Structures Of Sentences

There are 4 sentence structures:

Simple Complex

Compound Compound-Complex
 In order for a sentence to be
complete, a group of words needs to
contain a subject and a verb and it
needs to express a complete thought.
Simple Sentence
A simple sentence contains only one
independent clause. An independent
clause is a group of words that expresses
a complete thought. It may also have an
object and modifiers.
 Examples
1. She completed her literature review.
2. He organized his sources by theme.
3. They studied APA rules for many hours.

Red = subject
Blue = verb
Green = object
Purple = prepositional phrase
Compound Sentence
A compound sentence contains at least two
independent clauses. The two independent
clauses can be combined with a comma
and a coordinating conjunction
(FANBOYS) or with a semicolon.
 Examples
1. She completed her literature review, and she created her reference list.
2. He organized his source by theme; then he updated his reference list.
3. They studied APA rules for many hours, but they realized there was
still much to learn.

Red = Independent clause #1

Dark Blue = Independent clause #2
Blue = Comma
Green = Semicolon
Purple = Coordinating conjunction
Complex Sentence
A complex sentence contains at least one
independent clause and at least one
dependent clause. Dependent clauses can
refer to the subject (who, which) the sequence
or time (since, while), or the causal elements
(because, if) of the independent clause.
 Examples
1. Although she completed her literature review, she still
needed to work on her methods section.
2. Because he organized his sources by theme, it was easier
for his readers to follow.
3. They studied APA rules for many hours as they were so
interesting. *A comma is used in sentence #1 because it begins with a
dependent clause.

Red = Independent clause *Sentence #3 does not have a comma because it starts with an
independent clause.
Blue = Dependent clause
Compound-Complex Sentence
Sentence types can also be combined. A
compound-complex sentence is a
combination of all sentence types. It
contains at least two independent clauses
and at least one dependent clause.
 Examples
1. She completed her literature review, but she still needs to work on her
methods section even though she finished her methods course last semester.
2. Although he organized his sources by theme, he decided to arrange them
chronologically, and he carefully followed the MEAL plan for organization.
3. With pizza and soda in hand, they studied APA rules for many hours, and
they decided that writing in APA made sense because it was clear, concise,
and objective.

Red = Independent clause #1

Blue = Independent clause #2
Green = Coordinating conjunction
Purple = Dependent clause