The Writing Tree Home

 

Welcome to The Writing Tree

 

As a tree is interconnected from the tips of its roots to the outstretched buds of its branches, so too is writing connected to its foundation in grammar, its strength in sentence structure, and its versatility in form.

I designed The Writing Tree for the Steel Valley High School students who wish to improve their writing skills. As an English teacher, I often hear students ask why they have to study grammar. The usual response is that understanding basic grammar will help you become a better writer. The question is how? I don’t disagree with the answer. Someone well versed in grammatical structure will better understand elements of a proper sentence. But will it make him a better writer? That’s what this book is about.

This text is in three parts. Part One covers the Parts of Speech and Elements of a Sentence (the roots and trunk of The Writing Tree). Part Two immediately ties information covered in Part One with writing elements. In this way you will begin to create the limbs linking grammar and composition. You will also see the immediate improvement in your writing. After whetting your appetite, Part Two will introduce further branches like verbals and dependent clauses. Students usually rebel against these, but when you see the improvement in your writing, you will revel in your acquisition. Part Three covers styles of writing. The adaptation of writing for different purposes is formulaic. Learn the formulas, and adaptation is easy.

Begin by reading through Part One below. Review only the items that you don't understand. If you need a more detailed explanation on any item, click the links provided. Let's begin.

 

Oh, if you're wondering about the little figure above, that's from the west door of Chartres Cathedral in France. It depicts "Grammar" one of the Seven Liberal Arts taught in the schools.

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PART ONE: The Basics

 

Parts of Speech (link to Elements of a Sentence below)

 

The English language is divided into four types of words:

Identifying words, Action words, Descriptive words, and Connecting words.

 

1. Identifying words

 

Identifying words name things. Imagine a Martian who doesn’t speak English (well what Martian does?). He wants to know the name of everything. He points at a door, a chair, a desk. These are all identifying words called Nouns. You remember nouns from grade school; they are persons, places, things, ideas, or, in other words, names. If someone asks, “what do you call that?” The answer you give will be a noun.

Just like people, nouns have nicknames. How many people call a television a television? It is now a TV. Do you own a reclining chair? It is a recliner. Nicknames are a shorter, more familiar form of a word. Nicknames of nouns are called Pronouns. You don’t have to repeat a noun numerous times. Instead, use a pronoun, which takes the place of the noun. If you can put a name in place of a word, that word is a pronoun.

Example: He threw it to him. Fred threw the ball to Jim.

He, it, and him are pronouns. They take the place of Fred, ball, and Jim. Simple, isn’t it?

 

2. Action words

 

Now your Martian friend can identify things, but he needs to make these things do something. That’s where Action words come in. Action words called Verbs enable us to make a complete thought. In the example above, we have three nouns – Fred, ball, and Jim. The Action word “threw” gives the names purpose. Fred threw the ball. Without “threw” we’re left with, well, inaction.

Now some Action words show states of being. They come from the strange verb “be.” We will discuss the verb “be” in greater detail later.

 

3. Descriptive words

 

We have names, we have action, now we need to describe the two. That’s where, you guessed it, the Descriptive words come into play. Let’s go back to Fred and his pal Jim. Our Martian friend is getting pretty good at identifying things with nouns and giving them action with verbs, but he’s having trouble being specific. Let’s help him.

Example: Fred quickly threw the green ball to Jim.

 

By adding the descriptive words “quickly” and “green” to the sentence, we’ve shown our friend how to be specific. “Quickly” tells how Fred threw the ball, and “green” tells which ball Fred threw. “Quickly” describes the action (a verb) and is called an Adverb; “green” describes the name (a noun) and is called an Adjective.

 

There are two other words in the sentence that we have to cover. “The” describes which ball Fred threw; therefore, it is an Adjective. “To” tells where Fred threw the ball; therefore, it is an Adverb. In grade school, you learned the term Preposition for words like to, for, at, against, in, about, and around. They are simply descriptive words that act as either Adverbs or Adjectives depending on what they describe.

 

4. Connecting words

 

Connecting words called Conjunctions join groups of words together logically (we hope) to speed communication.

 

Example: Fred plays football. Jim plays football. Fred and Jim play football.

 

Notice the savings in words in the third sentence. “And” is a conjunction, which is a powerful connecting tool (along with some other conjunctions “but, or, nor, for, so, yet”).

 

Oh, wait, there is one other type of word in English, which you will find at the beginning of this sentence. “Oh” is a word that does nothing really in the sentence. It is called an Interjection and is punctuated with a comma or exclamation point. An interjection merely adds emotion.

Examples: Hey, that’s my glove. Wait! I want to go, too. Ouch! That hurts.

 

So, there you have it. The parts of speech in English divided into four simple parts: Identifying words, Action words, Descriptive words, and Connecting words.

 

 

ELEMENTS OF A SENTENCE

 

Sentence analysis

 

In English, we have the following sentence types.

1. Subject – Verb Example: He ran.

            This also includes sentences with simple descriptive words added.

Example: He ran quickly. (quickly merely describes “how” he ran).

2. Subject – Verb – Complement Example: She is pretty. She is a doctor. Notice

how the words pretty and doctor describe or rename the subject she.

3. Subject ­– Verb – Direct Object Example: He threw the ball. Notice the ball is

what was thrown. It is the “object” that receives the action of the verb.

4. Subject – Verb – Indirect Object – Direct Object Example: He threw him the

ball. Notice him receives the action of the verb “indirectly,” and thus is termed

            the indirect object.

 

OK, now what is all this stuff? Well, use the following guidelines to help you with sentence analysis.

 

1. First thing to do when you’re analyzing a sentence is to find the verbs (all of them).

2. Next, find the subject of each verb by asking the question “what” or “who” before the verb. For example, take the sentence John ran to the store. Find the verb ran. Then ask, “who ran?” The answer is John (it is also the subject of the verb ran).

3. Determine what type of verb you have. There are three main types of verbs: a transitive verb (or Action verb) takes an object (like a direct object – He threw the rock. ), an intransitive verb does not take an object (like He ran quickly), and an intransitive linking verb takes a complement (like she is pretty).

4. If the verb is transitive (i.e., an action), then it will take a direct object and maybe an indirect object.

            To find a direct object, ask “what” or “whom” after the action verb. For example, He threw the ball. Threw is the verb. It is an action, so ask, threw “what”? The answer is the ball. Ball is the direct object.

            To find an indirect object, ask “to whom” or “for whom” after the direct object. For example, He threw him the ball. Just as above threw is the verb. It is an action, so ask, threw “what”? The answer is the ball. Ball is the direct object. Then ask, threw the ball “to whom”? The answer is him. Him is the indirect object. Since you need to have a direct object to find an indirect object, you can’t have an indirect object without a direct object. Remember that.

5. If the verb is intransitive, an action without an object, leave it alone. No further analysis is needed. For example, He ran to the store. Ran is the verb. It is an action. Test if there’s an object by asking “what” after the action verb. He ran “what”? He didn’t run the store. That would be a different use of the verb run. Try “whom.” He ran “whom”? Again, no answer. That means ran is an intransitive verb.

6. Intransitive linking verbs are most commonly forms of the verb “be.” The most common forms – is, am, was, were, are. Sometimes sense verbs can be linking verbs also, but only if they are not action. For example, He smells bad. If you mean that he has trouble smelling things, that’s an action. Can’t you just hear him sniffing?(and you would say "He smells badly.")But, if you mean that he should bathe more regularly, then you have a linking verb.

 

     OK, now what to do with linking verbs. When you identify a verb as linking, ask “what” after the linking verb to yield the compliment. For example, He is happy. Is is the linking verb. Ask “what” is? Answer is happy. Happy is the compliment. Since happy is describing he, the subject, we call it a predicate adjective. Here’s another example. He is a doctor. Again is is the linking verb. Ask “what” is? Answer is doctor. Doctor is the compliment. Since doctor is renaming he, the subject, we call it a predicate nominative.

 

Do you want a tip before you start? Do you remember the descriptive word called a preposition? If not, consider the lists below.

 

Here are some of the most common prepositions.

about, above, across, after, against, among, around, as, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, but (meaning “except”) by, down, during, except, for, from, in, into, near, of, off, on, over, past, since, through, till, to, toward, under, until, up, with, without

Sometimes prepositions consist of more than one word.

according to, ahead of, as for, as far as, away from, because of, by way of, due to, except for, instead of, out of, with respect to                   

 

When you join prepositions with nouns, they form groups of words called prepositional phrases, which are used to describe other words. For example, in the road, on the table, over the mountains, under the sofa, between the ears are called prepositional phrases. Don’t let them confuse you when you look for the main verb or subject. In fact, is a good idea is to scratch out the prepositional phrases in a sentence before you begin.

 

Here’s an example: In the evening after dinner, Fred throws the ball against the wall in his backyard.

 

Now, let’s get rid of the prepositional phrases before we analyze the sentence.

 

In the evening after dinner, Fred throws the ball against the wall in his backyard.

 

All that’s left is Fred throws the ball. Which we can easily analyze ­– throws is the action verb. “Who” throws gives us Fred as the subject. Since throws is an action verb, we know we’re looking for a direct object. Fred throws “what”? Answer ­­– the ball, which is the direct object.

See how much easier that is. Remember to eliminate the prepositional phrases before beginning to analyze the sentence.

 

 

That’s a lot of information, but what good is it? These simple terms will be used in Part Two to begin to help you write better immediately.

 

Practice Exercises in analysis.