Sentence Structure and Punctuation

Fundamentals of Journalism (JOUR 1033)

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Now we need to examine the different kinds of sentences we can create. Before we do, though, here are a few reasons why we need to know about the different sentence structures:

• Sentence monotony will bore your readers. If every sentence is Subject-Verb-Direct Object, your readers will escape to a more imaginative bit of writing.
• Some grammar rules depend on knowing whether a clause is dependent or independent: Whether to use "like" or "as if" in a sentence, or whether to use the present or past tense in a "universal truth" statement. Consult your handbook to know when and why.
• How you write a sentence can convey more sophisticated messages to your readers. If a clause is dependent, the information in it is subordinate to that in the main clause, which is the independent clause.

OK, so if those aren't really compelling reasons, how about this one: From here on out, all of your journalism professors and employers are going to want you to know how to use a variety of sentences.

Here are the chunks of words that make up a sentence:

Phrase -- a sequence of grammatically related words without a subject and a predicate.

Clause -- a sequence of grammatically related that has both a subject and a predicate.

1. Noun phrase: A young stranger stepped forward.

2. Verb phrase: He had been worrying all day long.

3. Prepositional: By 7 p.m., the lines were long.

4. Gerund: Building a sun deck can be fun.

5. Infinitive: Do you want to dance the Lambada?

6. Participial: My friends traveling in Italy sent postcards.

7. Appositive: Jones, the new superintendent, was introduced.

8. Absolute: The game over, they shook hands.

CLAUSES

A clause has a subject and a predicate and functions either independently (independent clause) or dependently (dependent clause). Independent clauses are also called main clauses and dependent clauses are also called subordinate clauses.

1. Is it a phrase or clause?

• Does the group of words have a subject AND a predicate? If it does, it's a clause. If it doesn't, it's a phrase.

2. If it’s a clause, is it independent or dependent?

• If it stands alone as a sentence, it’s independent.
• If it begins with a relative pronoun (who, which, that) or a subordinating conjunction, it’s a dependent clause and has to attach itself to an independent clause to create a grammatical sentence.

• Independent clause: They danced all night. (They is the subject, danced is the predicate.
• Dependent clause: After they danced all night, they ate breakfast. (In the underlined chunk of words, they is the subject and danced is the predicate. The clause begins with a subordinating conjunction, after. (The sentence also contains an independent clause, they ate breakfast.)
• Phrase (NOT a clause): After dancing all night, they ate breakfast. (The underlined chunk of words has neither a subject nor a predicate, so it's a phrase. It will not affect the identification of sentence structure.)

 
Just as phrases are not complete sentences, neither are dependent clauses:         
            WRONG: The mayor proposed a new addition to the senior citizen center on Maple Street. Which added to the budget presented Friday.
            CORRECT: The mayor proposed a new addition to the senior citizen center on Maple Street, which added to the budget presented Friday.

Faulty Parallelism
    •    When making a comparison or list, you must keep all items in the same grammatical form (all nouns, all verbs, all singular, all plural, etc.

Example: Suburban children have lawns to play on, trees for climbing, and often the schools are better. (You should be able to use each element in the list the same: "Children have lawns," "Children have trees," and "Children have the schools are better." To fix this, replace the last with "better schools.")

Example: Usually, to go to school is better than trying to make one's way without a degree. (The comparison here is between "to go" and "trying," so they should be in the same grammatical form (both infinitive, "to go," "to try" OR both present participial, "going," "trying")

SENTENCES

Don't forget the role that conjunctions play in grammatical sentences. There are three types of conjunctions:

Coordinating conjunctions: In class we call these the FANBOYS. For, and, nor, but, or, yet , so. These are the only words that can grammatically connect two independent clauses to create a compound sentence.

They are also used to connect and relate words and word groups of equal grammatical rank:

words: wine and roses

phrases: to be or not to be

Punctuation:

Independent clauses: He likes to dance, but he's not very good at it.

Put a comma before the conjunction.

Dependent clauses: It's all right if you go or if you don't go.

No comma before the conjunction.

Subordinating conjunction: These connect unequal parts of a sentence --  connecting a dependent clause to an independent one to form a grammatical sentence.

Typically, subordinating conjunctions introduce dependent clauses that modify the independent clause by explaining cause, contrast, reason or time.

Because, although, if, unless, as, before, while, when, since, and others

When Frank sulks, he acts as if he were deaf. (The clause When Frank sulks is dependent. The clause he acts as if he were deaf is an independent clause.

Punctuation:

Dependent clause at the beginning of the sentence: a comma usually follows the dependent clause.

When Frank sulks, he acts as if he were deaf.

Dependent clause at the end of the sentence: Generally, a comma isn't needed.

Frank acts as if he were deaf when he sulks.

 Correlative conjunction: Links equivalent constructions. They are both-and, either-or, neither-nor, not only-but also, whether-or, since-therefore, if-then, not so-as, as-as, as well-as

We have discussed some of these in subject-verb agreement.

Other parts of speech, like conjunctions, may be used to connect clauses, but they have troublesome punctuation requirements:

Conjunctive adverb -- It can serve as an adverb or a connector. It shows a logical relationship: therefore, however, accordingly, consequently, moreover, nevertheless

Punctuation:

Generally, journalists do not use conjunctive adverbs as connectives, because to do so requires the use of a semicolon.

Journalists are more likely to write it:

Note: Conjunctive adverbs are followed by a comma.

DO NOT use a conjunctive adverb when you need a coordinating conjunction:

WRONG: He was tired, therefore he took a nap.

RIGHT: He was tired, so he took a nap. OR He was tired. Therefore, he took a nap.

WRONG: She liked him, however, she was already in love.

RIGHT: She liked him, but she was already in love. OR She liked him. However, she was already in love.

Relative pronoun -- a noun substitute used to introduce dependent clauses:

Who, whom, whose. that, which, what, whoever, whomever, whichever, whatever

He has a son who is a genius.

When the antecedent of the relative pronoun is a collective noun (association, business, etc.), a thing (object or idea) or an animal without a proper name, the correct relative pronoun is which, that or what. When the antecedent is a person or an animal with a name, the correct relative pronoun is who, whom or whose.

Punctuation varies with the type of dependent clause (whether it is essential or nonessential). And that leads us to the final grammar lesson of the semester …

The whole question here is: Do you set it off in commas?

"It" is any word or a chunk of words in a sentence.

If a clause is essential (also called restrictive), do not set it off with commas

If a clause is nonessential (also called nonrestrictive), DO set it off in commas.

These rules also apply to words and phrases.

Also, if the clause begins with a relative pronoun, use "that" for essential clauses and "which" for nonessential clauses.

Essential -- no commas, that

Nonessential -- commas, which

The personal pronoun who can be essential or nonessential.

Essential clauses (and words and phrases) are needed to make the sentence make sense.

Milk that has been left out will spoil.

If you remove the clause that has been left out, the sentence would read Milk will spoil. While that may be true, you know that wasn't the real meaning of the sentence.

Nonessential clauses (and words and phrases) are supplemental information, not really needed to make the sentence make sense.

If you remove which children are forced to drink, you still have a perfectly sensible sentence.

Notice that the word that was used with the essential clause, while which was used with the nonessential clause. Also, commas were used with the nonessential clause but not with the essential.

To make things more difficult, the same phrase can be used as essential or nonessential, depending on the meaning of the sentence.

This sentence makes us think there was probably only one teacher and she decided to delay her decision.

In this sentence, you get the idea that there was more than one teacher in the room and the phrase "hearing the disagreement" is needed to distinguish one teacher from others in the room who did not hear the disagreement.

Telling the difference

Distinguishing essential from nonessential elements is often difficult for students. Here are several different explanations we have collected. Read them all. Maybe one will help make sense of the subject:

1. Essential and nonessential clauses

Both types provide additional information about a word or phrase in the sentence.

The difference between them is that the essential clause cannot be eliminated without changing the meaning of the sentence -- it is so "essential" to the meaning of the word or phrase that its absence would lead to a substantially different interpretation of what the author meant.

The nonessential clause, however, can be eliminated without altering the basic meaning of the sentence -- it is "nonessential" to the meaning.

2. An essential modifier defines, points out or narrows the word modified. A nonessential phrase or clause gives additional information about the word modified; it describes the person, place or thing without identifying it. A person reading aloud usually pauses slightly before and after a nonessential phrase or clause. There are two tests for determining whether a phrase or clause is essential. If the first test doesn’t help you, try the second.

Test 1: Does omitting the phrase or clause change the meaning of the remaining words or make nonsense out of them? If the answer is "yes," the expression is essential and commas are not used to set it off. Commas set off something that is not necessary to the rest of the sentence.

Test 2: Does the phrase or clause answer the question "Which one?" or "Which ones?" If it answers one of these questions, it is essential. Clauses that modify proper nouns are almost always nonessential, since the name identifies the person, place or thing and the adjective clause merely adds information.

3. An essential clause or phrase gives essential information that must be included in the sentence in order to identify the head noun. The meaning of the sentence would be altered if the essential modifier were eliminated. A nonessential clause or phrase, on the other hand, just gives additional information to the reader, something that may be nice to know but that is not absolutely vital.

4. Commas used with nonessential clauses and phrases

Commas are sometimes used around words, phrases or clauses to indicate a detour from the main thought. Two commas are needed (when the detour occurs within the sentence): one comma to show at what point we begin the detour, the other to show at what point we return to the main road of the sentence. Such commas are like (parentheses) or [brackets]. You always need a pair of them. They fence in or enclose in much the same way as parentheses and brackets do, but to a lesser degree.

TEST YOURSELF: Identify the underlined words in these sentences as essential or nonessential.

_____ 1. Scientists who examine and classify insects are called entomologists.

_____ 2. Not even dinosaurs which became extinct at the close of the age of reptiles were as large as the largest whales still to be found on earth.

_____ 3. Snow that falls close to the trunk of a tree melts quite rapidly.

_____ 4. The astronomer who first made practical use of the telescope was Galileo.

_____ 5. Vincent Van Gogh who magnificently painted the sun-drenched countryside of southern France is equally great in his more somber pictures.

_____ 6. The man fishing in the Neversink Brook is a senior at Technical High School.

_____ 7. Ralph Winters fishing in the Neversink Brook caught a 10-inch trout on his first cast.

_____ 8. They had dinner with their daughter Julie.

_____ 9. She knew her husband David would be waiting for her.

ANSWERS:

1. Essential clause. (Who is the subject of the clause, examine and classify is the compound predicate.)

Not all scientists are called entomologists, so the clause is essential to the meaning. No commas.

2. Nonessential clause. ( The subject of the clause is which; the predicate is became.) When the dinosaurs became extinct is just added information, so the clause is nonessential and should be set off with commas.

3. Essential clause. (The subject of the clause is that; the predicate is falls.) Not all snow melts quite rapidly, only when it falls close to the trunk, so the clause is essential.

4. Essential clause. (Who is the subject of the clause; made is the predicate.) Not all astronomers were Galileo, so the clause is essential.

5. Nonessential clause. (Who is the subject of the clause; painted is the predicate.) Vincent Van Gogh fully explains who is being talked about, so the description of him is just extra information. The clause is nonessential and should be set off with commas.

6. Essential phrase. The chunk of words doesn't have a subject and predicate, so it's a phrase. It is essential because "the man" needs further description.

7. Nonessential phrase. It's the same phrase as above, but here it is preceded by a full name, so you don't need it to fully describe the subject, Ralph Winters. So it's nonessential and should be set off in commas.

8. Essential phrase. They might have more than one daughter, so the word Julie is needed to describe which daughter. No commas.

9. Nonessential phrase. Unless she's a bigamist, she's only got one husband. Set off David in commas.