Dependent Clauses: Sentence Composing Pattern #2

Dependent Clauses

• Start with dependent clause cue words

• If the dependent clause cue word is removed, a complete sentence remains:

Mrs. Rachel, before she had closed the door, had taken mental note of everything that was on the table.

If “before” is removed, a complete sentence remains: She had closed the door.

Single Dependent Clauses

• While he scrubbed the sidewalk, I stood there throwing the ball at the apartment building that faced the street.

• Lesley, when she felt the lawn mower bearing down on her, abandoned her half of the wide handle and leaped out of the way.

• Dicey was up and dressed, washed and fed, and out the door, with the day’s work outlined in her head, before anyone else stirred in the silent house.

Multiple Dependent Clauses

• With a gentle forefinger, he stroked the turtle’s throat and chest until the horny-toad relaxed, until its eyes closed and it lay languorous and asleep.

• One fall, before he had regained his full strength, a young woman came to teach in the island school, and somehow, although I was never able to understand it fully, the elegant little schoolmistress fell in love with my large, red-faced, game-legged father, and they were married. (contains 3 independent clauses connected by “and”)

Multiple Dependent Clauses

• They waited until night because nobody could see them at night, because Atticus would be so deep in a book he wouldn’t hear the Kingdom coming, because if Boo Radley killed them they’d miss school instead of vacation, and because it was easier to see inside a dark house in the dark than in the daytime. (From To Kill a Mockingbird)

Practice 1

In the model and the scrambled list, identify the dependent clause. Next, unscramble and write out the sentence parts to imitate the model.

Model: After Mrs. Mallard had laid eight eggs in the nest, she couldn’t go to visit Michael any more, because she had to sit on the eggs to keep them warm.

a. to figure things outb. he couldn’t begin to understand his camera very muchc. before Uncle Al had studied digital photography in

schoold. since he had to puzzle over the manual

Now, let’s write our own sentences which include at least one dependent clause and one independent clause.

Run-ons

• A FUSED SENTENCE OCCURS WHEN TWO INDEPENDENT CLAUSES ARE JOINED WITH NO PUNCTUATION BETWEEN THEM.

Run-on Sentences

A RUN-ON SENTENCE IS ONE THAT CONTAINS TOO MANYINDEPENDENT CLAUSES OR HAS INADEQUATE PUNCTUATIONBETWEEN CLAUSES.

• A COMMA SPLICE OCCURS WHEN TWO INDEPENDENT CLAUSES ARE JOINED WITH A COMMA BETWEEN THEM.

• A “MONSTER” RUN-ON CONTAINS TOO MANY INDEPENDENT CLAUSES, OFTEN JOINED BY AND, IN ONE SENTENCE.

26-1a

Run-on Sentences

FUSED SENTENCE

Jon is studying systems analysis he will have no trouble finding a job.

COMMA SPLICE

Jon should be well paid, Canada needs systems analysts.

“MONSTER” RUN-ON

Technical workers are in demand today and will continue to be in demandin the near future but eventually computers will replace them and do their jobsmore efficiently and ultimately, say some pessimists, computers will replaceall workers and we will finally have enough leisure time.

26-1b

Run-on Problems3 Solutions

Choose from two kinds of linking words:• Comma + coordinating conjunction (FOR, AND, NOR, BUT, OR, YET, SO)• Dependent clause cue

1. Jon is studying systems analysis. He will have no trouble finding a job.

2. Jon should be well paid; Canada needs systems analysts.

3. Jon should be well paid, for Canada needs systems analysts.

4. Jon should be well paid because Canada needs systems analysts.

5. Because Canada needs systems analysts, Jon should be well paid.

MAKE THE INDEPENDENT CLAUSES INTO SEPARATE SENTENCES.

USE A SEMICOLON TO SEPARATE THE INDEPENDENT CLAUSES.

ADD AN APPROPRIATE LINKING WORD TO JOIN THE TWO CLAUSES.

26-2

Practice

• Correct the run-ons on the handout.

Handout

According to a news report, a private girls’ school in Victoria was recently faced with an unusual problem. They solved it in a way that can only be described as creative. It is also a good example of effective teaching.

Some of the grade 10 girls, forbidden by their parents to wear lipstick at home, began to apply it at school, in the second floor washroom. That was the first problem. The second was that after applying the lipstick, they would press their lips to the mirror, leaving dozens of perfect lip prints.

Every night, the maintenance crew would remove the prints; the next day the girls would reapply them. Finally the principal decided that something had to be done.

She called the girls into the washroom where she met them with one of the maintenance men. He stood by while the principal addressed the girls.

She explained that the lip prints on the mirrors were causing a problem for the maintenance crew, who had to clean the mirrors every night instead of doing other work.

To demonstrate how difficult the cleaning job was and how much time was wasted on this needless chore, the principal asked the maintenance man to clean one of the mirrors. The girls watched with interest as he took out a long-handled squeegee and began scrubbing at the lipstick prints.

When he had scrubbed for a while, he turned, dipped his squeegee into one of the toilets, and continued to work on the mirrors. Since then, there has not been another set of lip prints left on the washroom mirror.

Peer Editing

Guidelines

• Read the paragraphs, then tell the writer what you think is well done.

• Evaluate and make suggestions about the effectiveness of the critique. See page 101 for “Guidelines for writing a critical response” and the handout “Steps for writing the Summary/Critique Assignment”

• Be honest in your suggestions for improvement.

• The editor and the writer should work together to correct sentences that contain numbered grammatical errors; the editor shouldn’t make a change without discussing it with the writer.

• There may be errors that are not indicated by numbers. If an editor thinks anything should be changed, discuss it with the writer.

• Ensure the title page follows the format on p. 142 of Cite it Right, with the addition of the writer’s EBC Box Number below his/her name.