There are four types of sentences: Declarative Imperative Exclamatory Interrogative

Declarative A declarative sentence makes a statement. It is punctuated by a period. Example: The dog in the neighbor’s yard is barking.

. Imperative Please be quiet. An imperative sentence is a command or polite request. It ends in a period or exclamation mark. Examples: Close the door. (command) Please be quiet. (polite request)

Exclamatory An exclamatory sentence expresses great emotion or excitement. It ends in an exclamation mark. Example: The house is on fire!

Interrogative An interrogative sentence asks a question. Example: It ends in a ?mark. Example: Is it raining?

Now let’s take a pop quiz. You have an answer sheet on which to record your answers. You may use these abbreviations: dec.(declarative), imp.(imper- ative),ex. (exclamatory), int. (interrogative). Have you made a decision yet? The girl in the white jacket is lost. The Bulldogs won the game in the last three minutes! Give me a piece of pizza. I did not finish my homework. Where is my science book? Please come with me to the movies. I made a perfect score on this test! Why is John late for our date? Open your locker immediately.

0-1 mistakes EXCELLENT 2-3 mistakes GOOD 4-5 mistakes FAIR Check your answers… Int Dec Ex Imp In 0-1 mistakes EXCELLENT 2-3 mistakes GOOD 4-5 mistakes FAIR More than 5 mistakes… view slide show again

By using the four types of sentences in your writing, you can make your paragraphs more interesting. Read the sample paragraph below. My favorite type of fast food is pizza. I could eat pizza morning, noon, or night. Pepperoni is my number one choice. I also like double cheese on top. I wish I could order a pizza right now. Boring, right? Let’s see how we can use the four types of sentences and make it more interesting to the reader.

What is your favorite type of fast food. My favorite is pizza What is your favorite type of fast food? My favorite is pizza. I just love pepperoni and double cheese. Sometimes I think I could eat pizza morning, noon and night! All of this talk about pizza is making me hungry. Let’s order a pizza now. This is more interesting, right? In this sample we used the four different types of sentences. They provided emotion, excitement, pizzazz to our paragraph. Now you try. On your worksheet you will find a paragraph consisting of nothing but declarative sentences. Rewrite your paragraph so that you utilize the four types of sentences.

This summer I visited Six Flags Over Texas. Several of my friends went with me. We had lots of fun. There were lots of exciting rides. My favorite was the Titan rollercoaster. It had lots of twists and turns at 90 miles per hour. We rode it at least three times. I would like to visit Six Flags again.

Fragments A SENTENCE FRAGMENT fails to be a sentence in the sense that it cannot stand by itself. It does not contain even one independent clause. There are several reasons why a group of words may seem to act like a sentence but not have the wherewithal to make it as a complete thought.

Examples It may locate something in time and place with a prepositional phrase or a series of such phrases, but it's still lacking a proper subject-verb relationship within an independent clause: In Japan, during the last war and just before the armistice. This sentence accomplishes a great deal in terms of placing the reader in time and place, but there is no subject, no verb. It describes something, but there is no subject-verb relationship: Working far into the night in an effort to salvage her little boat. This is a verbal phrase that wants to modify something, the real subject of the sentence (about to come up), probably the she who was working so hard.

Examples It may have most of the makings of a sentence but still be missing an important part of a verb string: Some of the students working in Professor Espinoza's laboratory last semester. Remember that an -ing verb form without an auxiliary form to accompany it can never be a verb. It may even have a subject-verb relationship, but it has been subordinated to another idea by a dependent word and so cannot stand by itself: Even though he had the better arguments and was by far the more powerful speaker. This sentence fragment has a subject, he, and two verbs, had and was, but it cannot stand by itself because of the dependent word (subordinating conjunction) even though. We need an independent clause to follow up this dependent clause: . . . the more powerful speaker, he lost the case because he didn't understand the jury.