Complete Sentences and Detailed Grammar Mechanics

A complete sentence must meet four specific criteria: - It must contain a subject. - It must contain a verb. - It must make a complete statement (i.e., a complete thought). - It must be punctuated and capitalized properly.
Professional standards for the course: The instructor evaluates all written work (including emails, report assignments, or sentences on quizzes) based on these generic criteria: complete thoughts, presence of subjects/verbs, and proper capitalization/punctuation.

Definition: The subject is the thing that the sentence is about; it is the main actor or the main focus of the sentence.
Subject Composition: While nouns are usually the subject, the structure can vary: - Nouns: "The restaurant was beside the lake" (Subject: "restaurant"). - Proper Nouns: "Sharon loves pineapple" (Subject: "Sharon"). - Pronouns: "He worked as a salesperson" (Subject: "He"). - Compound Nouns: Two nouns joined together acting as the subject. "Leah and Alex listen to music" (Subject: "Leah and Alex").
Subject vs. Object: A noun can be an object as well as a subject. For example, in the sentence "The restaurant was beside the lake," both "restaurant" and "lake" are nouns, but the sentence is about the restaurant, making it the subject.

Definition: A prepositional phrase provides extra information in a sentence, often regarding location or connection (not always physical location).
Function: Prepositional phrases can usually be removed from a sentence without destroying its completeness. - Example: "They took a picture [in front of the school]." The sentence "They took a picture" remains a complete thought without the phrase.
Grammatical Rule: The noun or pronoun within a prepositional phrase is never the subject of the sentence.
Common Prepositions: Phrases often start with prepositions such as: - "Around the world" - "With the red cover" - "Regarding construction" - "Beside the large tree"

The Question Method: If you are struggling to find the subject, turn the sentence into a question. The answer is often the subject. - For the sentence "There is a raccoon on the fence," ask "What is there?" The answer, "a raccoon," is the subject.
Question Sentences: In the case of direct questions like "Why is he going away?", answering the question identifies the subject.
Commands (Imperative Sentences): In a command like "Come here," the subject is often not explicitly stated. It is an "implied subjects," usually referring to "you."

Appositive Phrases: These are phrases that provide clarification about a noun, typically set off by commas. The subject is never found within the appositive phrase. - Example: "Taylor Swift, the famous singer, performed at the station." (Subject: Taylor Swift).
Gerunds: This is a grammatical term for a word that looks like a verb (ending in -ing) but functions as a noun. - Example: "Teaching is my passion." (Subject: Teaching). - Contrast: In "I am teaching," the word is a verb.
Management of Terms: The instructor does not expect students to memorize technical terms like "gerund" or "appositive phrase" but expects them to understand the underlying principles for professional writing.

Every sentence must include a verb. Verbs are divided into three groups: - Action Verbs: Denote the action performed by the subject (e.g., "Harpreet studied French"). - Linking Verbs: Join the subject to a description of the subject (e.g., "They are gentle souls"—"are" is the verb). - Helping Verbs: Support another verb to express tense or mood (e.g., "They might pass").
Multiple Verbs: A sentence can have a string of verbs. - Example: "She could have been working." In this case, "working" is the action verb, and "could have been" are the helping verbs.

Irregular Verbs: There are over $100$ irregular verbs in English. They do not follow the standard rule of adding "-ed" for past tense (e.g., Past of "become" is "became," but the past participle is "has become").
Consistency Rule: Professional writing requires avoiding accidental shifts in tense within a single sentence. - Incorrect: "The customer asked for the prescription [past] but the pharmacist says [present] that the ingredients are being ordered." - Correct: Ensure all verbs in that context are past tense ("The customer asked… the pharmacist said").
Intentional Shifts: Tense changes are only acceptable when intentionally describing different time periods (e.g., "Today I am doing this, but yesterday I did that").

Independent Clause: A group of words that stands alone as a complete sentence and thought (e.g., "The students studied all night long").
Dependent Clause: An incomplete thought that depends on the rest of the sentence to make sense. It often starts with words like "Because."
Complex Sentences: Formed by joining an independent clause with a dependent clause. - Example: "The students studied all night long because their test was the next day."
The "Because" Rule: It is a common misconception that you cannot start a sentence with "because." It is technically correct if followed by a comma and an independent clause. - Example: "Because their test was the next day, the students studied all night long."

Active Voice: Direct, straightforward, and generally preferred in professional writing. - Example: "The hockey player shot the puck down the ice."
Passive Voice: Often more convoluted and less direct. The object of the action is placed at the beginning. - Example: "The puck was shot down the ice by the hockey player."
Professional Application: While passive voice is not grammatically incorrect, professional and formal writing should lean toward the active voice for clarity.

Definition: Used for hypothetical situations, desires, demands, or things that aren't true.
Examples: - "If I were you…" - "I wish I were rich." - "He acts as if he were the boss."
Professional Application: These forms should generally be avoided in professional settings where directness is prioritized.

Question: Is "and" a conjunction in the sentence "Leah and Alex listen to music"?
Answer: English is complex; while "and" is often a conjunction (a FANBOYS), in this specific subject-linking context, it acts as a linking word rather than a coordinating conjunction for clauses. The instructor recommends excluding "and" when identifying the specific subjects "Leah" and "Alex."
Question: Should there be a comma after "because" if you want a pause?
Answer: In professional and formal writing, a comma should never go immediately after "because." While creative writing, poetry, or stream-of-consciousness writing may allow non-standard punctuation to indicate pauses, professional writing must follow strict grammatical rules.
Question: Is it a run-on sentence if I don't use a comma before "because"?
Answer: No. Using "because" creates a complex sentence, which prevents it from being a run-on. Adding a comma there is optional for some writers to indicate a natural breath, but omitting it is also correct.
Question: If a quiz asks to fix a dependent clause fragment, can I just remove the word "Because"?
Answer: No. On the grammar quiz, if provided with a fragment/dependent clause, students must add words to make it correct rather than removing words to simplify it.