Write a Simple Sentence in English

One area of privilege that I had in my small town in North Carolina was a good school system, and I enjoyed writing. My teachers helped inspire and correct me.

We need to know the language we use.

We need to know about the sentence, the building block of writing. Here's a review:

The sentence must have a subject. A subject is a noun or a pronoun. A noun is a person, place, or thing. Example: Jack (a person), New York City (a place), or team (a thing).  

The sentence must have a verb. A verb shows or tells action or state of being. 


The sentence must have closing punctuation: period, question mark, or exclamation mark that denotes the end of the sentence. 

This is "old school," but it works. To begin, we'll look at a simple sentence ending with a period, remembering, for now, that subject + verb + period = sentence. No period or other ending mark can be put at the end of a string of words unless that string has a subject and a verb. Every sentence needs an end mark, such as a period.

Simple sentence examples: 
Jack runs. (Jack runs now, in the present moment/time.)
Jack ran. (Jack ran in the past, for example, yesterday or this morning.)

None of us is ready to move forward until we can define a noun, a verb, and a sentence from memory. If you've suspected that you need grammar help, practice writing sentences no longer than 11 words. Maybe you know someone that would check your work often.

I hope that these basics of English will make a huge difference for writers that missed the basics or are just starting to write seriously.I hope that all of us will enjoy expressing ideas and interests in words, often!

"Lonely Life" of Writing-get over that idea!

Jean Purcell

"I did it alone!" Hearty kudos and "thank you!" to you, visitor and reader of Author Support! I invite you to sign up for e-mail delivery for new posts or join this blog, if you have not already done that!

As I type this, the visit counter for Author Support moves ahead toward a speed of 10,000 visitors! Opinari Writers, another member of this blog family, moves at 20,000 VPB (Visitors Per Blog). Both are aiming to register higher VPB's in the future.

Clearly, "I did it alone!" cannot be true. I thank all of you who visit here! My love of writing and my love of giving tips to other writers, including pointing to resources, revs up my work! Whether you land on this site deliberately or stumble here and linger, read, or investigate...however you get here, my job is to share and build on my years of writing and print and digital publishing experience.

I tweak my blogs now and then, aiming for more attractive and attracting blogs. I started this in earnest a few months ago, and decided to focus specifically and more regularly on (1) writing new articles, (2) blog design (adding/ changing gadgets/widgets; colors, fonts, column sizes, and related factors), (3) writing craft: style and substance focus, (4) digital networking (Twitter-1 and Twitter-2, Facebook-FB, for example), and (5) paying regular, daily attention.

I do the same thing, in my own way, that you do or want to do, and I share my years of experience and attention to how and what to write and communicate. I love it! Have a blog you want to improve? You can do it by refocusing on these five elements:

• Better writing - improved knowledge and use of the craft of writing  
• Sharper blog design - examine blog designs you like and can adapt
• Tighter writing focus - edit, edit, edit
• Frequent digital networking - for friendly ideas, re-tweeting work by others, posting your links 
• Regular new writing - draft/edit/save, draft/edit/save, draft/edit/save...and publish. 

What writers do, they often do "alone," as "in solitude," and yet...we are connecting with others all the time! We have support from many people we may never see or meet face to face. We learn from people we know and don't know who have good ideas, technical help (including creative solutions), and motivational cues.

Thinking the writing life is a lonely life? Get over it, and may your writing move forward with even tighter and more disciplined goals. Keep learning from others! I know I learn from you...what Stat Counter tells me, post by post, that you read and come back to! I am adding spiritual growth books to my  hand-picked books online store. It's growing, too. 

Quick Quiz: Urgent Decisions about Book Planning

Discover Where to Focus Now

 

Quick Quiz 

I. Which one publishing route do you plan for your book?
Choose only one from the five options below:

a. Get an agent
b. Hook a publishing house editor
c. Self-publish as a printed book
d. Self-publish as e-book
d. Undecided for now

II. What is your most urgent need, regardless of the above answer? Choose only one, below:

a. Writing improvement
b. Study of proposal writing
c. Financial savvy
d. Marketing plan
e. Decision about direction of publication (I. above)
f. Specific cover design ideas

III. Assessment of how and why you made your choices, above

1. What was your first, quick, spontaneous guess at the right answer from a. through f., above?

2. Do you see a second possible correct answer? What is it? 

3. Clue: The correct answer is perhaps the least popular. Which do you think is the least popular or least attractive/common sense option from above list, a. - f.?   Why?

4. Info: I will write again soon, to give answers I recommend from my experience with publishing, editing, marketing, mentoring authors, and writing two editions of one book.

5. Something you might do: If you change your mind between now and when I post again on this subject, with the answers, try to follow what influenced your change of mind. 

6. Pros and Cons of Quiz options: If you have not yet studied the route you want your book to take, for successful future for it, do you know enough right now about the pros and cons of each choice you make? It may not fit what you want to focus on now. Yet, it might be the first priority on your list. (Do you have a priority list?)