4.2 Sentence Structure

What Makes a Sentence Complete

The ParaPro Writing domain consistently tests whether you can recognize a complete sentence and repair the two most common structural errors students make: fragments and run-ons. A complete sentence has three things: a subject (who or what the sentence is about), a predicate (the verb and what it says about the subject), and a complete thought that can stand on its own.

Example: In "The excited kindergartners | clapped for the puppet show," the subject is The excited kindergartners and the predicate is clapped for the puppet show. Remove either piece and the thought collapses.

Clauses and Phrases

The building blocks are clauses and phrases. A phrase is a group of words with no subject-verb pair (after lunch, running quickly). A clause does have a subject and verb, and it comes in two flavors:

Dependent clauses usually begin with a subordinating conjunction. Memorize the common ones by category: time (when, while, after, before, until), cause (because, since), condition (if, unless), and contrast (although, even though). The moment a clause starts with one of these, it can no longer stand alone.

The Four Sentence Structures

Combining clauses produces four structures the exam expects you to identify:

Notice how compound sentences use a comma plus a coordinating conjunction (the seven FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) to join two complete ideas. That comma-plus-conjunction is the legal way to combine independent clauses, and it is the antidote to the run-on.

Fragments

A fragment is a piece pretending to be a sentence. It is missing a subject, a verb, or a complete thought.

• Missing verb: The students in the back row. → The students in the back row waited.
• Dependent clause alone: Because it was raining. → We stayed inside because it was raining.
• -ing phrase alone: Running down the hall. → The boy was running down the hall.

The fix is to add the missing part or attach the fragment to an independent clause.

Run-Ons and Comma Splices

A run-on crams two independent clauses together with no punctuation: I finished my work I helped a classmate. A comma splice joins them with only a comma: I finished my work, I helped a classmate. Both are wrong, and both have the same three fixes:

1. Period: I finished my work. I helped a classmate.
2. Semicolon: I finished my work; I helped a classmate.
3. Comma + FANBOYS: I finished my work, and I helped a classmate.

Parallelism and Modifiers

Parallel structure means items in a series share the same grammatical form. She likes reading, swimming, and biking is parallel (all -ing); She likes reading, to swim, and biking is not. The exam loves a list where one item breaks the pattern.

Modifier placement matters too. A misplaced modifier sits next to the wrong word (I saw a dog walking to school implies the dog walked to school); move it: Walking to school, I saw a dog. A dangling modifier has nothing logical to attach to (After eating lunch, the bell rang — the bell did not eat). Fix it by naming the real actor: After eating lunch, the students heard the bell.

Helping Students Write Complete Sentences

Application items focus on practical aide moves. The strongest answers:

• Provide sentence frames ("The character felt ___ because ___") so students start with a complete skeleton.
• Have students underline the subject once and the verb twice to confirm both exist.
• Teach students to read each sentence aloud and ask, "Is this a complete thought?"
• Practice combining two short simple sentences into one compound sentence to fix choppy writing.
• Color-code independent and dependent clauses so the join point is obvious.

Worked Example: A third-grader turns in, "I love science we did an experiment." On the content item, you identify a run-on (two independent clauses with no punctuation). On the paired application item, the best support is not just writing the corrected version for her. It is to have her read it aloud, hear that she paused after science as if it were a full stop, then choose one of the three fixes herself — most naturally "I love science*, and** we did an experiment."* Letting her hear the natural break and pick the repair builds transferable skill.