Types of SentencesSimple-basic sentence. Contains a subject,

verb, and a complete thought. Ms. Doherty is tired.

Compound sentence-a sentence that is made up of two independent clauses (2 complete sentences) connected by a conjunction. Ms. Doherty is tired but she still has to correct the Poe parody's.

Types of SentencesComplex sentence-made up of one

independent clause and a dependent clause (cannot stand alone). After Ms. Doherty corrected all the Poe parody’s, she was tired.

Subject-what the sentence is about or who/what performs the action.

Sentence ImitationChoose an interesting, complex sentence.Explain its main purpose.Explain what is added to the primary

content and how.Explain any literary or rhetorical devices

used.Write your own version of the sentence.

Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there(Capote 5).

Like college acceptance letters, like notes from secret admirers and like enormous decorative lottery checks, a future, in the form of kind opportunity, had never arrived in her mailbox.

Autumns reward western Kansas for the evils that the remaining seasons impose: winter’s rough Colorado winds and hip-high, sheep-slaughtering snows; the slushes and the strange land fogs of spring; and summer, when even crows seek the puny shade, and the tawny infinitude of wheatstalks bristle, blaze(Capote 10-11).

Summer vacation rewards teachers for the frustration that the school year inflicts: fall’s lists of mind-numbing and confusing new names; the false hope and dangers of winter’s snow; and spring, when even the teachers lose their sense of purpose and the seething multitude of students chatter, flirt.

During the first three years in prison, Parry had observed Willie-Jay from a distance, with interest but will apprehension; if one wised to be thought a touch specimen, intimacy with Willi-Jay seemed unwise (Capote 42).

Commas (,)First, while sorting Nancy’s clothes, Mrs.

Elaine Selsor, her aunt, had found tucked in the toe of a shoe a gold watch (Capote 102)

But it was her eyes, wide apart, darkly translucent, that at once announced her lack of suspicion, her considered and yet so easily triggered kindliness (Capote 19)

During-preposition (links pronouns, nouns, and phrases. Also used to show location in time)

Common prepositions:AfterAroundAboutBeforeDespiteFollowing

Mimic this sentenceBut it was her eyes, wide apart, darkly

translucent, that at once announced her lack of suspicion, her considered and yet so easily triggered kindliness (Capote 19)

Semicolon-The Halfway MarkSemicolon(;)is the flashing red light-the light

you drive through after a brief pause.Use it to separate clauses when there's no

and in between. Ms. Doherty came to school late; she spilled coffee on herself.

Use semicolon to separate items in a series when there is already a comma in one of those items. AMTRAK stops at Schenectady, New York; West Burlington, Iowa; and Pasadena, California.

The Dash –Like a detour; it interrupts the sentence and

inserts another thoughtCan be used in pairs instead of parentheses

to enclose and aside or explanation. Her new shoes had loads od style—they were Ferragamos—but not much art support.

After the flight, Tina looked—and she’s be the first to admit it—like an unmade bed.

The Dash—Now, you try

Wearing an open-necked shirt and blue jeans rolled up at the cuffs, he [Perry] looked as lonely and inappropriate as a seagull in wheat field (Capote 272).

The river lay this direction; near its bank stood a grove of fruit trees—peach, pear, cherry, and apple (Capote 11).

Sitting, he had seemed a more than normal-sized man, a powerful man, with the shoulders, the arms, the thick, crouching torso, of a weight lifter—weight lifting was, in fact, his hobby (15).