TRU Writing Centre Blog

Unlike clauses, phrases do not have a subject and/or verb. For example, a prepositional phrase would have a preposition, article, and the noun they modify: in the house, on the wall, behind the desk, etc. A noun phrase would have a noun and its modifiers: An intelligent agent, a shy child, or any woman, etc. When a phrase is used to introduce an independent clause, a comma follows. For example, In the house, the woman prepared dinner for her children. A phrase that is part of the sentence does not have commas around it: The woman chased the mouse in her house.

There are two types of clauses–independent (a complete thought) or dependent (incomplete–needs an independent clause with it to complete the meaning).

Examples:
Joe didn’t go to school today. (independent, complete thought).
Because he was sick (dependent, needs additional info).
Because he was sick, Joe didn’t go to school today. (dependent + independent–the independent completes the idea in the dependent clause).

Please note that the comma separates the dependent from the independent clause. Commas often separate clauses, especially when the dependent clause precedes the independent. Next time, I’ll talk about phrases and commas.

Did your High School teacher tell you to put a comma where you would pause? This sometimes works, but not all the time. Commas tend to separate clauses and phrases. Understanding independent and dependent clauses, and appositive and participial phrases will help to improve sentence structures and punctuation. Stay tuned for the next two entries on clauses and phrases.

Did your High School english teacher tell you never to start a sentence with ‘because’? Are you wondering why you often see sentences beginning with ‘because’ now that you’re in university? A common High School problem is writing sentence fragments, usually done by putting a period after the dependent clause (an incomplete thought).

For example: Because Joe was sick.

This thought is incomplete, and so some teachers tell their students not to begin a sentence with ‘because.’ The problem, however, is using a dependent clause alone. To make a sentence, a dependent clause must be accompanied by an independent clause (a complete thought).

For example: Because Joe was sick, he stayed home from school.

The sentence is now complete. Fragments can be useful in creative writing to create a particular effect; however, they are seldom used in academic writing.

All students should have a dictionary that is easily accessed from their desk. The nice thing about an online dictionary is that it’s fast. It can give you a definition very quickly. Some online dictionaries, like Longmans, also give sample sentences. This feature is particularly useful for checking preposition usage, and it’s also good for checking spelling. If you enter a word that is spelled wrong, it will give a list titled “Do you mean” that contains words that are spelled similarly to yours. Usually the correctly spelled word is near the top. Of course, this doesn’t work if two words are confused. I recommend adding this site to your favourites. The URL is http://www.ldoceonline.com/

If you’re sometimes using the wrong part of speech, use a paper dictionary that indicates a word’s part of speech to find the correct form. For example, if you say, “she walked slow,” but you’re not sure if slow is the right word, then look it up. You’ll find that ’slow’ is an adjective, a word that describes something about a noun. Since walk is a verb, then slow is incorrect. Close to ’slow’ in the dictionary you’ll find the correct adverb, a word that describes something about a verb, ’slowly.’ You can then correct the sentence to “she walked slowly.”

It’s highly recommended that students beginning university keep a writing log. As you get feedback from your profs, note your strengths in your log and give yourself a pat on the back for these. Also, keep a section to note any weaker areas that show up in the feedback. Work on these a few at a time until you’ve been able to move them to your strengths. If you run into trouble understanding a problem, then come to the Writing Centre and ask for specific  instruction on the topic. If you do this consistently, the end result will be excellent writing skills.

The Writing Centre has settled into its new ‘digs’ in the House of Learning. Now that classes have begun again, are their any problems or issues with your writing that you would like to see discussed on this blog? Please send us your questions and comments.

‘Revising’ and ‘editing’ do not mean the same thing. Revising entails looking at the higher order concerns, such as your thesis, organization, paragraph structure and development of your ideas. Editing, on the other hand, entails looking at sentence structure, grammar, diction and punctuation. Always revise first and leave the editing for the last drafts.

Last week, it was noted here that “well” is an adverb and is therefore used to modify verbs (e.g.: She writes well; he swims well; we dance well).
In addition, well can be used as an adjective to indicate “not sick.” For instance, “The patient feels well this morning,” or “His mother had a headache earlier today, but she appears well this afternoon.”
So, do not use “good” when you really mean “well!”
Check out our blog again next week for another Summer Writing Tip!