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Hello! Welcome to this Quick Tips workshop on Sentence Essentials from the Kaplan University Writing Center. My name is Chrissine Rios, and I am a full time Writing Tutor from the KUWC. To view the recorded workshop, please click this link: http://khe2.adobeconnect.com/p8u0cs47xv4/ 1 Our objectives for this workshop are to review the essential parts of a sentence, examine subjects and verbs and the way they must ―agree‖; and in the process of looking at some common issues with subject-verb agreement, you’ll have the chance to practice editing subject-verb agreement errors. I will also show you where to find additional resources and examples on sentence grammar and editing in the Kaplan University Writing Center. . 2 A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought. Every sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with an exclamation point, question mark, or period. Examples It’s harvest time! Do you know what the farmer will harvest today? She will harvest corn. Writing tip: Exclamation marks are rarely used in college-level papers. To show emphasis or strong emotion, select words that accurately convey your meaning. 3 The parts of a sentence shape the meaning of ideas. To understand how to avoid common problems with subject-verb agreement, a writer must be able to identify the subject and verb in the sentence along with the other essential parts that may be needed to complete the thought. For the purpose of this workshop, we will look most closely at the subject and verb with the understanding that more information may be needed for the sentence to be complete. We are also looking at simple sentences. We’ll look at more complex sentences where we might have two subject-verb clauses in the sentence in our next sentence essentials workshop this month. The essential elements of a simple sentence, which is one complete clause are a subject, a predicate with a conjugated verb, and an object or complement as needed to complete the idea. Examples Henry left his suitcase on the curb. In this sentence, Henry is the subject and left is the verb. What did he leave? His suitcase. That’s the object. Where did he leave it? On the curb. That’s a prepositional phrase providing more information about the verb. Cats sit where they want. In this sentence, cats is the subject. Sit is the object, 4 and where they want is an adverbial that tells more information about the verb. It tells where the action happens. The children’s choir sings. In this sentence, the subject is the noun phrase, the children’s choir, and sings is the verb. Macaroni and chees is my favorite. This sentence has a subject, verb, and because the verb is a linking verb—it conveys a sense of being rather than an action—what follows is a complement that renames the noun. So the subject is what the sentence is about. The verb is the action or state of being. The object tells what or who receives the action of the verb. A complement renames the subject. And an adverbial is a word or a group of words that tells where, when, why or how therefore giving more detail about the action or verb. 4 Typically, the subject of a sentence is a noun, noun phrase, or compound noun. Nouns are people, places, things, and ideas. 5 Subjects might also be pronouns or verbals: They (pronoun) are writing a blog. Walking and running (gerund) relieve stress. To own a spa (infinitive) is awesome. 6 After the subject in a sentence comes the predicate, and the verb is the main component. When editing sentences, you want to look to the verb first to see if you have a complete idea. Verbs convey the action of the subject, or the verb can also link the subject to the rest of the sentence. The examples provide two examples of each type. The first two, my aunt won the shuffleboard competition, and her victory dance embarrassed our family, have verbs, won and embarrassed, that convey the action of the subjects aunt and victory dance. In the second examples, Grandpa Bob was a grumpy old man, and my hound dog, Charles, is sleepy, the verb links the subjects to their complements that provide more information about the subjects. 7 Now that we’ve reviewed subject and verbs as sentence essentials, let’s look at how they must agree with each other to be grammatical and to avoid clarity issues. Agreement refers to both the subject and verb being in either a plural form or singular form. The subject, again, is the main player of the sentence, and the verb is either the action or an expression of the subject’s state of being—the subject either ―is‖ or ―has‖ something. In the first sentence, ―Anna is pleased that her children came home for dinner,‖ there is only one Anna, so ―Anna‖ is singular. The verb ―is‖ is therefore also singular. In the sentence sentence, ―her children are happy that dinner is ready,‖ children is plural, so the verb is plural as well. ―Are‖ is the plural form of the verb ―be‖ and ―is‖ is the singular form of ―be.‖ 8 What gets some writers confused is that a singular subject does not end in –s or –es, but a singular present tense verb does end in –s. Additionally, a plural subject typically ends in –s or –es, but a plural present tense verb does not end in –s. There are exceptions, but this the general guideline that will help you edit for subject-verb agreement. 9 In addition to subject and verbs having opposite formations when it comes to using s, there are other issues that come up with subject-verb agreement. One of these is when the subject and verb are separated by a phrase. Let’s look at the example: ―Traditional media outlets like the print newspaper is of little interest to youth today.‖ Let’s examine the subject-verb agreement in this sentence by first identifying the verb. What is the main verb of this sentence? Next, identify the subject. What is the subject of this sentence? 10 In this sentence, the subject, ―traditional media outlets‖ and the verb, ―is,‖ are separated by the phrase ―like the print newspaper,‖ so a writer might accidently form the verb so it agrees with the closest noun to it, ―newspaper,‖ instead of the subject noun, ―traditional media outlets.‖ 11 To edit the sentence so it has correct subject-verb agreement, we therefor need to edit the subject so it’s singular and goes with ―is‖ or the verb so it’s plural to match ―outlets.‖ 12 Writers also have problems with subject-verb agreement when the subject is an indefinite pronoun. Many of these types of pronouns end in –one or –body as in anybody, anyone, somebody, someone, everybody, and everyone. Because these words refer to ―one‖ person or one body, they are singular. Other examples of indefinite pronouns are each, something, neither, and either, all of which are singular. In these sample sentences, a student has used a singular indefinite pronoun as a subject with a plural verb, creating a problem with subject-verb agreement. The subject ―everybody‖ is singular, but the verb ―have‖ is plural. They do not agree. In the second example, the subject ―each‖ is singular, but the verb ―are‖ is plural. How would you edit these? Let’s keep the subjects as they are and edit only the verbs. Type the correct verb forms for these two sentences in the chat. 13 Here are the corrected versions. Everybody at the café has laptops or iPads, and each of the musicians is playing tonight. Subject is an indefinite pronoun Everybody at the café have laptops or iPads. Everybody at the café has laptops or iPads. Each of the musicians are playing tonight. Each of the musicians is playing tonight. 14 Another issue comes up when a writer inverts the traditional sentence order to add variety to a passage of text. Although this practice can make writing more dramatic and interesting, the writer must also be aware of subject-verb agreement. These topsy-turvy sentences might make it difficult to isolate the subject. Let’s find the main verbs of these two sentences first. What’s the verb for the first sentence? What’s that verb’s subject? Now look at the second sentence: In the shadows lurk a strange figure. What is the verb? What is that verb’s subject? Who is doing the action? 15 Inverted sentence order: verb comes before subject There is several excuses that I could make for not going. In the first sentence, the pronoun ―there‖ serves as a placeholder for the subject, which is given after the verb: several excuses, which is plural; however, the verb here is singular, which is incorrect. In the shadows lurk a strange figure. In the second sentence, the subject is ―a strange figure,‖ which is singular, but the verb, ―lurk,‖ which is plural. The verb needs to be singular to agree with the subject. 16 Edited, the first sentence would be ―there are several excuses that I could make for not going.‖ And the second sentence would be ―in the shadows lurks a strange figure,‖ which could also be written ―a strange figure lurks in the shadows.‖ Inverted sentence order: verb comes before subject There is several excuses that I could make for not going. There are several excuses that I could make for not going. In the shadows lurk a strange figure. In the shadows lurks a strange figure 17 Compound subjects also cause problems for writers. A compound subject can be considered either singular or plural, depending on the conjunction that joins the subject. Subjects joined by ―and‖ are considered plural in most cases. In the example, the subject is ―Pat and Lisa,‖ which are two people, so it’s plural. The verb must then also be plural. Sometimes a compound subject joined by ―and‖ is singular, however, as in the case of ―rhythm and blues‖ or ―macaroni and cheese.‖ These are names of singular things, so they would take singular verbs. When two subjects are joined by ―or,‖ the verb agrees with the closest subject. In the first example, ―either Sue or her three children‖ are going on the trip,‖ the subject ―her three children‖ a plural noun phrase is closest to the verb, so the verb needs to be in a plural form. In the second example, the singular subject, ―Sue,‖ is closest to the verb, so the verb would then need to be singular. 18 We’ve covered the most common situation that cause problems with subjectverb agreement, but there are a few more structures that cause students trouble with verb forms. Clauses with relative pronouns such as that, which, who, and whom. In the sample sentence, He is among those who study or studies the hardest, requires the writer to determine if who refers to the singular noun ―the student‖ or to ―those,‖ which is a plural pronoun. Which sounds right to you? He is among the ones who studies the hardest or he is among the ones who study the hardest? In this case, who refers to the ones which is plural, so you would select the plural verb: study. Collective nouns also cause problems. Collective nouns refer to a group of things or people, which can be considered singular or plural depending on whether the group is working together as a whole or if to the actions of the individuals within the group. If the group is working as a whole, the collective noun is singular. The team is winning by one goal. The team are going to their own homes 19 Subject-verb agreement errors also happen with singular nouns that end in s. Gymnastics is great exercise. The congress has adjourned. 19 Singular subjects (I, you, he, she, it) take singular verbs. Singular, present tense verbs often end in –s. Plural subjects (we, they) take plural verbs. Plural, present tense verbs do not usually end in –s. Remember to ignore words between the the subject and verb Watch for tricky nouns! 20 The best time to do a paper review in the Kaplan University Writing Center is after you have written your first draft. When you come to us early, we can help you the most by helping you with the structure of your paper. Many students send papers at the last minute because they want us to simply proofread their paper. However, KUWC writing tutors do not simply proofread the paper for you; we want to help you learn to write and proofread your own papers. Since you can come to the Writing Center 6 times a term, you can submit a first draft, then submit a later draft if you need further help on an assignment. If you need help before you write the first draft, you can use live tutoring. During live tutoring, you can ask questions and brainstorm with a tutor. Live tutors can help you with other stages in the paper writing process as well. Come visit us. We can be found under the My Studies tab, then under Academic Support Center. 21 On the main Academic Support Center page, you will see the Writing Center links. These include Live Tutoring, Paper Review Service, the Writing Reference Library, Citation Guidelines, Workshops, English Language Learner, and Fundamental writing help. Notice, you can access the Kaplan Guide to Successful Writing on the right hand side in both print and audio form. Come visit us. 22 Contact Information Melody Pickle [email protected] [email protected] Additional Kaplan University Writing Center Resources Introductory Video Writing Center Connect with the KUWC KUWC Blog Facebook @KUWC on Twitter 23 Credits: Images by © J2013 Jupiterimages 23