Strategy Chosen: Structural Analysis I decided to try breaking sentences down into their building blocks (Independent and Dependent clauses) instead of just reading them for meaning. When I saw long sentences, I looked for "marker words" like after, but, and because to see how the ideas were connected.
Did it work? Yes! It made it much easier to tell the difference between a Complex sentence and a Compound sentence. Instead of guessing, I could see exactly how many complete thoughts were in the sentence. It also helped me see where to put commas.
New concepts learned:
Independent Clause – A group of words with a subject and verb that can stand alone as a complete thought.
Dependent Clause – A group of words that has a subject and verb but starts with a word (like "after") that makes it an unfinished thought.
Compound-Complex Sentence – A "heavyweight" sentence that has at least two independent thoughts and one dependent thought.
I will definitely keep using this strategy to improve my writing and punctuation!