College Composition / Unit 2 CMP 0044 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Diagnosing a Sentence Step by Step
The idea
Diagnosing a sentence means counting its clauses and checking how they are joined.
In practice
Work in order. First, find every verb that has its own subject; each pair is a clause. Second, decide which clauses can stand alone and which begin with a subordinating word or relative pronoun. Third, check the joints between independent clauses: a comma with a coordinating conjunction, a semicolon, or a period are correct; a comma alone or nothing at all is an error. Fourth, check that every dependent clause is attached to an independent one. Fifth, name the structure, simple, compound, complex or compound-complex, which tells you whether the ideas are arranged as the writer intends.
Where people slip
The steps catch errors that reading by ear can miss, especially in long sentences, where the rhythm sounds fine but a comma is quietly joining two complete sentences.
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