G is for ...

... Grrrrrr

I've had a brand new experience recently. My son joined the University of Texas at Dallas Rugby team last fall and we got to recently experience our first game. I get. No I really do. But I have to admit it is quiet a spectacle for a new fan.

First, there's the scrum. That's where the 8 forwards from each team connect up and push against each other. One of the players rolls the ball into the center of the circle. Using their feet and sheer strength to push against the other team, the ball must be forced out behind one of

Writing Tip - It's Gotta End SOMETIME!

You would think, as a novelist, that I'm talking about a book ending. It's a logical assumption, and I hope to get to the end of the one I'm working on with due brevity. But such is not the topic for today.

See, I'm also a writing teacher, blessed with the challenge of learning enough to stay ahead of some of the sharpest young writers I've ever come across.

And yet, they suffer from a dire conspiracy that, I've noticed, even professionals experience from

time to time.

That of the run-on sentence.

It's not uncommon for writers to utilize fragments. They can introduce subjects, like mine just did (My "sentence" doesn't have a verb. Did you notice?) or define a situation with just a word or phrase. Sometimes, their choppiness can paint a mood across the writing.

Not so much with run-ons which tend to make the reader hold her breath until she reaches the end of the sentence it can really pinch a section as well the reader will have to go back and separate the sentences on her own since the author didn't bother to do it for her that halts the story line completely.

Sorry, I couldn't resist! :) Annoying wasn't it?

With the demands for juicy sentences and in depth explanations, along with parameters for paragraphs, I found my students stringing together up to three separate sentences. Sometimes they added commas to try to throw me off, or a series of semi-colons, looking like jewelry all through the essay. So I think I'm correct in my assessment that sometimes even the basest of grammar rules can need a little reminder.

A sentence is a complete thought that includes both a subject and a predicate. (Noun and verb) Basically, it tells who-did-what.

(Unless the sentence is the passive who-is-what, which doesn't actually make sense, because who, by it's very essence is who, and what is likewise what, so to say that who-is-what would be ... Would you repeat the question?)

(Yes, I know shades of "Who's on First." I think I'm in a loopier mood than normal.)

Feel free to skip the parentheticals. I think it's my drowsiness talking ... uh ... writing.

The problem comes when the sentence includes who-did-what, who-did-where, and who-else-was-there. I actually use "who-did-what" while I'm analyzing my students' papers.

A simple sentence is made up of the simple subject and the simple predicate. ~ When I looked across the road, I saw a funny looking man with a baseball bat.

Those parts are collectively called the simple sentence, made up of a simple subject and a simple predicate. (I was thinking of saying that they all lived together in a simple little house, but I think we've followed enough rabbit trails.) Very SIMPLY, if I find another simple sentence before the ending punctuation, "Off with his head!"

Oh, hold on. That was last week's post. This week it's just an evil laugh. *wrings hands* Bwhahahahahaha!

So here are some examples that I've actually seen before. See if you can separate the Run-ons from the complete sentences. For a double challenge, can you correct the mistakes or find the simple sentences in the correct ones?

1. In keeping with the mood of the music, the dancers work together with the choreographer their dance, composed as a team, offers the expertise of many instead of one.
2. Although the tiger cub could not survive in the cruel wilderness without the assistance of humans, he maintained his freedom, finding instead an accommodating cheetah.
3. Mercury, Chrysler, and Dodge vehicles are all very well-known, their family cars are among the best in America.
4. Whenever a nation learns of it's governments duplicity, it struggles to ascertain the importance of the deception was it slight or monumental.
5. While Captain America provided an excellent example of a hero, linking strength with courage and conviction and enduring personal sacrifice to promote the good of the country, Thor proved a more entertaining character because he began in a flawed state and progressed to the point of realizing his faults and seeking to rectify them.

For the next several Wednesdays, I'm going to talk about stopping sentences, or how to avoid energizer bunny writing. (Going on and on and on ...) There are a few tricks to it. For today, just be encouraged, as you revise or edit, to identify the main noun, the simple subject, along with the main verb, the simple predicate, in each sentence and make doubly sure you didn't do any doubling on them!

What's the hardest grammar rule you've ever encountered. For me, it was semi-colons. (I had to get tutoring to figure out how to put the dot on top of the comma!)