Here is the presentation on commas, clauses and conjunctions for future reference.

1. The comma and
you…
WRITING WORKSHOP
COMMA, CLAUSES, AND
CONJUNCTIONS
The mighty might COMMA!

2. Warm Up – Build a Sentence
With each member of the class giving a different
type of word, how big of a complete sentence
can you build?
Verb – Noun – Adjective – Prepositional Phrase
– Frequency Adverb - Adjective

3. Preparing For Today
● Please take out your notebooks
and prepare to take thorough
notes for today. Please title each
section as it is labeled and follow
all instructions.
● For example:
● Clauses: (title)
● A group of words that contains a subject and a
predicate. A clause is either independent or
dependent. (definition)

4. A reminder regarding
Grammar…
● Grammar is not the hard and fast
science we want it to be. While
the idea of true formulas or that
something is always or never true
is enticing, that is very rare.
Especially in the complex world of
English grammar.

5. *In your notebooks, please write the
following sentences, adding commas where
needed.
● Miranda Tom and Joe are playing soccer later.
● After the ball game let’s go and get some
dinner.
● My friend Kristen Dixie has two dogs.
● If you don’t read you won’t enjoy this class.
● While mom cooked dinner I read my book.
● My brother who is an engineer lives in Mexico
City.

6. Why do these sentences need
commas?
● Miranda, Tom, and Joe are playing soccer later.
● Listed Things – clue: THREE or more
● After the ball game, let’s go and get some dinner.
● Dependent Clause – clue: AFTER
● My friend, Kristen Dixie, has two dogs.
● Relative Clause – clue: EXTRA INFORMATION
● If you don’t read, you won’t enjoy this class.
● Dependent Clause: Clue IF
● While mom cooked dinner, I read my book.
● Dependent Clause – clue: WHILE
● My brother, who is an engineer, lives in Mexico
City.
● Relative Clause – clue: WHO – extra information.

7. *Parts of Speech Review
● Noun – Person, Place, Thing or Idea
● Verb – Action
● Adjective – Descritive word
● Adverb – How or How often action is done
● Preposition – Place, Direction, and Postion
● Pronoun – He, She, It, They, We, Us…
● Conjunction – Connecting Words
● Article – A, An, The
● Now please identify all the words in the first
sentence you wrote.

8. Parsing a Sentence
● Miranda, Tom, and Joe are playing soccer
later.
N N Conj N V V N Adv.

9. *Important Definition:
● Clause:
● A group of words that contains a
subject and a predicate. A
clause is either independent or
dependent.
● Independent – stands alone
● Dependent – cannot stand alone

10. *Independent Clause
A group of words that can stand alone, on
its own.
e.g.:
Holden went to New York.
Jose likes to dance.

11. *Dependent Clause
A group of words that cannot stand alone.
Dependent clauses will begin with a
subordinate conjunction or relative pronoun.
This combination of words will not form a
complete sentence, but it will instead make
a reader want additional information to
finish the idea.

12. Three Basic Types of
Sentences
Simple ● Simple
sentences ● One Independent Clause:
deliver ideas
and actions ● Wilma went bowling.
clearly. ● Compound
Compound ● Two Independent Clauses:
connect big
actions and
● James ran away from the mouse, but
ideas. Dorothy shooed it away.
Complex ● Complex
give fluency ● Combination of Independent and
in space and
time. Dependent Clauses
● While you were off gallivanting, we got
some work done!

13. The student explained her
question, yet the teacher still
didn’t understand it.
CONNECTING TWO
INDEPENDENT CLAUSES –
CREATING COMPOUND SENTENCES
IC comma conjunction IC

14. FANBOYS
The seven simple conjunctions are:
For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So =
FANBOYS

15. Separate Two Independent
Clauses
IC, conjunction
IC
● Independent Clause = IC
● Use commas to separate
IC, conjunction
independent clauses when they are
IC
joined by any of the seven simple
coordinating conjunctions:
FANBOYS
IC, conjunction
IC ● Formula: IC (comma), IC
● The game was over, but the crowd
stayed.
IC, conjunction ● Yesterday was her brother’s
IC
birthday, so she took him out to
dinner.

16. I like a person who is intelligent, who
enjoys going to music shows, and who
has read many good and interesting
books.
LISTS AND COMMAS
One, two, and three

17. Formula for a list:
One (comma), two
(comma), (conjunction)
three (or more)
*Remember the comma is
after the conjunction

18. Conjunction Junction!
School House Rocks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=eZqI5b5wGA4

19. Three or More…
● Use a comma to separate three or more
words, phrases, or clauses written in a
series:
● Miranda, Tom, and Joe are playing soccer later.
● Phrases: e.g. a verb+noun -
● The candidate promised to lower taxes, protect
the environment, reduce crime, and end
unemployment.
● Clause: e.g. relative clause list - emphasis
● The prosecutor argued that the defendant, who
was at the scene of the crime, who had a strong
revenge motive, and who had access to the

20. Lists
● Please generate the following in your notes:
● A sentence with three or more phrases
properly separated by commas.
● A sentence with three or more clauses
properly separated by commas.
● *Note on style: technically, the final comma is
not necessary as per an author’s style, for our
purposes it will remain necessary.

21. My brother, who is an engineer, lives in
Mexico City.
THE RELATIVE CLAUSE
Who, Whom, That, Which…

22. Relative Clauses
● We use relative clauses to give additional
information about someone or something
within a sentence. By combining sentences
with a relative clause, your writing and text
becomes more fluent, complex, descriptive,
and you can avoid repeating certain words.
● Relative Clauses require relative pronouns:
● That, who, whom, which, whose, whoever,
whosever, whichever, whomever

23. Relative Pronouns
That, who, whom,
which, whose,
whoever, whosever,
whichever,
whomever

24. Ask: Is the information
necessary?
● A girl is talking to Eric. Do you know
the girl?
● How would you create a question
using a relative pronoun about this
situation?
Is this
information
necessary?
● Do you know the girl…

25. This information is
necessary! girl who is talking to
Do you know the
Eric?
We need this information in order to know
which person we are talking about;
therefore, we DO NOT need a comma!
If it is only, “Do you know the girl…” this is
not enough information. We NEED to know
it.
Therefore: NO COMMA.

26. More Examples: Essential
Information
● The book that I borrowed from you is
excellent.
● The apples that fell out of the basket are
bruised.
● She believes that she will be able to earn an
A.
● He is dreaming that he can fly.
● Students who cheat only harm themselves.
● I believe that it was wrong to mislead them.

27. Create one sentence by combining the
following two sentences using a relative
pronoun:
● My Brother is an engineer.
● My brother lives in Mexico
City.

28. Non Essential Information
The ● My brother, who is an engineer,
profession of
my brother is
lives in Mexico City.
extra
information =
COMMAS
● My brother, who lives in Mexico
Where my
brother lives City, is an engineer.
is extra
information =
COMMAS

29. For Humans: use WHO or
THAT
● Edward, who often cheats, is just
harming himself.
● Daria, that girl over there, enjoys
dancing like a crazy person.

30. Non Human: THAT and WHICH