Thus, for the last few weeks – I have been focusing on the sentence structure learning. Moreover, I had done my tutor on how to differentiate a simple sentence, a compound sentence and a complex sentence.

Here are the examples of the said sentences:

Variety of Sentence Structures In writing or identifying sentences, we use the following formulas: 

Simple Sentence = one Independent Clause

Four Sentence Formulas:

1. SV (one subject, one verb) 

2. SVV (one subject, two verbs) 

3. SSV (two subjects, one verb) 

4. SSVV (two subjects, two verbs) 

Compound Sentence: Two Sentence Formulas 

1) I,cI (Independent Clause + comma + coordinating Conjunction + Independent Clause) 

2) I;I (Independent Clause + semicolon + Independent Clause) 

Complex Sentence: Two Sentence Formulas 

1)  D,I (Dependent Clause + comma + Independent Clause) 

 2) I dc D (Independent Clause-dependent conjunction + Dependent Clause) *Dependent Clause = Subordinate Clause = Fragment*

 A clause is a word group used as a complete sentence (Independent clause) or as an incomplete sentence/fragment = Subordinate clause - aka: Dependent clause.

 An independent clause is a group of words that contains at least one subject and one verb and can stand alone. (It makes a complete thought)