Due

Read: Understanding English Grammar, Chapter 9

Meeting Place

We will meet in our usual classroom, Dial 153.  Please bring Understanding English Grammar.

April 9-13, 2001

We end our tour of English grammar this week with a look at coordination and punctuation.  Between now and next week, you should begin reviewing the chapters we have covered, making note of areas where you have questions.  During our review sessions next week, we will analyze and discuss several sentences similar to the ones I will give you in your final oral presentation. 

Now is also a good time to review the syllabus and to begin putting the finishing touches on your online portfolio, which must be posted in its final form no later than 8 a.m. April 20, 2001. 
All American
>Modern America
>>American English 

Terms

Resources

Understanding English Grammar describes the ten basic sentence patterns covered here.

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language presents detailed descriptions of numerous aspects of English grammar.

Updated April 3, 2001
© Mark Canada, 2001
mark.canada@uncp.edu
 

Coordination

By Mark Canada
English Professor, University of North Carolina at Pembroke

An MTV commercial from several years ago featured Singer Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones saying: "Too much is never enough."  If coordinating conjunctions could talk, they might say the same thing.  Thanks to these conjunctions--words such as and, but, and or--English speakers can connect the various components of their sentences, allowing for infinite possibilities.  The term for this connecting process is coordination.  In addition to single-word coordinating conjunctions, we also can connect sentence components with multi-word correlative conjunctions, such as either . . . or and not only . . . but also, as well as coordinating punctuation, such as colons and semicolons.  The sentences below illustrate just some of the different types of compound structures created through coordination.  Coordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions, and coordinating punctuation aappear in blue; added components appear in red.

Nominals

Subjects: Either Laura or John will plan the event.
Direct Objects: She loves swimming and jogging.
Subject Complements: Shakespeare's best-known works are his plays and sonnets.

Verbs

Intransitives: This toy flies and hovers.
Transitives: Michelangelo both painted and sculpted beautiful works of art.

Adjectivals

Adjectives: A brown and white van passed the car.
Participles: The girl lying on the sofa and twirling her hair is my daughter. 

Adverbials

Subordinate Clauses: She walks before she goes to work and after she comes home.
Prepositional Phrases: The dog ran out the door and around the yard.

Independent Clauses

With a semicolon: They began the project in 1897; others finished it years later.
With a colon: She knew how to win his heart: she wrote him a sonnet.

In all of these sentences, the two structures linked through coordination have the same form.  In the second sentence, for example, swimming and jogging are both gerunds.  In other words, all of these sentences demonstrate parallelism.

Complications

Much of the time, coordination does not affect the other parts of a sentence.  Indeed, all of the above sentences are grammatical with or without the colored portions.  In some cases, however, coordination goes hand in hand with other changes in a sentence.  For example, single subjects and compound subjects often require different verb forms in order to conform to conventions of subject-verb agreement.  Furthermore, when connecting phrases through coordination, we often can leave out one or more words in the second phrase.  This process is called ellipsis. 

Perhaps the most noticeable change that sometimes takes place when we use coordination is a change in punctuation.  The conventions of Standard English, for example, call for using commas to separate three or more components in a coordinate structure or to separate two independent clauses joined with a coordinating conjunction or correlative conjunctions.  Furthermore, as shown in the last two sample sentences above, semicolons and colons can link independent clauses without conjunctions.  The sentences below illustrate this added punctuation:

Serial Comma: Mozart wrote symphonies, operas, and concertos.
Commas Between Independent Clauses: We have flown, but we prefer to drive.
Semicolon Between Independent Clauses: She grows the flowers; he cuts the lawn.
Colon Between Independent Clauses: She has a crucial job: she is an artist.

Exercises

General

A. For each sentence, underline and identify the compound components.  Circle the coordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions, and coordinating punctuation.
  1. He likes to read all he can, to think for a while, and then to collect his thoughts on paper.
  2. Those kids seem to eat before, during, and after meals.
  3. She is a conservative, and she doesn't mind telling people so.
  4. Did he read the book or watch the movie?
  5. The firefighters not only put out the blaze, but also rescued two kittens.
B. Write a sentence with each of the following components:
  1. compound subject
  2. compound prepositional phrases
  3. compound vocative
  4. compound appositive
  5. compound predicate
  6. compound sentence

Editing

C. Make the following sentences conform to the conventions of Standard Written English:
    1. Thomas Edison not only invented the phonograph, but also hundreds of other items.
    2. The scientists studied the phenomenon for years, and concluded that it was not a threat to humans.

Style

E. Combine the following sentences in at least two ways.  Discuss the rhetorical effect of each approach: "Carnegie made millions.  He gave millions away."
 

Commas

Most of the mistakes that writers make in their punctuation concern the use of commas. The secret to using commas correctly is memorizing the most common places where they are required. The following sentences provide examples of these places. Analyze each sentence and then jot down what rule it illustrates for using--or not using--commas.
  1. She has experience working in sales, accounting, and marketing.
  2. Sears needs to promote itself as a friendly, service-oriented store.
  3. The president chose January 18, 1996, to implement the program.
  4. She moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in August 1991.
  5. Finally, the game had many great plays. For example, Mays made a leaping catch in center.
  6. At the beginning of the year, business is slow.
  7. Although the film received excellent reviews, few people went to see it.
  8. The film received excellent reviews; however, few people went to see it.
  9. A new teacher has joined the faculty. The teacher, who is from Alabama, arrived in May.
  10. Two new teachers have joined the faculty. The teacher who is from Alabama arrived in May.
  11. Martha Johnson's husband, Steve, is a carpenter.
  12. Martha Johnson's friend Steve is a carpenter.
  13. The company opened in December, and sales began to rise dramatically in March.
  14. The company opened in December and closed in March.


Now read the following paragraph and put commas where they are needed.

Our plan for improving the company's sales included new approaches to magazine radio and television advertising. First we began running several new national magazine advertisements. The first advertisement ran in the May 8 1996 issue of Newsweek and features author Toni Morrison who appears holding one of our candy bars. At the bottom of the page a paragraph explains that Morrison eats one of our candy bars every day. We produced our first radio commercial in September 1996. In this commercial which ran first in Jackson Mississippi and later in Orlando Florida cellist Yo-Yo Ma explains that he always eats one of our candy bars before a performance. Although Ma is not as famous as other celebrities we might have chosen we decided he would appeal to a well-educated sophisticated audience. Of course television was the main venue we exploited. We wanted to reach a large audience; however we could not afford to spend a lot of money. We decided to run commercials during the syndicated shows Seinfeld and Star Trek: The Next Generation. The commercials began appearing in December 1996 and continued running for the next three months.