To be complete, a sentence must contain a subject and a verb. These completed statements are more likely to make sense to a reader than an incomplete statement, which may cloud your writing and alienate your reader.
Sentences do not have to be long to be complete; they can in fact be quite short and still be structurally sound. For instance, the sentence “Mary ate some cake” is complete and can be read on its own without any confusion about what the writer is trying to express.
Sentences can be split up into containing a ‘subject’ and a ‘predicate’, this division is very useful to bear in mind, so long as you understand what these divisions mean. The subject of a sentence is, essentially, what (or who) the sentence is about. For example, in the sentence “Mary sleeps” the pronoun ‘Mary’ is the subject and the word ‘sleeps’ is the predicate. The predicate ‘sleeps’ completes the sentence, by giving meaning to the statement being made.
These rules seem simple; however, you will see countless examples of incomplete sentences in your daily life. Do not allow poor sentence structure everywhere confuse you, just because it is prolific it does not make it correct. So, when you read incomplete sentences in emails, letters, advertisements, or you hear them in songs, or see them on newspapers or magazines, and even on food packaging, do not be tempted to mimic them. This way of writing is certainly not for academia!
If you have trouble with structuring your sentences, why not let the team at ProofreadMyDocument help out?
Sentences do not have to be long to be complete; they can in fact be quite short and still be structurally sound. For instance, the sentence “Mary ate some cake” is complete and can be read on its own without any confusion about what the writer is trying to express.
Sentences can be split up into containing a ‘subject’ and a ‘predicate’, this division is very useful to bear in mind, so long as you understand what these divisions mean. The subject of a sentence is, essentially, what (or who) the sentence is about. For example, in the sentence “Mary sleeps” the pronoun ‘Mary’ is the subject and the word ‘sleeps’ is the predicate. The predicate ‘sleeps’ completes the sentence, by giving meaning to the statement being made.
These rules seem simple; however, you will see countless examples of incomplete sentences in your daily life. Do not allow poor sentence structure everywhere confuse you, just because it is prolific it does not make it correct. So, when you read incomplete sentences in emails, letters, advertisements, or you hear them in songs, or see them on newspapers or magazines, and even on food packaging, do not be tempted to mimic them. This way of writing is certainly not for academia!
If you have trouble with structuring your sentences, why not let the team at ProofreadMyDocument help out?