This is the digital lecture for you to read on 3/4. I’m just posting it early!
By the time you read this, hopefully you have already read “Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar” and learned that the value of grammar instruction is suspect at best. Just as with any form of language learning, the best way to improve and diversify your sentence structure and “accuracy” is through exposure and practice. This is one value in reading academic writing that is “hard”: by pushing through it, you’ll have more practice with complex sentence structures.
However, I also believe it can be useful to have some examples of grammatical concepts and language to attach to concepts you’re already familiar with on a subconscious level. Often, people say that learning a new language is one of the best ways to understand the grammar of your first language. Many of you already speak multiple languages, so even if you don’t know the linguistics terms, you’ll already have some awareness of the differences in how each language does things differently.
In this digital lecture, I want to focus on a couple of things that come up often in my classes, either in “errors” I notice or in what students say they would like to improve on: punctuation, types of clauses, and types of sentence structure. The last two are related to what people mean when they say, “I want to make my writing more sophisticated” or “I want to make my writing sound less simplistic” or “I want to make my writing flow better.”
You do not need to memorize the vocabulary here. I’m providing it in case you find it helpful for thinking about the concepts. The concepts are more important than the words.
Types of Clauses and Sentence Structures
Just like our bodies have different levels of organization (atoms –> molecules –> organelles –> cells –> tissues –> organs –> bodily systems –> a full body), so do sentences, although we normally think of them as just having 2: sentences, and words.
“Clauses” are sub-units of a sentence, made up of phrases, made up of words. A sentence could only have one clause, or it could have many clauses. Every clause has a subject and a verb (and any other words the verb requires in order to make sense).
A simple sentence is a sentence that is only one clause. Example: I drank some coffee.
There are two main kinds of clauses: independent and dependent (dependent clauses are also known as “subordinate” clauses). An independent clause is any clause that could be a sentence all on its own, even if it happens to be connected to other clauses. (“I drank some coffee” is an independent clause.)
I drank some coffee, and then I refilled my cup.
This sentence has two independent clauses. We know because we could rewrite it as two separate sentences: I drank some coffee. Then, I refilled my cup. So, this is one way you can introduce variety into your sentences! Which way do you prefer? Either one is correct.
A compound sentence is a sentence that has two (or more) independent clauses. “I drank my coffee, and then I refilled my cup” is a compound sentence. Compound sentences can use lots of different connecting words between the two clauses: “and,” “but,” and “so” are probably the most common.
More Examples of Compound Sentences, Re-written as Two Separate Sentences
- I drank my coffee, but it was already cold.//// I drank my coffee. However, it was already cold.
- Then my mug was dirty, so I put it in the dishwasher. //// My mug was dirty. I put it in the dishwasher.
What’s a dependent clause?
A dependent clause has a subject and a verb, but it can’t be a sentence on its own, or else it doesn’t make sense. Example: After I drank my coffee. This clause, when it’s by itself, makes you think, “After you drank your coffee, what?”
Dependent clauses need a friend. The friend has to be an independent clause. Example: After I drank my coffee, I put my mug in the dishwasher. “I put my mug in the dishwasher” could be a sentence by itself, but “After I drank my coffee” could not be.
When you have an independent clause and a dependent clause in the same sentence, that’s called a complex sentence.
You can also add multiple dependent clauses to the same sentence: “Before I drank my coffee, I had to wash a mug, because all of my mugs were dirty.”
“Before I drank my coffee” and “Because all of my mugs were dirty” are both dependent clauses, but if we take them away, “I had to wash a mug” still works as a sentence by itself.
One more sentence type: the compound-complex sentence. This is when you combine at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. Example: After I started drinking my coffee, I realized it was already cold, so I put it in the microwave to reheat it. (Dependent clause, independent, independent)
To make sentences even more complex, you can add even more clauses. Here are some very long/complicated sentences that are still grammatically correct. (Scroll all the way down to the bottom– they get REALLY long!)
And just for fun, here’s some sentences that don’t sound correct, but they are!
What’s the Point of Sentence Variety and Having Complicated Sentences?
- Sometimes, dependent clauses can show the relationships between ideas or actions: “after,” “before,” “because” and “since” all add meaning to the sentence.
- Changing up the structure of your sentences helps you create rhythm in your writing. Look at the following example:
Punctuation
Notice how in all of the examples above, commas are used to separate the clauses. However, that’s not the only time we use commas. There’s too many punctuation rules to talk about all of them here, but I’ll address a few.
Commas
Most people just kind of guess where they think a comma should go, or put commas based on where they would naturally pause when speaking. While neither method will be 100% “accurate” based on the rules of academic American English, both will get you pretty close, and will typically result in writing the reader can understand.
When Do You Use a Comma With “And”?
- When you’re listing nouns/objects/concepts, DON’T use a comma if there are only two things (apples and oranges), but DO use commas when there are three or more things (apples, oranges, and bananas). Sometimes you’ll see it as “apples, oranges and bananas.” This is not technically wrong, but grammar nerds have strong opinions about it and mostly prefer it with two commas.
- When you’re listing verbs/actions, it depends on whether you have two clauses or not!
Remember: a clause must have a subject and a verb. So, let’s look at these examples, which I will first write without any commas:
- Today I had office hours and then wrote this grammar lecture.
- Yesterday I had therapy and then I went to the store to buy snacks
Where should the commas be (or not be)? Sentence two should have a comma before “and” because the second part of the sentence is an independent clause. I could rewrite it as “Yesterday, I had therapy. Then I went to the store to buy snacks.” I can’t rewrite Sentence 1 in the same way, because the second sentence would be “Then wrote this grammar lecture.” Who wrote it? The sentence doesn’t say.
So:
- Today I had office hours and then wrote this grammar lecture.
- Yesterday I had therapy, and then I went to the store to buy snacks.
Punctuating Quotations and Citations
This is the other big area of confusion for punctuation that you’ll come across a lot in academic writing. Let’s look at this sentence from the “Memes” article we read last week:
In Douglas’ words (1995), “Each of these programs in one way or another unlocks for the individual user a pluralist world of visual imagery, transmitted on demand and by personal choice” (p.382).
The Beginning of the Quote
In APA format, you put the year in parentheses after the author’s name. Whether you need a comma before the quote depends on the formulation of the sentence. For example if the sentence was “Douglas (1995) says that….” then I wouldn’t need a comma. One way to think about it is, if this WASN’T a quote, and was just my own writing, would I need a comma there? If this sentence started with “In other words” and was not a quote, we would still need a comma. So a comma goes after the parentheses.
The End of the Quote
If the part you’re quoting ends with a comma, a period, or no punctuation at all, then you don’t need any punctuation before your second pair of quotation marks. Instead, as you see in the quote above, you end the quote, then go directly into your parenthetical citation. Only after that do you include the end punctuation (in this case a period, but it could also be a comma if you’re going to continue on with another thought in the same sentence).
If the part you’re quoting ends with a ? or !, then you DO put that before the quotation marks. So, “Get off my lawn!” the grumpy man said (p.32). Or: In the play Hamlet, Hamlet asks, “To be, or not to be?” (p.40).
This has gotten pretty long, so I’m going to stop here. My biggest tip is this: if you’re not sure how to punctuate something, look around online or in past readings you’ve done for your classes to find examples of where the author does the same thing you’re doing. Then punctuate the same way they did. For example, you can always come back to this post to copy the punctuation from these quotes!
The assignment for 3/4 (the day you’re assigned to be reading this digital lecture) will be about sentence structure and variety, not punctuation. Will post that in a separate place for easy access!
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