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Tip: Sentence Structures

Don't you hate it when teachers say, "this is a run-on sentence" or "you write how you talk; it's too wordy"? Or maybe you have the opposite problem, and sentence can't stand on its own as it needs something more. It can get annoying after a while. Trust me, I know. As a person who has written a lot of stories, papers, letters, and so many other things that is in dire need of correct grammar, I'm constantly reminded about my run-on sentences.

Please note, long sentences aren't bad. They can be good. There's just a limit on how much you can put into a complete sentence without it being too wordy, too confusing, or just plain incorrect.

But, before we can get to how that works, we must understand the basics of an independent and dependent clause. This article may sound boring at first, but trust me, by the time you're done reading this, you'll hopefully gain the knowledge to overcome those awkward sentences. The less awkward sentences that are in a story, the more likely you're able to keep a reader reading your story.

What is a Dependent and Independent Clause?

Dependent clauses are phrases that can't stand by themselves. They are missing one or two components of what makes up an independent clause. Independent clauses are made up of three parts: a noun, a verb, and a complete thought.

Wait...a complete thought? What's that?

A complete thought is something you can imagine without parts of it being left out. For example, you can imagine a girl walking a dog. The girl walked a dog. That is a complete sentence. As the girl walked the dog. That's not complete sentence. It depends on another part of a sentence in order for it to stand alone. As the girl walked the dog, it started to rain. The latter part of that is an independent clause. There's nothing that feels like it's missing.

Combining independent and dependent clauses makes up different sentence structures. Every sentence created in a story is filled with dependent and independent clauses. Sometimes a dependent clause stands by itself. It's something that can happen in stories to help prove a point.

What? How is that possible? Well, I'll get to that in a moment as you need to learn how the rules of sentence structures work before you can actually break them. So, lets get started on how to create complete sentences by understanding independent and dependent clauses and a bit about punctuation.

How to Combine Independent and Dependent Clauses?

Usually, when people create a run-on sentence or a sentence that can't stand on it's own, they are just missing a few punctuation marks. In order to use those punctuation marks, it's best to understand the four sentence types: simple, compound, complex, compound-complex.

Simple.

Simple is the easiest. They are short. They contain an independent clause. There is nothing else to it. Every sentence in this paragraph is a simple sentence. Sometimes they are easy to spot. Sometimes they are hard to spot. It's easy to follow. Too many simple sentences can make a paragraph choppy.

I can't do this without using more than just a simple sentence, sorry. The gist of the story is this; a simple sentence contains a complete thought, a noun, and a verb. They only use them once, so it's easier to follow.

Compound.

That last sentence was a compound sentence. It uses two independent clauses together by combining them together by some sort of conjunction. There are lots of ways to create a compound sentence; however, there are many rules to it. I will get to that later. Just note that a compound sentence combines two independent clauses, but there's a reason this can happen. It needs help by a special punctuation, or a special word and a certain punctuation mark.