DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES

Diagrammingsentencesprovidesawayofpicturingthe
structureofasentence.Byplacingthevariouspartsofa
sentenceinrelationtothebasicsubjectverbrelationship,we
canseehowthepartsfittogetherandhowthemeaningofa
sentencebranchesout,justasthebranchesofaplantramify
fromthesteminspaceandtime.Moststudentswhoworkat
diagrammingsentencesderiveaclearerunderstandingofhow
sentencesworkaswellassatisfactioninthepictorial
renderingofsentencestructure.Thispresentationtouches
upononlythebasicsofdiagramming.Usethehyperlinksback
totheGuidetoGrammarandWriting(thiscolor)for
additionalinformation.
CapitalCommunityCollege

DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Webegin,naturally,withtherepresentationofaverysimple
sentence:
Glaciersmelt.
Wewillplacethesubjectverbrelationshiponastraight
horizontalline...
Glaciersmelt
andseparatethesubjectfromitsverbwithashort
verticallineextendingthroughthehorizontalline.
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DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Modifiers(includingarticles)gounderthewordstheymodify
onslantedlines.
Theglacierismeltingslowly.
glacierismelting
Th
slo
wly
e

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DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Adirectobjectfollowstheverbonthehorizontalline;itis
separatedfromtheverbbyaverticallinethatdoesnotgo
throughthehorizontalline.
Theglacierisslowlydestroyingtheforest.
glacierisdestroying
Th
slo
wly
e

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forest
the

DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Predicatenounsandpredicateadjectivesfollowtheverband
areseparatedfromtheverbbyaslantedline.
Theglacierisnotreallydangerous.
glacieris
Th
e

dangerous
rea
no
lly
t

JosiahBudnickisabrilliantprofessor.
JosiahBudnickisprofessor
a
br
il
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lia
nt

DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Withcompoundsubjectsandpredicates,thesentence
diagrambeginstobranchout.
Theprofessorandhercolleaguesarestudyingglaciers
andavalanches.

and

colleagues
her

glaciers

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arestudying

and

professor
Th
e

avalanches

DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Compoundverbsareputonbranchesinasimilarfashion.
Theprofessorandhercolleaguesarestudyingand
classifyingglaciers.

and

colleagues
her

arestudying

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and

professor
Th
e

classifying

glaciers

DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Indirectobjectsarearrangedunderthemainsentenceline.
ProfessorHigginsgaveherstudentstwoprojects.

ProfessorHigginsgaveprojects
tw
o
students
r
he

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DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Prepositionalphrasesarearrangedonbranchesbelowthe
wordstheymodify.
ProfessorHigginsstudiedglaciersinAntarcticaduring
the1950s.

g
rin
du

ProfessorHigginsstudiedglaciers
in
Antarctica
1950s
th
e

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DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Gerundandinfinitivephrasesaredisplayedonstandards
exceptwhentheinfinitiveisamodifier.
Jorgelikestostudyglaciers.

to

studyglaciers

Jorgelikes
Stu
dy ingglaciers
Studyingglaciersisfun.
Hisdecisiontostudyglaciers
wasfortunate.

decisionwasfortunate
to

is
H

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isfun

studyglaciers

DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Therelationshipbetweenclausesin
compoundandcomplexsentencesisshownwithadottedline.
Glaciersarepowerfulforces,buttheymoveveryslowly.
Glaciersareforces
but
theymove
slo
wly
ver
y

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po
we
rfu
l

DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Onelastdiagram:acomplexsentence.
ProfessorHigginsinvitedJorgetotheconferencebecause
hehadwrittenthebestresearchpaper.

be
ca

e
th

use

ProfessorHigginsinvitedJorge
to
conference

hehadwrittenpaper
ar
se
re
st
be

e
th

ch

CapitalCommunityCollege

DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Besuretoreviewtherestofthematerialon
DIAGRAMMINGSENTENCESintheGuidetoGrammar
andWriting.Soon,youwillbediagrammingsentencesinyour
sleepandbetheenvyoftheentireneighborhood!Asawriter,
youwillbesurprisedattheadditionalconfidenceyougainby
masteringthesevisualrenderingsofsentencepatterns.

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DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES

This PowerPoint presentation was created by

Charles Darling, PhD
Professor of English and Webmaster
Capital Community College
Hartford, Connecticut
copyright November 1999

CapitalCommunityCollege