Advanced Topics
In a nutshell: Knowing sentence types helps you write clearly and avoid common mistakes.
## Building Better Sentences
Understanding sentence structure helps you write and recognize clear, varied sentences.
### Types of Sentences
- **Simple Sentence:** One independent clause.
She reads every night.
- **Compound Sentence:** Two independent clauses joined by a conjunction.
She reads every night, and she writes in her journal.
- **Complex Sentence:** One independent clause and at least one dependent clause.
Because she loves stories, she reads every night.
### Avoiding Run-ons and Fragments
- Run-on: Two sentences joined incorrectly.
She reads every night she writes in her journal.
- Fragment: An incomplete sentence.
Because she loves stories.
## Practice
Mix up your sentence types to make your writing more interesting!
Examples
- I finished my homework, and I played soccer.
- Although it was raining, we went outside.
Key terms
- Independent Clause
- A group of words that can stand alone as a sentence.
- Dependent Clause
- A group of words that cannot stand alone and depends on the main clause.