This PowerPoint gives an overview of coordination and subordination. and talks about some of the punctuation problems that come up with coordinated and subordinated sentences. These issues we're going to talk about in this presentation account for a big percentage of the mistakes that I see in papers when I grade them.
So pay really close attention and take really good notes and as always if you have questions after you see this by all means let me know. We'll start with coordination. Coordination is just the process of combining independent clauses into longer sentences.
An independent clause is simply a group of words that has a subject and has a verb, at least one subject and at least one verb, and can stand alone as a complete sentence. So in this slide, we have two independent clauses. Ralph said some ugly things.
He did some ugly things. So two independent clauses. Now when a sentence is made up of only one independent clause, that's what we call a simple sentence.
And there's nothing wrong with those. In fact, you need simple sentences. You don't want every sentence to be really long because that's just as boring as a paper where every sentence is really short. However, you wouldn't want a paper that's made up entirely of simple sentences.
And sometimes beginning writers, they try to be very conservative to keep from making mistakes. And so they will... really scale back the complexity of their sentences and you end up with something that maybe it's technically correct, but it doesn't sound very good.
So coordination is just one of the ways that we can take those short sentences and make something new out of them. And as I said, a coordinated sentence takes at least two of those independent clauses and makes a sentence out of it. And we call that a compound sentence. Not that you necessarily need to know that, just if it ever comes up on Jeopardy. you'll know the answer.
When we combine those independent clauses to make those compound sentences, there is some punctuation that's required. And in fact, there are three ways that we can combine independent clauses, three different punctuation situations that come up when we combine independent clauses. We're going to go through these one at a time, but I'll go ahead and review them here on this slide.
It's combining two with a semicolon by itself, with a comma plus a coordinating conjunction, or with a semicolon conjunctive adverb, and maybe, not always, a comma. By far the easiest way to combine the two independent clauses is with a semicolon. You just take the period out, you put the semicolon in its place, and There you go. Now, as with most easy things, it's not necessarily the best way. You have to keep in mind what it is we're doing here and trying to accomplish.
We want sentences that don't all sound the same. Now, periods and semicolons do, at least in this instance, exactly the same thing. They go between independent clauses. The only difference is that when you read a period out loud, you stop and you breathe. theoretically.
When you read a semicolon out loud, you stop, but you don't breathe, and then you keep going. So it's basically a fraction of a second difference in the pause that sets those two things apart. Now that's when they're read out loud. When you read something in your head, chances are you don't stop for either one of them.
So our papers, which are not going to be performed live in any way, are all going to be read in somebody's head. where no pauses are going to be made. So the difference between a period and a semicolon really doesn't even exist.
So this sentence is really no different for your purposes than the sentence with the period in between it. Now just for variety's sake it looks looks good and you can you know combine some sentences this way it's not a problem to do it it's not wrong to do it but it just doesn't accomplish a lot as far as sentence variety goes. Also this isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. I wouldn't want to take really long independent clauses and put them together with semicolons.
You want them to be relatively short and really closely related to one another. Otherwise, a semicolon just kind of seems out of place. But that is one way to combine those independent clauses.
The second way to combine independent clauses and the most common way that I see it done in students papers is with a comma and a coordinating conjunction. Sometimes we refer to these as FAMBOYS because it's an acronym that helps you remember all seven of them. For, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. Those are seven really important words. Lots of important things happen around those seven words.
Not necessarily just coordination stuff, but a lot of things. So, probably in your best interest to just... know them when you see them.
They'll see one of those words, you know, the red flag kind of needs to go up, and there are a few things you want to look for. But as far as coordination goes, when you use one of those coordinating conjunctions to combine two independent clauses, you just put the one that makes the most sense in between the clauses, you put a comma with it, and there you go. Now, I want you to look at the two sentences I've given you here on this slide, because there is a There's one aspect of this that gives people a little bit of trouble.
Now you notice I've used a comma in the first sentence, but I haven't used one in the second one. The reason for that is the first sentence has two independent clauses, which means there's a subject and a verb and a group of words that can stand alone in front of the conjunction, and there's a subject and a verb and a group of words that can stand alone after the conjunction. So that means that's a coordinating conjunction, and it has to have a comma with it. In the second sentence though, there's just one subject. Basically this is just a subject with a compound verb.
I don't have two independent clauses there. So that and in that sentence is not a coordinating conjunction. It's just a regular conjunction.
Those are only coordinating conjunctions when they have an independent clause on both sides. And that's when you have to put the comma in front of it. Now, if you don't have a... independent clause on both sides there might be another comma rule that kicks in that says a comma should go there but you don't always put a comma in front of the word and or in front of the word but or in front of word or I see a lot of sentences like the first one with the comma left out which is wrong and I see a lot of sentences like the second one with a comma in there which is wrong so you know when you see one of those seven words what I would do if I were you is just look to the left and ask yourself okay Could that stuff on the left of this word be a complete sentence by itself?
And if you say yes, then you look on the right, and you say, okay, could the stuff to the right of that conjunction be a complete sentence? And if the answer is yes there too, then you definitely put a comma. If the answer is no either time, then there might be a comma, just depending on if any other comma rule takes effect, but there won't necessarily be one there.
The final way to coordinate two independent clauses is with a conjunctive adverb. A quick internet search for the phrase list of conjunctive adverbs should allow you to find a list of these words that you might want to have on hand while you work on this topic. The process here is very similar to what we did with the coordinating conjunctions.
Just pick the conjunctive adverb that logically combines the two independent clauses and insert the proper punctuation. A semicolon is used before a conjunctive adverb to connect two independent clauses. Also, there may be a comma after the conjunctive adverb.
Look at my two sample sentences and note that there is a comma after the conjunctive adverb, moreover, in the first sentence, but not after the conjunctive adverb then in the second sentence. Why do you think that is? Well, here's the rule. If a conjunctive adverb is two or more syllables in length, It should have a comma after it.
If the conjunctive adverb is only one syllable in length, you have the option to either include a comma after it or not. How would you decide whether to put a comma after a one syllable conjunctive adverb? It all depends on how you want the sentence to sound.
The way it's currently written, my second sample sentence would read, Ralph said some ugly things, then he did some ugly things. If I put a comma after then, the sentence would read, Ralph said some ugly things, then he did some ugly things. Both sentences are correctly punctuated.
Adding or omitting the comma just depends on which version sounds the way I want the sentence to sound. As with the other methods of coordinating independent clauses, using conjunctive adverbs has its drawbacks. First of all, some conjunctive adverbs, such as then, next, and however, are perfectly common words that you use all the time. But others, such as moreover, subsequently, and consequently, are just a bit too formal to match most people's prose style. I love the word moreover, but it never occurs to me to use it because it just doesn't sound right in my sentences most of the time.
In other words, there just aren't many words on that list that most people are completely comfortable with. So trying to use conjunctive adverbs can cause some people's writing to become a bit repetitive. The other drawback to using conjunctive adverbs to coordinate sentences goes right to the overall drawback of coordination as a whole.
You don't get much sentence variety. I'm sure a couple of you observant folks have already noticed that coordinating with a conjunctive adverb is essentially just connecting two independent clauses with a semicolon. So we're really right back where we started with coordination.
It's a good tool to use to get away from simple sentences, but it goes... doesn't give you the kind of sentence variety that good writing needs. Now, there are three specific punctuation problems that come up in coordinated sentences, and those are run-ons, comma splices, and fused sentences. Now, in and of themselves, they're not terribly difficult to understand or to correct. The problem is with volume.
The vast majority of sentences in beginning writers'papers, at least the ones that I read, are coordinated sentences. That's just the way writers at your stage tend to break down their syntax. It's with independent clause after independent clause after independent clause put together into big compound sentences.
And that's fine, but because those problems... these three problems are associated with coordinated sentences since you're writing so many of them you tend to make these mistakes a lot so we want to really focus on being able to identify these and then knowing what to do about them once we have identified them okay so let's start with run-ons i think i don't know this for a fact but i think this is the most common mistake of any kind that i see in student papers. So if you can just take care of what's on this screen right here, man, you'll be in good shape. All right, so a run-on sentence is simply when I've put two independent clauses together with a coordinating conjunction with one of the fanboys, but I have not used a comma with it. If you remember from a few screens back, if you put a coordinating conjunction between two independent clauses, you have to use a comma with it.
If I don't do that, I got a run-on sentence. So Really simple. If I've left the comma out to get a run-on, how do I fix that run-on? Well, I just put the comma back in there where it should have been in the first place. Very, very simple fix.
So now let's look at comma splices. This is exactly the opposite of a run-on. Whereas with the run-on, I had the conjunction but no comma. In a comma splice, I have two independent clauses joined with a comma.
but with no conjunction. Just if you want to think of it this way, a comma is not a strong enough piece of punctuation to connect two complete sentences or two independent clauses. I'd have something stronger than that. Now, to correct these, I have two options. I can not well, let me back up a little bit.
I can always correct any of these three things by just making two separate sentences. I can put a period in there and be done with it. but if I want to keep it as a coordinated sentence, I have two options here.
I can change that comma to a semicolon, which is strong enough to hold two complete sentences together, or I can just add the conjunction that I left out in the first place that caused the comma splice. The last error associated with coordinating is what we call the fused sentence. And a fused sentence is simply when you combine two independent clauses without any punctuation or conjunction of any kind.
So basically you take the two sentences and you just stick them straight together like you're trying to weld them together somehow. I contend that students who write fused sentences are not editing their papers. either at all or very seriously.
You might go over there watching TV with one eye and editing with the other. Because if you read this sentence, Ralph said some ugly things, he did some ugly things, and you don't, you just read it the way it's written. You don't pause where there are no punctuation marks. You just go, there is no way that anybody on earth can hear that and not think something's wrong with it.
Now, that doesn't mean you'll fix it the right way, of course, but knowing there's a problem is a good first step to fixing that problem. So, a few sentences, I don't see a ton of these, but if you're really paying close attention, you shouldn't have these. Now, when you do have a few sentences, there are three ways to correct that, and you will notice from those three sentences that those three ways are the ways that you coordinate sentences to begin with, either with a semicolon by itself, as the first one has, or with a comma and a fanboy like the second one, or the semicolon and the conjunctive adverb and the comma like the third one. Any of those three methods works just fine. Okay, so let's say you've been coordinating until you're blue in the face.
You've got compound sentences all over the place. And you're finally just ready to do something a little different. You want something that's going to give your pros a little bit more variety. Well, the first step along that way, and there are all sorts of things we can do. Probably the first step along that way is with what we call subordination.
I'm making this sound a little more step-by-step than it really is because you're already writing subordinated sentences. This is not something that's going to be brand new to you. The main thing we're trying to get today is that you get the punctuation right.
But this is the first thing that we, or the easiest way to put elements together where we don't have just two independent clauses stuck together. This is... We're still going to have some independent clauses, but we're going to have some other stuff too that makes it just a little bit more sophisticated. Good news, subordination doesn't require remembering quite so many details as you have to with coordination. Subordination requires you to write what we call subordinate clauses.
Subordinate clauses are just a specific type of dependent clause. Dependent clauses, as you probably already know, are just clauses, meaning they have a subject and a verb, that can't stand alone as complete sentences. A subordinate clause fits that description as well. It has a subject and a verb and cannot stand alone as a complete sentence. But it has one additional feature as well.
It has at its beginning, or very near its beginning at least, a word called a subordinating conjunction. If you do an internet search for the phrase list of subordinating conjunctions, you'll find a list of very familiar words. These are words you use all the time, which is why I say that subordination is something you are already doing without even knowing it. I just want to make sure you understand the punctuation conventions that go along with subordination.
So when you make a subordinate clause, you're essentially taking an independent clause and slapping a subordinating conjunction onto it. Look at my sample sentences. Ralph fell down the stairs. He broke his leg.
I wanted to subordinate one of those simple sentences to make a more sophisticated type of sentence out of them. Incidentally, the type of sentence I'm going to make is called a complex sentence, meaning it has one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. It looks like I decided to subordinate the first clause, so I stuck to the beginning of it, the subordinating conjunction when, because that is the word that made the new sentence express the idea I was trying to convey. Now that I have a subordinate clause, when Ralph fell down the stairs, I have two options, and each option has its own punctuation rule.
I can put that subordinate clause either in front of or after an independent clause. I have to attach it to an independent clause because by itself it's a sentence fragment. If I choose to put the subordinate clause in front of an independent clause, as in the second sample sentence, I have to remember to connect them with a comma. This is as close to a 100% of the time true rule as you're going to get in English.
A good portion of the comma errors I see in student papers come from students leaving out the comma after a subordinating clause. Here's an editing tip that will help you avoid this error. If you see a subordinating conjunction that's capitalized, you know there should be a comma at the end of the first clause.
Once you know a comma is necessary, you'll usually put it in the right place. This is also one of the situations where putting a comma where you pause when you read a sentence can actually work. That's a terrible way in general to decide where to use commas, but it does occasionally work and it often works with subordinate clauses.
Now let's say that I wanted the subordinate clause to come after the independent clause, as it is in the third sentence. The punctuation rule here is a little more ambiguous. In fact, The closest I can come to pinning it down for you is to say that when a subordinate clause comes after an independent clause, usually no comma is needed. If I read my third sentence the way it is written, Ralph broke his leg when he fell down the stairs, it sounds right without a comma.
So I guess the use a comma when you pause method of punctuation works here as well. Now just because nothing's ever as easy as it looks, there is one exception to that rule on the previous slide. Remember I said on that slide that if you have a subordinate clause after an independent clause, you don't put a comma between them.
Well, with these five words on this slide, there is an exception. These are words that set up a contrast between the front part of the sentence and the back part of the sentence. And when we say these out loud, we generally change our tone of voice a little bit.
Like if I were going to read this or say this sentence out loud, I would say, most students love English, although they won't admit it. It's that little change in my tone of voice to show that I'm contrasting. The two ideals are not similar to one another. Well, on paper, of course, you can't change your tone of voice.
It all sounds the same. So in order to sort of stand in for that, We put that comma in there and it gives that little hitch in the middle of the sentence and it just kind of reminds the reader that that is the way that would sound. So with those five words, when the subordinate clause comes after the independent clause, you can use that comma.
You don't have to. If you don't want it to sound that way, you don't have to use it, but with those five you can.