Part Five
Handbook of Sentence Skills
Preview
As explained in Part One, there are four steps, or bases, in effective writing. Part Five is concerned with the fourth step: the ability to write clear, error-free sentences. First a diagnostic test is provided so that you can check your present understanding of important sentence skills. Then the skills themselves appear under the general headings “Grammar,” “Mechanics,” “Punctuation,” and “Word Use.” Then there is a chapter that presents pointers and brief activities for ESL students. Next come mastery tests and then editing tests that reinforce many basic writing skills and give you practice in editing and proofreading. Closing out Part Five is an achievement test that helps you measure your improvement in important sentence skills.
Sentence-Skills Diagnostic Test
Part 1
This test will help you check your knowledge of important sentence skills. Certain parts of the following word groups are underlined. Write X in the answer space if you think a mistake appears at the underlined part. Write C in the answer space if you think the underlined part is correct.
A series of headings (“Fragments,” “Run-Ons,” and so on) will give you clues to the mistakes to look for. However, you do not have to understand the label to find a mistake. What you are checking is your own sense of effective written English.
Fragments
__________ 1. Until his mother called him twice. Barry did not get out of bed. He had stayed up too late the night before.
__________ 2. After I slid my aching bones into the hot water of the tub, I realized there was no soap. I didn't want to get out again.
__________ 3. I spent two hours on the phone yesterday. Trying to find a garage to repair my car. Eventually I had to have the car towed to a garage in another town.
__________ 4. Sweating under his heavy load. Brian staggered up the stairs to his apartment. He felt as though his legs were crumbling beneath him.
__________ 5. I love to eat and cook Italian food, especially lasagna and ravioli. I make everything from scratch.
__________ 6. One of my greatest joys in life is eating desserts. Such as blueberry cheesecake and vanilla cream puffs. Almond fudge cake makes me want to dance.
Run-Ons
__________ 7. He decided to stop smoking, for he didn't want to die of lung cancer.
__________ 8. The window shade snapped up like a gunshot her cat leaped four feet off the floor.
__________ 9. Billy is the meanest little kid on his block, he eats only the heads of animal crackers.
__________ 10. He knew he had flunked the driver's exam, he ran over a stop sign.
__________ 11. My first boyfriend was five years old. We met every day in the playground sandbox.
__________ 12. The store owner watched the shopper carefully, she suspected him of stealing from her before.
Standard English Verbs
__________ 13. Jed tows cars away for a living and is ashamed of his job.
__________ 14. You snored like a chain saw last night.
__________ 15. When I was about to finish work last night, a man walk into the restaurant and ordered two dozen hamburgers.
__________ 16. Charlotte react badly whenever she gets caught in a traffic jam.
Irregular Verbs
__________ 17. I gived a twenty-dollar bill to the cashier and waited for my change.
__________ 18. I had eaten so much food at the buffet dinner that I went into the bathroom just to loosen my belt.
__________ 19. When the mud slide started, the whole neighborhood began going downhill.
__________ 20. Juan has rode the bus to school for two years while saving for a car.
Subject-Verb Agreement
__________ 21. There is long lines at the checkout counter.
__________ 22. The little girl have a painful ear infection.
__________ 23. One of the crooked politicians was jailed for a month.
__________ 24. The cockroaches behind my stove gets high on Raid.
Consistent Verb Tense
__________ 25. My brother and I played video games for an hour before we start to do homework.
__________ 26. The first thing Jerry does every day is weigh himself. The scale informs him what kind of meals he can eat that day.
__________ 27. Sandy eats a nutritional breakfast, skips lunch, and then enjoys a big dinner.
__________ 28. His parents stayed together for his sake; only after he graduates from college were they divorced.
Pronoun Agreement, Reference, and Point of View
__________ 29. I get my hair cut by a barber who talks to you constantly.
__________ 30. I enjoy movies like The Return of the Vampire that frighten me.
__________ 31. Every guest at the party dressed like their favorite cartoon character.
__________ 32. Persons camping in those woods should watch their step because of wild dogs.
__________ 33. Angry because he had struck out, Tony hurled the baseball bat at the fence and broke it.
__________ 34. I love Parmesan cheese, but it does not always agree with me.
Pronoun Types
__________ 35. Alfonso and me take turns driving to work.
__________ 36. No one is a better cook than she.
Adjectives and Adverbs
__________ 37. Bonnie ran quick up the steps, taking them two at a time.
__________ 38. Larry is more better than I am at darts.
Misplaced Modifiers
__________ 39. He swatted the wasp that stung him with a newspaper.
__________ 40. Charlotte returned the hamburger that was spoiled to the supermarket.
__________ 41. Jamal test-drove a car at the dealership with power windows and a sunroof.
__________ 42. I adopted a dog from a junkyard which is very close to my heart.
Dangling Modifiers
__________ 43. Tapping a pencil on the table, Ms. Garcia asked for the students' attention.
__________ 44. Flunking out of school, my parents demanded that I get a job.
__________ 45. While I was waiting for the bus, rain began to fall.
__________ 46. Braking the car suddenly, the shopping bags tumbled onto the floor.
Faulty Parallelism
__________ 47. Jeff enjoys hunting for rabbits, socializing with friends, and to read the comics.
__________ 48. The recipe instructed me to chop onions, to peel carrots, and to boil a pot of water.
__________ 49. When I saw my roommate with my girlfriend, I felt worried, angry, and embarrassment as well.
__________ 50. Frances enjoys shopping for new clothes, trying different cosmetics, and reading beauty magazines.
Capital Letters
__________ 51. Sitting in the hot, stuffy classroom, I couldn't stop thinking about a cold pepsi.
__________ 52. During july, Frank's company works a four-day week.
__________ 53. A woman screamed, “He's stolen my purse!”
__________ 54. On Summer days I like to sit in the backyard and sunbathe.
Apostrophe
__________ 55. The Wolfman's bite is worse than his bark.
__________ 56. Clydes quick hands reached out to break his son's fall.
__________ 57. I'll be with you shortly if youll just wait a minute.
__________ 58. We didn't leave the rude waiter any tip.
Quotation Marks
__________ 59. Mark Twain once said, “The more I know about human beings, the more I like my dog.”
__________ 60. Say something tender to me, “whispered Tony to Lola.”
__________ 61. “I hate that commercial, he muttered.”
__________ 62. “If you don't leave soon,” he warned, “you'll be late for work.”
Comma
__________ 63. My favorite sandwich includes turkey tomatoes lettuce and mayonnaise on whole-wheat bread.
__________ 64. Although I have a black belt in karate I decided to go easy on the demented bully who had kicked sand in my face.
__________ 65. All the tree branches, which were covered with ice, glittered like diamonds.
__________ 66. We could always tell when our instructor felt disorganized for his shirt would not be tucked into his pants.
__________ 67. You, my man, are going to get yours.
__________ 68. His father shouted “Why don't you go out and get a job?”
Commonly Confused Words
__________ 69. Some stores will accept your credit cards but not you're money.
__________ 70. Since he's lost weight, most of Max's clothes are to big for him.
__________ 71. They're planning to trade in their old car.
__________ 72. Its important to get this job done properly.
__________ 73. Will you except this job if it's offered to you, or keep looking for something better?
__________ 74. Who's the culprit who left the paint can on the table?
Effective Word Choice
__________ 75. Because the school was flooded, the dance had to be postponed until a later date.
__________ 76. The movie was a real bomb, so we left early.
__________ 77. The victims of the car accident were shaken but none the worse for wear.
__________ 78. Anne is of the opinion that the death penalty should be abolished.
Answers are on page 727.
Part 2 (Optional)
Do Part 2 at your instructor's request. This second part of the test will provide more detailed information about skills you need to know. On separate paper, number and correct all the items you have marked with an X. For example, suppose you had marked the following word groups with an X. (Note that these examples are not taken from the test.)
4. If football games disappeared entirely from television. I would not even miss them. Other people in my family would perish.
7. The kitten suddenly saw her reflection in the mirror, she jumped back in surprise.
15. I wanted to get close enough to see the tag on the stray dogs collar.
29. When we go out to a restaurant we always order something we would not cook for ourselves.
Here is how you should write your corrections on a separate sheet of paper.
4. television, I
7. mirror, and
15. dog's
29. restaurant, we
There are over forty corrections to make in all.
Grammar
20 Subjects and Verbs
The basic building blocks of English sentences are subjects and verbs. Understanding them is an important first step toward mastering a number of sentence skills.
Every sentence has a subject and a verb. Who or what the sentence speaks about is called the subject; what the sentence says about the subject is called the verb.
The children laughed.
Several branches fell.
Most students passed the test.
That man is a crook.
A Simple Way to find a Subject
To find a subject, ask who or what the sentence is about. As shown below, your answer is the subject.
Who is the first sentence about? Children
What is the second sentence about? Several branches
Who is the third sentence about? Most students
Who is the fourth sentence about? That man
A Simple Way to Find a Verb
To find a verb, ask what the sentence says about the subject. As shown below, your answer is the verb.
What does the first sentence say about the children? They laughed.
What does the second sentence say about the branches? They fell.
What does the third sentence say about the students? They passed.
What does the fourth sentence say about that man? He is (a crook).
A second way to find the verb is to put I, you, we, he, she, it, or they (whichever form is appropriate) in front of the word you think is a verb. If the result makes sense, you have a verb. For example, you could put they in front of laughed in the first sentence above, with the result, they laughed, making sense. Therefore you know that laughed is a verb. You could use they or he, for instance, to test the other verbs as well.
Finally, it helps to remember that most verbs show action. In the sentences already considered, the three action verbs are laughed, fell, and passed. Certain other verbs, known as linking verbs, do not show action. They do, however, give information about the subject. In “That man is a crook,” the linking verb is tells us that the man is a crook. Other common linking verbs include am, are, was, were, feel, appear, look, become, and seem.
Activity
In each of the following sentences, draw one line under the subject and two lines under the verb.
1. A sudden thunderstorm ended the baseball game.
2. Small stones pinged onto the windshield.
3. The test directions confused the students.
4. Cotton shirts feel softer than polyester ones.
5. The fog rolled into the cemetery.
6. Yoko invited her friends to dinner.
7. A green fly stung her on the ankle.
8. Every other night, garbage trucks rumble down my street on their way to the river.
9. The elderly man sat for a few minutes on the park bench.
10. With their fingers, the children drew pictures on the steamed window.
More about Subjects and Verbs
1 A pronoun (a word like he, she, it, we, you, or they used in place of a noun) can serve as the subject of a sentence. For example:
He seems like a lonely person.
They both like to gamble.
Without a surrounding context (so that we know who He or They refers to), such sentences may not seem clear, but they are complete.
2 A sentence may have more than one verb, more than one subject, or several subjects and verbs:
My heart skipped and pounded.
The radio and tape player were stolen from the car.
Dave and Ellen prepared the report together and presented it to the class.
3 The subject of a sentence never appears within a prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase is simply a group of words that begins with a preposition. Following is a list of common prepositions:
about before by inside over
above behind during into through
across below except of to
among beneath for off toward
around beside from on under
at between in onto with
Cross out prepositional phrases when you are looking for the subject of a sentence.
Under my pillow I found a quarter left by the tooth fairy.
One of the yellow lights at the school crossing began flashing.
The comics pages of the newspaper have disappeared.
In spite of my efforts, Bob dropped out of school.
During a rainstorm, I sat in my car reading magazines.
4 Many verbs consist of more than one word. Here, for example, are some of the many forms of the verb smile.
smile smiled should smile
smiles were smiling will be smiling
does smile have smiled can smile
is smiling had smiled could be smiling
are smiling had been smiling must have smiled
Notes
a Words like not, just, never, only, and always are not part of the verb, although they may appear within the verb.
Larry did not finish the paper before class.
The road was just completed last week.
b No verb preceded by to is ever the verb of a sentence.
My car suddenly began to sputter on the freeway.
I swerved to avoid a squirrel on the road.
c No -ing word by itself is ever the verb of a sentence. (It may be part of the verb, but it must have a helping verb in front of it.)
They leaving early for the game. (not a sentence, because the verb is not complete)
They are leaving early for the game. (a sentence)
Activity
Draw a single line under the subjects and a double line under the verbs in the following sentences. Be sure to include all parts of the verb.
1. A burning odor from the wood saw filled the room.
2. At first, sticks of gum always feel powdery on your tongue.
3. Vampires and werewolves are repelled by garlic.
4. Three people in the long bank line looked impatiently at their watches.
5. The driving rain had pasted wet leaves all over the car.
6. She has decided to buy a condominium.
7. The trees in the mall were glittering with tiny white lights.
8. The puppies slipped and tumbled on the vinyl kitchen floor.
9. Tony and Lola ate at Pizza Hut and then went to a movie.
10. We have not met our new neighbors in the apartment building.
Review Test
Draw a single line under subjects and a double line under verbs. Crossing out prepositional phrases may help to find the subjects.
1. A cloud of fruit flies hovered over the bananas.
2. Candle wax dripped onto the table and hardened into pools.
3. Nick and Fran are both excellent Frisbee players.
4. The leaves of my dying rubber plant resembled limp brown rags.
5. During the first week of vacation, Ken slept until noon every day.
6. They have just decided to go on a diet together.
7. Psychology and word processing are my favorite subjects.
8. The sofa in the living room has not been cleaned for over a year.
9. The water stains on her suede shoes did not disappear with brushing.
10. Fred stayed in bed too long and, as a result, arrived late for work.