This document provides an overview of key concepts in academic writing, including letters, words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and fragments. It defines words as the smallest meaningful units of language, and identifies two types: function words and content words. Phrases are groups of related words that lack subjects and predicates. The main types of phrases discussed are prepositional, infinitive, gerund, participial, and appositive phrases. Clauses contain subjects and predicates and are divided into main and subordinate clauses. Sentences are complete thoughts that are grammatically correct, while fragments lack either a subject or predicate.

2. Course: Academic writing
Lecturer: M.M.I

3. ACADEMIC WRITING
LETTER
 SOUND
 SHAPE
FORMS OF LETTERS
 UPPER CASE
 LOWER CASE
KINDS OF LETTERS
 CONSONANT
 VOWEL

4. Comparison
Cell = Word
Tissue = Sentence
Organ = Paragraph
Organ system = Essay
Organism = Book

5. Introduction
I. Word: a word is the smallest unit of language
that makes meaning and sound or meaning full
unit of language sounds or combination of
sounds that is a unit of language or its
representation in a text.
There are two types of words:
1. Function words ( grammatical words)
2. Content words

6. 1. FUNCTION WORDS
• Function words are words such as , the ,and , but, in, to,
because , while, ought, must, etc.
• The main use of function words is to express the relation
ships among other words.
• All conjunctions are function words they work as a
grammatically
• For example:
 I am lonely at dark
 I am lonely in the dark

7. 2. CONTENT WORDS
•Content words are words having meanings
beyond grammar functions. The common
content words are noun, Pronoun, Adjective,
Verb, adverb that primarily convey meanings
rather than grammatical functions.

8. II. PHRASE
• Phrase is a group of related words that has no subject and predicate
and is used as a single part of speech. It does not have complete
meaning.
• We recognize phrases as chunks of information that expand a basic
sentence , adding to its meaning , but we also recognize that
phrases can not express complete thoughts by themselves.
• Simple sentence { I Fell on the side walk}
• I ( subject ) and fell on the side walk( predicate)
• Subject: what the sentence is all about
• Verb : The most important word of predicate is verb.

9. TYPES OF PHRASES
• Phrases are usually classified as:
 Prepositional phrase
 infinitive phrase
Gerund phrase
Participial phrase
 Appositive phrase
Gerund

10. PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
Examples about prepositional phrase
• Your book is on the table
•The students are in the class
•My best friend went to Mogadishu
•He is the man of action
•They are walking behind the car
N.B: to + Noun = prepositional phrase

11. INFINITIVE PHRASE
An infinitive phrase is formed to + verb
Examples about infinitive phrase.
 I wanted to buy the house.
I came hear to study English language.
She study hard to pass the exam.
 He visited to Amoud to see the main
faculties.

12. GERUND
A gerund is a verb that ends in – ing.
Its is always used As a noun.
More examples about gerund
 Reading is my Favorite habit
 Fishing is not good for fishers
 Relaxing is an important for every body

13. GERUND PHRASE
Gerund phrase begins with gerund include other words that add to the
meaning of the gerund.
Examples about gerund phrase
 Plying tennis is very good exercise .
 Growing fruits and vegetables is my is my hobby.
Making profit is our main objective.
My sister enjoys planting flowers.
Do you like reading science subjects?

14. EXERCISE
1. Write two examples about each of the following
that are not mentioned before.
a. Prepositional phrase
b. Infinitive phrase
c. Gerund phrase

15. PARTICIPIAL PHRASE
• What is participial phrase?
• Participial phrase is a group of words consisting of
a participle and the modifier and/or nouns,
pronouns.
• Participial phrase is a phrase that looks like a verb,
but actually functions as an adjective

16. It modifies a noun in the same sentence. Participial
phrase formula is
• Participle + modifiers + direct object
Participle: participles describe nouns or pronouns. There
two types of variables
•Present participle (always end in ing)
•Past participle ( always end in ed)

17. MORE EXAMPLES ABOUT PARTICIPIAL
PHRASE
1. Covered with ice the road was dangerous.
2. Running across the field the player lost his
shoe
3. Understanding the problem I finally found
an answer.
4. Visited to Egypt we saw the pyramids
5. Cleaning the room she hurt her leg.

18. APPOSITIVE AND APPOSITIVE PHRASE
Appositive
• Appositive: Appositive is a word that gives extra
information about noun or pronoun.
Examples about Appositive
1. Our teacher, Ali, was absent yesterday.
2. The book, chemistry, has stolen.

19. APPOSITIVE PHRASE
• Appositive phrase: A group of related words that give extra
information.
Examples:
1. The students, our secondary students, will go to
Mogadishu.
2. Biology, my favorite subject, was removed from the list.
3. The schools, public schools of this town, are not working.
4. The driver is coming, the angry one.

20. III. CLAUSE
•A clause is a group of words containing a subject
and predicate. The relation of a clause to the rest of
a sentence is shown by the position of the clause or
by conjunction . There are two kinds of clauses:
1. Main clause ( independent clause)
2. sub ordinate clause (dependent clause)

21. Main clause
•Main clause has both subject and verb but it is not
introduced by a subordinating word. A main clause
makes an independent statement; it could stand
alone.
Example: Eagle is very beautiful.
You can see that this clause is equal to the sentence.

22. 2. SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
• Subordinate clauses are clauses that cannot
stand alone. It begins with subordinate
conjunction or relative pronouns. They cannot
stand alone but must be attached to a main
clause. Thy express the ideas that are intended
to be subordinate or dependent on the idea
expressed in the main clause.

23. SUB-ORDINATE CONJUNCTIONS & RELATIVE
PRONOUNS
 since
• After
• Although
• Because
• Before
• As long as
• Though
• Unless
• In order
• Who
• Whom
• Whose
• Which
• That

24. MORE EXAMPLES ABOUT SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
1. After I went to the H.A.U, I saw many faculties.
2. Eagles are very beautiful when they are flying in
the sky.
3. Ahmed lived in this house until he moved last
summer.
4. While she was reading her lesson her mother was
cooking a food.

25. SENTENCE VS FRAGMENT
•Sentence is group of words that has subject and
verb.
• Group of words that expresses, complete meaning.
•A group of words that can stand independently.
• a group of words that begins capital letter and ends,
end marks.
•a group of words that is grammatically correct
•A basic unit of thought that some one uses.

26. CONDITIONS OF SENTENCE
I. Subject and verb
II. complete meaning( thoughtful and stand
alone).
III. Group of words
IV. Correct grammar
V. Correct capitalization and punctuation

27.  The exact definition of sentence is
A sentence is a group of words that
has subject and verb which expresses
complete thought and has correct
grammar, capitalization, and
punctuation.

28. Fragment
A group of words that does not
express a complete thought is
called Fragment.
 All clauses are not fragment but
some clauses are fragment.

29. Activity
Which one of the following statements is sentence or
fragment
1. The man suddenly disappeared. ________
2. Remembered my real name yesterday __________
3. She prepared delicious meal ___________
4. Large noisy crowd of people in front of the hall ___________
5. The winner is Ali ____________
6. Before you wash your hand ______________