{"id":575,"date":"2020-06-23T14:16:11","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T14:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/writing-workshop\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=575"},"modified":"2024-04-24T23:51:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T23:51:22","slug":"what-is-a-sentence","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/chapter\/what-is-a-sentence\/","title":{"raw":"What is a Sentence?","rendered":"What is a Sentence?"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Critique passages, revising for run-on sentences and fragments<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h2>Basic Sentences<\/h2>\r\nWhat is a sentence? That\u2019s actually a harder question to answer than you might think. Sometimes students think of a sentence as a complete thought. But what is a complete thought?\r\n\r\nA complete sentence always contains a verb, expresses a complete thought, and makes sense standing alone:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Kamal reads quickly.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThis is a complete sentence as it contains a verb (reads), expresses a complete idea, and does not need any further information for the reader to understand the sentence. \"Kamal reads\" is also a complete sentence - although it doesn\u2019t give us as much information as we might like. Let's look another example:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>When Kamal reads.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThis is an incomplete sentence. It contains a verb, but the opening word when tells us that something happens when Kamal reads, but it doesn\u2019t tell us what that something is; we need more information to complete the idea.\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>When Kamal reads, he reads quickly.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThis is now a complete sentence since the whole idea of the sentence has been expressed.\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s another example of a simple sentence:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Asha swims.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nWe know the subject (Asha), and we know what Asha does (swims). Obviously, without both pieces, it\u2019s not a sentence. Asha can\u2019t be a sentence on its own: What is Asha doing? Swims can\u2019t be a sentence on its own: Who swims?\r\n<h2>More Complex Sentences<\/h2>\r\nLet\u2019s look at some slightly more confusing examples:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Asha swims. As she tries to train for a triathlon.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nWe know the first part - \"Asha swims\" - is a sentence. What about the second - \"As she trains for a triathlon\"? What happens as she trains for a triathlon? We don\u2019t know. \"She trains for a triathlon\" is a sentence. But \"As she trains for a triathlon\" is incomplete.\r\n\r\nWe often make mistakes just like this one because we split up a sentence into incomplete parts. Instead of - \"Asha swims. As she trains for a triathlon.\" - we could simply write - \"Asha swims, as she trains for a triathlon.\" Or - \"As she trains for a triathlon, Asha swims.\"\r\n\r\nOf course, lots of real sentences are long and complicated, and that can make figuring out whether they are complete sentences even more tricky. Let\u2019s look at another example:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>My sister and I, having studied the application and applying for the job.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIs this a sentence? The sentence is about me and my sister. What did we do? Hmm \u2026 not so clear. Rearranging the sentence can make the issue even more obvious:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Having studied the application and applying for the job, my sister and I.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nCan you see the issue now? You can simplify the sentence further to make the issue even more clear:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Having studied, my sister and I.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nReally, the heart or core of the sentence is this: \"My sister and I.\" This is not a sentence.\r\n\r\n\"My sister and I were awaiting news about the job, having studied the application and applying for the job.\" Now the core of the sentence is complete: \"My sister and I were awaiting news.\" The subject is \"My sister and I.\" What were we doing?: (we) were awaiting news.\r\n\r\nOne way to make sure the core of the sentence is complete is to eliminate all the extra bits. Let\u2019s practice.\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/0035334a-2d1f-4652-8e2d-cb970ddf8e3a\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/6f05dd13-89e0-4d95-8da1-73a010f60068\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h2>All Sentences Need a Core<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_844\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"246\"]<img class=\"wp-image-844 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5208\/2020\/06\/24222301\/hello-i-m-nik-z1d-LP8sjuI-unsplash-246x300.jpg\" alt=\"A word board that says &quot;Difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations.&quot;\" width=\"246\" height=\"300\" \/> <strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. Which part of the above quote would you identify as the \"core\" of the sentence?[\/caption]\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s another way to think about the core of a sentence. Let\u2019s look at some examples that are missing the core.\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>After sitting for nearly an hour by the pool,<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nWe need to add the core.\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>After sitting for nearly an hour by the pool, Asha swims.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nAgain, we can remove the extra bit and the core is the same: Asha swims.\r\n\r\nHow about this example?\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Surviving the virus<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nWe need to add the core.\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Asha swims surviving the virus.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nOkay, that\u2019s confusing, but \"Asha swims\" still works as the core. It just doesn\u2019t make sense.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s switch out swims for another verb - is. \"Asha is surviving the virus.\" Now, \"Asha is surviving\" is the core. What is she surviving? That\u2019s extra, not part of the core of the sentence.\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Writing Workshop: What is a Sentence?<\/h3>\r\nOpen your Working Document to the section \"What is a Sentence?\"\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s take some sentence fragments and turn them into full sentences by adding more to the fragments.\r\n\r\nYou may need to add punctuation as well, which we will be discussing in more detail on the next page.\r\n\r\n1. Because I am generally a happy person,\r\n\r\n2. Although I love school\r\n\r\n3. Failing math class\r\n\r\n4. Evaluating the evidence\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Critique passages, revising for run-on sentences and fragments<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Basic Sentences<\/h2>\n<p>What is a sentence? That\u2019s actually a harder question to answer than you might think. Sometimes students think of a sentence as a complete thought. But what is a complete thought?<\/p>\n<p>A complete sentence always contains a verb, expresses a complete thought, and makes sense standing alone:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kamal reads quickly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is a complete sentence as it contains a verb (reads), expresses a complete idea, and does not need any further information for the reader to understand the sentence. &#8220;Kamal reads&#8221; is also a complete sentence &#8211; although it doesn\u2019t give us as much information as we might like. Let&#8217;s look another example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When Kamal reads.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is an incomplete sentence. It contains a verb, but the opening word when tells us that something happens when Kamal reads, but it doesn\u2019t tell us what that something is; we need more information to complete the idea.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When Kamal reads, he reads quickly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is now a complete sentence since the whole idea of the sentence has been expressed.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s another example of a simple sentence:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Asha swims.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We know the subject (Asha), and we know what Asha does (swims). Obviously, without both pieces, it\u2019s not a sentence. Asha can\u2019t be a sentence on its own: What is Asha doing? Swims can\u2019t be a sentence on its own: Who swims?<\/p>\n<h2>More Complex Sentences<\/h2>\n<p>Let\u2019s look at some slightly more confusing examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Asha swims. As she tries to train for a triathlon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We know the first part &#8211; &#8220;Asha swims&#8221; &#8211; is a sentence. What about the second &#8211; &#8220;As she trains for a triathlon&#8221;? What happens as she trains for a triathlon? We don\u2019t know. &#8220;She trains for a triathlon&#8221; is a sentence. But &#8220;As she trains for a triathlon&#8221; is incomplete.<\/p>\n<p>We often make mistakes just like this one because we split up a sentence into incomplete parts. Instead of &#8211; &#8220;Asha swims. As she trains for a triathlon.&#8221; &#8211; we could simply write &#8211; &#8220;Asha swims, as she trains for a triathlon.&#8221; Or &#8211; &#8220;As she trains for a triathlon, Asha swims.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, lots of real sentences are long and complicated, and that can make figuring out whether they are complete sentences even more tricky. Let\u2019s look at another example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>My sister and I, having studied the application and applying for the job.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Is this a sentence? The sentence is about me and my sister. What did we do? Hmm \u2026 not so clear. Rearranging the sentence can make the issue even more obvious:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Having studied the application and applying for the job, my sister and I.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Can you see the issue now? You can simplify the sentence further to make the issue even more clear:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Having studied, my sister and I.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Really, the heart or core of the sentence is this: &#8220;My sister and I.&#8221; This is not a sentence.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My sister and I were awaiting news about the job, having studied the application and applying for the job.&#8221; Now the core of the sentence is complete: &#8220;My sister and I were awaiting news.&#8221; The subject is &#8220;My sister and I.&#8221; What were we doing?: (we) were awaiting news.<\/p>\n<p>One way to make sure the core of the sentence is complete is to eliminate all the extra bits. Let\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_0035334a-2d1f-4652-8e2d-cb970ddf8e3a\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/0035334a-2d1f-4652-8e2d-cb970ddf8e3a?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_0035334a-2d1f-4652-8e2d-cb970ddf8e3a\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_6f05dd13-89e0-4d95-8da1-73a010f60068\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/6f05dd13-89e0-4d95-8da1-73a010f60068?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_6f05dd13-89e0-4d95-8da1-73a010f60068\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>All Sentences Need a Core<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_844\" style=\"width: 256px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-844\" class=\"wp-image-844 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5208\/2020\/06\/24222301\/hello-i-m-nik-z1d-LP8sjuI-unsplash-246x300.jpg\" alt=\"A word board that says &quot;Difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations.&quot;\" width=\"246\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-844\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. Which part of the above quote would you identify as the &#8220;core&#8221; of the sentence?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Here\u2019s another way to think about the core of a sentence. Let\u2019s look at some examples that are missing the core.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>After sitting for nearly an hour by the pool,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We need to add the core.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>After sitting for nearly an hour by the pool, Asha swims.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Again, we can remove the extra bit and the core is the same: Asha swims.<\/p>\n<p>How about this example?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Surviving the virus<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We need to add the core.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Asha swims surviving the virus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Okay, that\u2019s confusing, but &#8220;Asha swims&#8221; still works as the core. It just doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s switch out swims for another verb &#8211; is. &#8220;Asha is surviving the virus.&#8221; Now, &#8220;Asha is surviving&#8221; is the core. What is she surviving? That\u2019s extra, not part of the core of the sentence.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Writing Workshop: What is a Sentence?<\/h3>\n<p>Open your Working Document to the section &#8220;What is a Sentence?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take some sentence fragments and turn them into full sentences by adding more to the fragments.<\/p>\n<p>You may need to add punctuation as well, which we will be discussing in more detail on the next page.<\/p>\n<p>1. Because I am generally a happy person,<\/p>\n<p>2. Although I love school<\/p>\n<p>3. Failing math class<\/p>\n<p>4. Evaluating the evidence<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-575\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>What is a Sentence?. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Audrey Fisch for Lumen Learning. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Sentence Structure. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: University of Leicester. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www2.le.ac.uk\/projects\/oer\/oers\/ssds\/oers\/grammar-guides\/grammarskills.html\">https:\/\/www2.le.ac.uk\/projects\/oer\/oers\/ssds\/oers\/grammar-guides\/grammarskills.html<\/a>. <strong>Project<\/strong>: Grammar Guides. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Image of word board. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Hello I&#039;m Nik. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Unsplash. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/z1d-LP8sjuI\">https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/z1d-LP8sjuI<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>Other<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: https:\/\/unsplash.com\/license<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":29,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"What is a Sentence?\",\"author\":\"Audrey Fisch for Lumen Learning\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Sentence Structure\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"University of Leicester\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www2.le.ac.uk\/projects\/oer\/oers\/ssds\/oers\/grammar-guides\/grammarskills.html\",\"project\":\"Grammar Guides\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Image of word board\",\"author\":\"Hello I\\'m Nik\",\"organization\":\"Unsplash\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/z1d-LP8sjuI\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"other\",\"license_terms\":\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/license\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"0035334a-2d1f-4652-8e2d-cb970ddf8e3a, 556d16d1-8b62-4921-aabf-e78774715371","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-575","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":346,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1675,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/575\/revisions\/1675"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/346"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/575\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=575"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=575"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/englishcomp1coreq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}