TONIGHT’S HOMEWORK:
(1) Submit final 1000-word persuasive
essay on Canvas by Thursday (March 9),
along with all steps (marked-up drafts and
tutor’s comments may be submitted as
hard copies in class),
(2) read pp. 59-63 to prepare for timed
writing on Thursday, AND
(3) begin Grammar #6 (fragments)
handout, due Tuesday, March 21
CONFERENCE #2 (MANDATORY)
BE SURE YOU SIGN UP FOR A
TIME ON CANVAS!
Tuesday, March 21, class will meet in
YSSB 311 for a RP workday.
Conferences will start March 22. Class
will not meet Thursday, March 23,
because of conferences. The first draft
of the RP is due on Canvas March 23.
Bring a printout to the conference!
SENTENCE
FRAGMENTS
A complete sentence contains
a subject, a verb, and a complete
thought:
Dan attended the pep rally
before the football game.
When a group of words
fails to tell
• who or what did something (the subject),
• what happened (the verb), and/or
• a complete thought (has a subject and verb
but also a dependent word),
it is a sentence fragment.
Sat behind
me in
science class
What’s
missing?
Yes, we need a subject.
The new girl sat behind
me in science class.
The bag of
groceries on
the kitchen
table
What’s
missing?
Yes, we need a verb.
The bag of
groceries on
the kitchen
table spilled
onto the
floor.
Screaming
at the
caterer
What’s
missing?
We need a subject, but
even the verb is not complete.
It needs a helping verb.
We can add a subject and
a helping verb…
The bride is screaming
at the caterer.
or we can attach the phrase to a
sentence that is already complete:
Screaming at the
caterer, the bride
ruined her wedding.
Such as
riding a
tricycle
What’s
missing?
Yes, we need a subject
and a verb.
My dog
performs
many tricks,
such as riding
a tricycle.
This is just an added detail.
After the rain stopped
What’s missing?
We have a subject and a verb but
no complete thought because we
have a dependent word
(subordinating conjunction).
We can delete the dependent word...
After The
the rain stopped.
… OR we need to attach this
fragment to a complete clause.
After the rain
stopped,
the children ran
outside to play.
COMMON DEPENDENT WORDS
(subordinating conjunctions)
after*
as if
before*
if
once
though
what
whenever
whereas
although
as though
even
like*
since
unless
whatever
where
whether
as
because
even though
now that
so that
until
when
wherever
while
MORE DEPENDENT WORDS
(RELATIVE PRONOUNS)
that
which
who
whom
whoever
whomever
(These create dependent clauses that cannot stand
alone, but the comma rules are different.)
Clauses and Phrases
• A CLAUSE is a group of words that
contains a subject and its verb.
the boy ran
people talk
it is
if you go
• A PHRASE is a group of words that does
NOT contain a subject and its verb.
the boy next door people with loud voices
being hungry
for a while
Clauses and Phrases
The important things to remember:
• A clause has a subject and complete verb that
go together; a phrase doesn’t.
• An “-ing” verb cannot be the only verb in a sentence. With no helping verb, it makes a phrase.
• A phrase can never be a sentence by itself.
• Clauses must be connected to other clauses
in very specific ways (with specific conjunctions
and punctuation) whereas phrases can be
added more freely.
If it’s just a PHRASE, it’s a
fragment.
If it’s just a DEPENDENT
CLAUSE, it’s a fragment.
If it has an INDEPENDENT
CLAUSE, it’s a sentence.
Grammar #6: Sentence Fragments
(10 points)
Complete and submit the handout
by the time class begins on its due
date. It is NOT a Canvas exercise,
but the handout is available on
Canvas if you need it.
Let’s try analyzing some other poems:
1. Margaret Atwood’s “You fit into me” (p. 228; consider speaker, tone,
diction, repetition, imagery, and irony)
2. William Hathaway’s “Oh, Oh” (handout; consider speaker, tone,
diction, imagery, and irony)
3. Randall Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” (p. 219;
consider speaker, metaphor, diction, connotation, and ironic tone)
4. Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” (p. 236; consider speaker,
diction, irony, rhyme, and tone)
5. Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory” (p. 216; consider
speaker, irony, rhyme, rhythm, meter)
6. Katharyn Howd Machan’s “Hazel Tells LaVerne” (handout; consider
speaker, diction, irony, and allusion)
7. William Carlos Williams’ “This Is Just to Say” (p. 223; consider
speaker, image, diction, rhythm)
8. e.e. cummings’ “she being Brand” (handout; consider speaker,
metaphor, imagery, diction, syntax, rhythm, and the odd
capitalization, line breaks, and spacing)
“You Fit into Me” by Margaret Atwood (p. 226)
you fit into me
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye
Let’s try some other poems:
William Hathaway’s “Oh, Oh”
(handout; consider tone, diction, imagery, and irony)
Let’s try some other poems:
Randall Jarrell’s “The Death
of the Ball Turret Gunner”
(p. 219; consider metaphor,
diction, connotation, and
ironic tone)
Let’s try some other poems:
Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool”
(p. 236; consider diction, irony, rhyme, and tone)
Let’s try some other poems:
Edwin Arlington
Robinson’s
“Richard Cory”
(p. 216; consider
irony, rhyme,
rhythm, meter)
Let’s try some other poems:
Katharyn Howd Machan’s
“Hazel Tells LaVerne”
(handout; consider
diction, irony, and
allusion)
Let’s try some other poems:
William Carlos
Williams’ “This Is
Just to Say”
(p. 223;
consider
image,
diction,
rhythm)
Let’s try some other poems:
e.e. cummings’
“she being Brand”
(handout; consider metaphor, imagery, diction, syntax,
rhythm, and the odd capitalization, line breaks, and spacing)