Over the past months I have been discussing literacy – the ability to read, view, speak, listen to, and write for different purposes in a range of situations – and its fundamental importance to a student’s ability to learn at school and to engage productively in society. Students become literate as they develop the knowledge and the skills to use and interpret language confidently and competently. The critical importance of reading and writing has been consistently highlighted. Two types of writing – expressive and creative – have been explored with a focus on journal writing and poetic ‘play’. 

Today I am going to look at one of the main building blocks of writing – grammar – with a specific focus on the sentence. The writing of a sentence has become increasingly problematic of late with the reduction in reading and writing and the constant use of social media language. Teachers are very conscious of the need to attend to grammatical issues in the secondary classroom to ensure that students can use language appropriately, effectively and meaningfully.

Grammar is a resource for describing how language works to make meaning. It is the logic of the language. Grammar is important because it makes meaning possible. And grammar starts and finishes with the sentence. 

A sentence is a group of words which expresses a complete thought. These words make sense by themselves and can stand on their own. All sentences must begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark. 

There are four types of sentences:  statement, question, command and exclamation. 

The statement supplies information and ends with a full stop.
For example: Clare loves writing. 

The question asks for information and ends with a question mark.
For example: Do you love writing? 

The command gives an order or instruction and can end with a full stop or exclamation mark.
For example: Pick up your pen and write. 

An exclamation expresses sudden strong feelings such as anger, surprise or joy and usually ends with an exclamation mark.
For example: I love to write!

Every sentence tells a tale: it names someone or something and tells you something about them. Sentences are formed by the combination of three basic elements called the subject, the predicate and the object. What a sentence names is the subject; what the rest of the sentence tells you (about the subject) is its predicate. And within that predicate is a verb – a doing or being word – which is finite or fixed in time. If the action is being done to someone or something, that is the object of the sentence and is also a noun or a pronoun. 

A clause is a basic unit of meaning which expresses a message. It is also a group of words which contains a verb. However, while sentences are key units for expressing ideas, a clause represents a fragment or slice of experience. 

A phrase is a group of words that form a unit within a sentence. A phrase does not contain a verb. 

I know that boy with red hair.
The dog was barking in a threatening manner.

Writers can use three types of sentence structure: simple, compound or complex. 

A simple sentence has one verb and one idea. It is also called an independent clause because this fragment can stand on its own. 
For example: The children played.

A compound sentence has two or more verbs. It is made up of two simple sentences joined by a conjunction or joining word.
For example: The children played and the parents chatted with each other. 

A complex sentence has at least one simple sentence and at least one dependent clause.
For example: The children went inside when the rain began to fall.

Next week we will look at structuring coherent sentences with a focus on the most common errors of usage.

Mrs Clare Murphy
English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach