Writing+Skill+7

Writing Skill 7: REVIEW SENTENCE STRUCTURE After you have written your response, it is important for you to review the sentence structure in your response. You should check the sentence structure of simple sentences, compound sentences, and complex sentences.

Look at the following sentences from a response about the development of a new theory. .

Since a new theory was developed within the last decade.

s v

The reading passage explains a theory, the listening passage -

s v s

discusses the historical background of the theory.

v -

One issue that the lecturer points out !!~that the main facts

s s v

contradict the theory. The sentence structure of each of these sentences is not correct. The first sentence is an incor­ rect simple sentence. In this sentence, the subordinate connector Since in front of the subject and verb theory was developed makes the sentence incomplete. The second sentence is an incorrect compound sentence. In this sentence, the main clauses reading passage explains ... and listening passage discusses ... are connected with a comma, and a comma cannot be used to connect two main clauses. The third sentence is an incorrect complex sentence. In this sentence, the main subject is issue and the verb is is; there is an extra subject it, which makes the sentence incorrect.

The following chart outlines the key information you should remember about reviewing sentence structure.