Last updated June 17, 1999
 
Dr. Ed Vavra's KISS Approach to Sentence Structure
Self-Paced Course Main Menu
Exercises for Level Three

If you cannot identify S / V / C patterns (Level Two),
you will suffer major frustration in Level Three.

Directions:

     First, study the instructional material on clauses. Then the directions are always the same:

Note: You will find it much easier if you work your way through the text, one sentence at a time. Do your best with a sentence, then forget it and go on to the next.
1.  Select any exercise. 

2. Place parentheses ( ) around every prepositional phrase. Draw a curved line from each opening paren to the word that the phrase modifies.

3. Underline finite verbs twice, their subjects once. Label complements (PA, PN, IO, DO).

4. Place brackets [ ] around any subordinate clauses. If a subordinate clause functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the opening bracket to the word the clause modifies. If a subordinate clause functions as a noun, label its function (S, PN, DO, OP) above the opening bracket.

5. Place a dark vertical line after the last word in each main clause.

Once you have completed an exercise, go back to the Main Menu of Exercises to get the answer key. (Yes, I have intentionally made it difficult to get to them.) Keep doing these exercises until you get at least two completely (100%) correct. Then you can move on to Level Four.

Begin with some jokes?
(Who says grammar exercises must be boring?)

Joke # 1 Joke # 2 Joke # 3
Joke # 4 Joke # 5 Joke # 6
Joke # 7 Joke # 8 Joke # 9

Try a few of Aesop's Fables?

Fable # 1 Fable # 2 Fable # 3
Fable # 4 Fable # 5 Fable # 6

Opening Paragraphs of Famous Novels

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
Henry James' Daisy Miller
Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina
Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer
 

This border is a reproduction of the lower right quarter of 
    Peter Paul Rubens' 
(Flemish 1577-1640)
The Garden of Love
c. 1630-32, Oil on canvas, Prado, Madrid

Adapted from: Mark Harden's WWW Artchive http://artchive.com/core.html

Click here for the directory of my backgrounds based on art.
[for educational use only]