Jeni DiSalvo, Instructor Office Hours	Writing	Freshman Composition Proposals Business Communication	Fall 2003
Back to DMACC Home	NOTES:  Sentence Structure Each sentence should contain two segments that must be present for the sentence to be complete.  These elements are SUBJECT and PREDICATE.  If I put the comment "frag" on your paper, I am indicating to you that one of these elements is missing. The boy hit the ball. In the sentence above, the SUBJECT is The boy, and the PREDICATE is hit the ball. SUBJECT The SUBJECT of the sentence is a NOUN, a PRONOUN or a NOUN PHRASE; and, as the term suggests, it is the subject of the sentence--the main topic of the sentence. A NOUN is a person, place or thing.  It can be a name (John Doe, Sam, or Santa Claus) or the name of a thing (dog, boy, cricket, or reindeer). A PRONOUN is a substitute for a noun that refers to a noun (he, she, it, they).  You should make sure that your reader has no doubt about which noun your pronoun refers to.  I will put a "ref" mark next to any pronoun that does not have a clear reference. PREDICATE The PREDICATE of the sentence is the part of the sentence that discusses the SUBJECT.  This segment contains the VERB or VERB PHRASE and tells us what is going on in the sentence.  The PREDICATE also often contains the OBJECT of the sentence.  A VERB is a word that indicates action (hit, ran, created) or a state of being (am, seemed).  Verbs can take various forms including AUXILIARY VERBS, MODAL VERBS, or TRANSITIVE VERBS.  For more information on VERB forms, please check page 505-506 in your Handbook. The OBJECT of the sentence is another noun that the action of the verb refers to in the sentence.  In the example sentence above, the ball is the OBJECT because the SUBJECT, The boy, HIT the ball. PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES are short phrases that clarify the action or the subject of a sentence.  These phrases always begin with a PREPOSITION and contain a NOUN or PRONOUN and modifiers.  Please see page 507 in your Handbook for a list of PREPOSITIONS. Here are some examples of PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES: In the beginning, From the start, ...in the book. for posterity's sake. In most cases, you should put a comma after a prepositional phrase that opens a sentence.
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