Grammar Help — Sentences

What is a sentence?

A sentence is a complete and independant statement. The main parts of the sentence are the subject and the predicate. Usually the subject is the name of something taking action and the predicate all the rest including the object. The object is the thing which the subject acts upon. It may also contain some subclauses and other stuff, but the most important thing if you are having trouble with your writing is to keep it simple. Don't put in too much stuff in your sentences.

Terms

Every sentence contains a subject and an object. The subject takes action upon the object.
Noun: Person, place or thing (Joe, New York City, bone, building)
Verb: word which indicates some kind of action or activity (throw, put, get, buy, sell, grow)
Conjunction: word which joins two parts of the sentence (and, but, or)

Subject: Noun taking the action in the sentence.
Object: Noun being acted upon in the sentence.
Put it all together and you have a sentence:
"Joe threw the bone."
"New York City grows buildings."
"The subject noun verbs the object noun."
Exception: the passive sentence.
In the passive sentence the subject is not explicitly stated or the subject comes last.
"The bone was thrown." or "The bone was thrown by Joe."
Avoid passive sentences except in scientific writing where the writer pretends they had nothing to do with the experiment except for reporting on it.
"Chemical A was mixed with chemical B." NOT "We mixed chemical A with chemical B."

Predicate is the object and other stuff: Joe threw the bone, which had once belonged to a Tyrannosauraus rex in the later Jurassic era and had resided in his left hind leg.

Here the object is still "bone" but the predicate includes all the junk about the bone. This sentence is already a little longer than it should be. If you add on any more stuff to this sentence you are running into dangerous territory: The Run-On Sentence. Example: Joe threw the bone, which had once belonged to a Tyrannosauraus rex in the later Jurassic era and had resided in his left hind leg where it attached to a lateral abductor muscle before his demise when it had sunk with his body into a shallow sea and gradually fossilized by a leaching of carbonate atoms through the eternal presence of water molecules filled with solute ions.

This is not a sentence, it is an adventure in reading! Run-on sentences are one of the most common grammatical faults. They generally come about when you have a lot to say or you don't have a clear idea of what you want to say. These sentences should just be broken down into several complete sentences. They are easily corrected during the proofreading phase of your writing.

Clear writing

If you are having trouble with your writing, start by making sure your sentences contain a subject, verb and object. Don't make your sentences too complicated. Go through your writing one sentence at a time and make sure each sentence is grammatically correct.