sentence case
(noun)
A format in which only the first major word (and any proper noun) is capitalized.
Examples of sentence case in the following topics:
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Making Subject and Verbs Agree
- Subject-verb agreement assures that verbs match their subjects in case and number.
- Incorrect sentence: My dog and my cat likes to be petted.
- Correct sentence: My dog and my cat like to be petted.
- Most mistakes happen because writers are not paying careful attention to the number and case of their subjects.
- Recognize subject-verb agreement by paying careful attention to the number and case of the sentence subject.
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Em-Dashes and En-Dashes
- Dashes are often used to mark interruptions within sentences.
- Em dashes are also sometimes used to summarize or define prior information in a sentence.
- In these cases, there should not be any spaces around the en dash.
- In these cases, using an en dash is distracting.
- The title contains an example of em dash usage, which, in this case, shows a break in the sentence.
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Introduction to Commas
- The first phrase could not stand on its own as a sentence, but when joined to the independent clause by the comma, the sentence is complete.
- Note that a dependent clause can come later in the sentence, but in that case, you would not use a comma:
- In these situations, say the sentence to yourself.
- In this sentence, "new" and "weird" are nonrestrictive.
- In other words, if you dropped a restrictive modifier from a sentence, the meaning of the sentence would change.
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Structure of a Sentence
- Structural classifications for sentences include simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences.
- In this case, the subordinate clause, "who eat chocolate cake" is in the middle of the sentence.
- In looking at the various sentence forms above, you can see that each sentence gives you a different feel.
- The complex sentence sounds more like a lesson in its "if-then" format, and the compound-complex sentence packs all the information into one conclusive sentence.
- A declarative sentence, or declaration, is the most common type of sentence.
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Components of a Sentence
- Compare and contrast the sentences below:
- In active-voice sentences, it is the noun or pronoun performing the action in the sentence.
- in a sentence.
- In a given sentence, there may be more than one of any of the five core sentence elements.
- You also have some verbals (leaving, smashing), but in no case is the noun functioning as a subject doing a predicate verb.
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Approaches to Your Body Paragraphs
- Like your thesis, each topic sentence is an arguable statement, not a fact.
- Check, too, to see whether the topic sentence is arguable and clear.
- Your concluding sentence will often have an echo of the topic sentence in it while moving the reader forward to the next topic.
- You might decide to have a concluding sentence and then a transition sentence.
- In this case, we can presume the paragraph gave evidence that toxins are polluting streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans.
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Step 6: Editing and Proofreading
- Editing looks at your work on a sentence-by-sentence level, considering ways to make everything you say as clear and precise as possible.
- If you think a sentence is too complicated, rephrase it so that it is easier to read, or break it into two sentences.
- Consider the following sentences:
- In this case, changing from passive to active made a major improvement.
- Some sentences do read better with them.
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Overall Structure and Formatting of a Chicago/Turabian Paper
- In the above sentence, the comma immediately after "Wales" is the Oxford comma.
- In most cases, the first word after a colon should not be capitalized:
- However, if what follows a colon is a series of multiple sentences, or a quotation, you do need to capitalize the first word after the colon:
- If you have a colon in the middle of a sentence, and what follows after is a quotation or multiple sentences, the first word after the colon should be capitalized.
- However, typewriters, and therefore this practice, are now obsolete—in fact, using two spaces after sentences is now generally frowned upon.
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Structure of a Sentence
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Classification of Sentences