The Mastering the Mechanics webinar series also describes the required sentence elements and the different sentence types. For more information, check out these archived webinars. If a sentence begins with a dependent set, note the comma after that sentence. On the other hand, if the sentence begins with an independent sentence, there is no comma separating the two sentences. Prepositional sentence: An expression that begins with a preposition (i.e. in, to, for, behind, bis, after, from, during) and changes a word in the sentence. A prepositional sentence answers one of many questions. Here are a few examples: “Where? When? How? A complex set contains at least one independent set and at least one dependent set. Dependent clauses can refer to the subject (who, what), sequence/time (since, during) or causal elements (because, if) of the independent sentence. A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb, and can also contain an object and modifiers. However, it contains only a stand-alone clause. The use of compound sentences when writing allows for a greater variety of sentences. Subject: A person, animal, place, thing, or concept that performs an action.
Define the topic in one sentence by asking the question “Who or what?” Independent clause: A stand-alone clause can be a stand-alone sentence. It contains a subject and a verb and is a complete idea. The following instructions apply to English sentences: Dependent clause: A dependent clause is not a complete sentence. It must be attached to a separate clause to become complete. This is also known as a subordinate clause. Legend: independent set = yellow, bold; comma or semicolon = pink, normal font; coordinating conjunction = green, key underlined: yellow, bold = subject; Green underlined = verb, blue, italics = object, pink, regular script = prepositional sentence.
