ECW. Week of Sept. 3/4

You will find in this entry:

A handout regarding Sentences in English.
A sample of good and bad journal writing

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SIMPLE, COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

What is a sentence? A sentence is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought. It begins with a capital letter and ends in a period, exclamation or interrogation marks.

The following are sentences: He is a student. / Speed kills./ It’s hot today./ He looks tired./ Who’s there?/Are you hungry?

The following are not sentences: Hot weather (no verb)/ The man bought (no complete thought: what did he buy?)/ Because it rained. (no complete thought)/ Is very handsome (no subject)/Every morning before breakfast (no subject, no verb).


There are four types of sentences:

Simple Sentence has one independent clause. She married him.
Possible combinations: SV, SSV, SVV, SSVV

Compound Sentence, 2 independent clauses linked by a coma or coordinating conjunctions She married and they lived happily ever after.

Complex Sentence: a combination of ind. and dep. clauses. A comma is necessary if the dependent clause comes first:
She later divorced him because he was cheating on her.
Because he was cheating on her, she later divorced him.

Simple Sentences can be very short or very long. To extend a sentence (make it longer) you can add. E.g. the simple sentence: Dave sings, you can extend in the following ways:

Direct object: Dave sings a song.
Indirect Object. Dave sings to his wife.
Prepositional phrases (starting with in, on, at…) Dave sings in the church.
Adjectives: Tall Dave sings.
Adverbs: Dave sings beautifully.
Dependent clauses: Dave sings when he is in a good mood.
Relative clause: Dave, who is a member of the church choir, sings.
Additional subject: Dave and his wife sing.
Additional verbs: Dave sings and dances.
Additional sentences: Dave sings, but his wife doesn’t like it.

Look at this sentence: Dave, who is a member of the church choir, sings a song in the church to his wife, beautifully, but she doesn’t like it. We have 3 verbs and 2 subject but this whole sentence is one Complex sentence.

SENTENCE COMBINING

Independent clauses are combined with other independent or dependent clauses with conjunctions. Coordinating conjunctions link two independent clauses, e.g. Dave sings and he dances. Subordinating conjunctions link dependent clauses, e.g. Dave sings because he is in a good mood.

Most frequent coordinating conjunctions are: and, but, so, or.

Here’s the list of most frequent subordinating conjunctions: if, as, since, unless, despite, so that, when, after, before, during, even if, although (even though), where, whatever, until, because, while, whereas, though, who, whom, whoever, whenever.
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PRACTICE: INDEPENDENT AND INDEPENDENT CLAUSES

A) Write IC (independent clause) or DC (dependent clause) beside each group of words then circle the subordinating conjunction if a clause is dependent.
E.g. While the class was taking a test.( DC)

1. I take a walk around the block.
2. Before I go to walk.
3. This exercise wakes up my body and clears my mind. 4. It’s hard to do this in the winter.
5. Because it is still dark when I go to work.
6. Although I try to get up early even on weekend.
7. I sometimes sleep late on Saturday.
8. When it’s raining, of course.
9. I never go out.
10. I become moody and depressed.
11. If I don’t exercise for several days.

B. Now, write complex sentences by combining independent clauses with dependent clauses as follows:
1 and 2; 4 and 5; 6 and 7; 8 and 9; 10 and 11.
HOMEWORK:

1. 2nd Journal

2. Write your own examples of sentences using in each different conjunctions. Make sure that at least 5 sentences are complex sentences. E.g. If it snows a lot tomorrow, I might go skiing.

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ABOUT JOURNAL WRITING

What not to write about – simply because it is boring.

On Monday morning I woke up at 6:00 a.m.. I had a cup of coffee and then I went for a jog in the Naksan Park. It was cold, so I couldn’t stay there for a long time. I came back home and made breakfast. I made scrambled eggs with toast. From 8 to 9 I was cleaning my house: washing the dishes, vacuuming and dusting. At 9 I had a shower and then got dressed. At 9:30 I went to the photocopy room to make some photocopies. There were two professors already doing the same thing, so I had to wait for a long time. I went to the teachers’ lounge and checked my email. I got an email from my brother with lots of pictures of my family who gathered for my nephew’s birthday party. . I was happy to see that my father still very healthy and handsome. My sister-in-law baked an enormous cake in the shape of a race care. I felt sad that I couldn’t be there. I taught all day long. At 7:00pm I came home and made some chicken soup for dinner. I read a little from my book but went to bed really early. I didn’t have any dreams.

What to write: about one even that is special, that stands out among all the others

Last Saturday I had a Christmas tree decorating party at my house. This party is becoming a tradition for me since this was the third time I had such an event. I usually cook a big pot of some simple but hearty soup or stew, make some mulled wine and eggnog and invite my closest friends to help me with the tree. The night before the party I did all the shopping and cooked a big pot of chilli. I also took out the tree ornaments. On the day of the party, the guests started arriving around 7:00 pm. There were 8 of us: my best friend Clare, my German friend Andrea, my American friend Chris, and my Korean friends Seok-jeong, So-hee and Ju-yoeng. First we ate the chilli. Then together we prepared mulled wine and eggnog which we drank with some rich Christmas cake. Finally, we decorated the tree and arranged Christmas lights all over my apartment. It took us about an hour, but the final product was beautiful. I swear, my house looks nicer and more festive than the Galleria Department Store in Apgujeong.