Look Good in Print
02A: SYNTAX AND WORD CHOICE
1. Write Complete Sentences
In informal conversation, we often speak in partial sentences, as in the response of Holly below:
Randall: Holly, why were you late for today's meeting?
Holly: Because of traffic on I-215.
This reply is fine in colloquial speech, but when put in writing, it becomes a sentence fragment. Sentence fragments don't belong in business writing.
Watch this video to review the three fundamental parts of a sentence.
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The video identifies three building blocks: subjects, verbs, and complements. Subjects are the actors in the sentence; they either "do" or simply "are" something. Verbs describe the action - what is happening. Complements add meaning to the sentence by completing or further specifying the actor and the action.
If a collection of words ends in a period but does not contain both a subject and a verb, it is a sentence fragment. To avoid fragments, make sure that every sentence you write has both a subject and a verb and can stand alone.
When the subject and verb work together to express an idea, you've got a clause. Clauses are the basic building blocks of sentences. Phrases (which may have nouns, verbs, and other parts of speech) do not have subjects; nothing is doing the action in a phrase.
Competent writers need to understand the difference between a phrase and a clause, and between independent and dependent clauses. This video clarifies the differences:
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