In-Class, Sept. 23: Sentence Diagramming

For this exercise, you need a pencil, eraser, and lots of paper ;-)

When repairing our pretest, we already learned how to diagram simple sentences:

REVIEW

rule A: start with a baseline
rule B: separate noun and verb by a vertical line through the baseline
rule C: nouns always go on horizontal lines
rule D: adverbs go on lines parallel to the adjectives they are modifying

The first sentence contained only verb, subject, adverb:
"Big, bright rainbows appear very often." Diagram this sentence on a piece of paper and see how much you remember. The difficulty here was where the word "very" goes.

The second sentence was a prepositional phrase:
"The ship of my dreams sank quickly on Tuesday." Diagram this sentence on a piece of paper. What you had to remember here is that "Tuesday" is a noun, and nouns go on horizontal lines, so "Tuesday" goes on a horizontal line under the baseline, and parallel to it, going off from the preposition "on."

Check with your teacher on the board whether you were correct.

Now, we will learn to diagram three new categories of sentences.

1) Direct objects: using perpendicular lines

"Today I will hit the board with gusto."

The problem in this sentence is that you need a perpendicular line for the direct object. The direct object is the one you ask for with "whom", that is, "Whom will I hit?" "The board."


Do this sentence alone accordingly:

"I would not have done a thing like that to you."

2) Subjective Complements: using back slashes

"He was a man with a chip."

Here, you need a back slash for the complement, which is the word "man."
Who can continue the sentence with "on his shoulder"??? Hint: is it a prepositional phrase (what we've had before)?

Do this alone for the following sentences:

"The soup tastes foul."

"The Germans became impatient."


3) Gerunds: how to use pedestals

"Walking a big dog alone at night can be scary."

The gerund is written on a pinnacle, diagonally over a step.

Do it alone for the following sentence:

Swimming is fun.

Now, use all the three categories we have just learned (direct object, subjective complement, and gerund) in one phrase: Diagram the ultimate sentence,

"The ENG300 students grew weary of their teacher explaining stupid sentence diagrams on the board."

Exercise in group work (4 groups): You may use your textbook for help! But don't take sentences literally from it...

EASY TASK
Take a big poster from your teacher, and write on it one sentence that contains more than one of the categories we have already learned. Give this sentence to your partner group to diagram it. Check their diagram with your solution to see whether they were correct.

DIFFICULT TASK
Draw a complicated diagram on a big poster you get from your teacher, but leave out the words!! (You need the completed diagram WITH the words on a separate small piece of paper.) Give the blank diagram to your partner group. Your partner group has to determine which categories you demand, and has to fill your blank diagram with words that work and make a correct sentence. Of course, their sentence will be different from yours, but check whether they did it correctly.

If we don't finish in class, we'll continue Monday.

REMEMBER: Friday, Sept. 25th, no class, because teacher will be at a meeting!!!!! (see your email)

Homework for Monday is to read chapter 2 from the black textbook.