UNIT 3 – SENTENCE AND PARAGRAPH

A learner’s knowledge on correct construction of sentence and paragraph is essential in technical writing;
therefore, it is necessary that the basic concepts in constructing a sentence and paragraph are mastered.
One’s knowledge in sentence and paragraph is an important factor in writing. In many cases, technical
writers have brilliant ideas but putting these ideas into grammatically correct sentences and paragraph is
often the deterring factor. Thus, it is necessary that a writer should have exemplary grammar skills.
The Sentence
A sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought or idea. A complete sentence is made up of
a subject and a predicate.
Subject: the topic of the sentence; tells who is spoken of; a noun or a pronoun
Predicate: talks about the subject; talks about what the subject is doing; a verb
Four Kinds of Sentence According to Structure
A. Simple Sentence
A group of word that can stand alone and gives a complete thought. It has two basic
parts: one subject and one predicate.
B. Compound Sentence
This is a sentence consisting of two, or more independent clauses or simple sentence
joined by a semi-colon, coma, or a coordination conjunction.
Clause: A group of words that contain a verb and its subject. A clause that can stand alone is
called independent clause. A clause that does not express a complete thought and cannot stand by
itself is called a dependent clause.
C. Complex Sentence
This is a sentence containing one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
D. Compound-Complex Sentence
Contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.
Four Kinds of Sentence According to Function
1. Declarative Sentence – A sentence that states an idea and ends with a period.
2. Interrogative Sentence – A sentence that asks a question and ends with a question mark.
3. Imperative Sentence – A sentence that gives an order or direction and ends with a period or
exclamation mark.
4. Exclamatory Sentence – A sentence that conveys emotions and ends in an exclamation mark.
Spelling
Spelling is very important part of police report writing. Below are commonly misspelled words. Take
time to study them so that you can write these words correctly in your police reports.

absence accommodate achieve acquire across

beginning believe business basically breathe
ceiling chief convenience criticize colleague
disappear discipline dilemma disappoint defense
embarrass equipped exaggerate excellent excited
foreign forty friend fluorescent Fahrenheit
 guarantee generally government gist guidance
heroes humorous happiness harass honorary
immediately incidentally interfere interruption irrelevant
judgment jealous justice journey jewel
knowledge kindle knot kitchen knelt
liaison length lying lesson loneliness
miniature mysterious millennium marriage mathematics
necessary noticeable neighbor naturally neither
omission ought occasion occurred optimism
possession preferred pavilion perceive persuade
quiet quarrel quick quite queue
rhythm recommend receive referring remember
siege supersede successful scissors strength
through thorough truly tomorrow tongue
unusual usurp unfortunately unforeseen usually
village vicious virtuous viceroy villain
weird waste wholly width wrist
xerox x-ray xylitol
yield yacht yelp yoghurt youngsters
zealous zany zest zillion zonal

Commonly Misused Words

Selecting words is an important step in developing a clear, concise, direct writing style. Since words are
combined to form phrases, phrases to sentence, sentences to paragraphs, then selection of words are very
vital.
Accept and Except: Accept is used as a verb meaning to receive while except is a verb meaning to
exclude. Except is also used as a preposition meaning other than.
Advice and Advise: Advice is a noun which means counsel or information. Advise, a verb, means to
counsel.
Already and All ready: Already means by this time; All ready means completely ready.
Altogether and All together: Altogether is an adverb meaning completely and all together is and adjective
phrase meaning in a group.
Between and Among: Both are prepositions but between refers to a space or relationship of two persons
or things while among refers to three or more persons or things.
Illegible and Ineligible: Both are adjectives. Illegible means unreadable and ineligible means not
qualified.
Imply and Infer: Imply means to suggest and infer means to conclude.
Lie and Lay: Lie means to rest or to recline; lay means to put or place (something down). The past tense
of lie is lay while lay is laid.
Stationary and Stationery: Stationary means fixed in position while stationery is a writing paper.
Their, There and They’re: There is an expletive, there is the possessive form of they and there is the
contracted form of they are.
Uninterested and Disinterested: Both are adjectives. Uninterested means without interest or indifferent.
On the other hand, disinterested means having no desire for personal gain or impartial.

Your and You’re: Your implies possession of something while you’re is the contracted form of you are.
Redundancies
One way to achieve effective police report writing is to eliminate the use of repetitious expressions. These
expressions are not necessary because it adds nothing to what has already been stated. In some instances,
efficient use of key words and sentence structures can facilitate clear connections in writing.
The focus of the police report writing is to remove needless repetition such as redundant words that make
writing longer and vaguer, not better.

(absolutely) essential add (up) (annual) anniversary autobiography (of his or

her own life)
(brief) summary blend (together) (basic) necessities (burning) embers
(careful) scrutiny (closed) fist (completely) filled confused (state)
descend (down) (different) kinds depreciate (in value) during (the course of)
(fellow) classmates (final) conclusion (frozen) ice (future) plans
GRE (exam) gather (together) green (in color) (general) public
HIV (virus) hurry (up) had done (previously) (harmful) injuries
(ir)regardless illustrated (drawing) incredible (to believe) integrate (together)
Capitalization
1. Capitalize the beginning of every sentence.
2. Capitalize proper nouns:
a. Persons

Prof. Eric P. Paligat PSupt Serafin F. Petalio II, DSC

Gen. Danilo S. Constantino Dr. Dina S. Ocampo
Lt. Gen. Saturnino M. Aguda Col. Juan C. Dela Cruz
b. Places:
a. Continents – Southeast Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa, North America
b. Countries – Philippines, Singapore, Japan, USA, Thailand
c. Regions – National Capital Region, Cordillera Administrative Region
d. Provinces – Ilocos Sur, Apayao, Benguet, Nueva Vizcaya
e. Cities – Baguio City, Calamba City, Quezon City
f. Municipalities – Dupax del Norte, Kasibu, Bayombong, Bambang
g. Barangays – Bitnong, Molave, Oyao, Munguia, Belance, Macabenga
h. Subdivisions – Villa de Calamba Subdivision, Maquiling Subdivision
i. Street/Avenues – Rizal Street, Taft Avenue, P. Gomez Street
c. Specific entities:
a. Organizations – Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines
b. Departments – Department of Justice, Department of National Defense
c. Historical Events – People Power Revolution, Independence Day
d. Special Events – Christmas Day, Mother’s Day, New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day
e. Days/Months – Monday, Tuesday, January, February
 f. Courses/Subjects – Technical Report Writing, Correctional Administration
g. Nationalities – Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, American, African
h. Acronyms – NAPOLCOM, PAG-IBIG, DEPED, NUVELCO, BJMP
i. Proper Adjectives – American bread, Ilocano food, Japanese movie
Punctuation Marks
These are standard signs and symbols in writing to separate words into sentences, clause and phrases.
These will help the readers understand the writing because he will know where to pause, where to stop,
what to stress and what feelings are conveyed by the author.
1. Period (.)
a. The period is an end punctuation which marks the stop of a complete thought.
b. It is also used to end an abbreviation and to serve as decimal points for figures.
c. It is placed within the quotation marks even when it is not part of the quoted material.
d. It is used with numerals and letters in outlines and vertical lists.
2. Comma (,)
a. The comma separates dependent clauses or appositive phrases.
b. It separates items or elements in a series.
c. It separates introductory phrases and clauses from the main sentence.
d. It is a convention in dates, numbers, addresses, informal salutations, and title or degrees.
3. Colon (:)
a. The colon is a convention in formal salutations, citations, time and title.
4. Semi-Colon (;)
a. It separates independent clauses that are closely related to each other.
b. It is used in place of the comma in an enumeration where each item is rather long.
5. Hyphen (-)
a. It is used to break a word at the end if a line and carry the rest of the word to the next line.
The break must come between syllables.
b. It is used in words beginning with self.
c. It is used to link two or more words modifying a noun.
6. Apostrophe (‘)
a. It shows possession.
b. It is used to replace the missing letters in contractions.
Reminder: In technical writing, contractions are not allowed.
7. Question Mark (?)
It ends a sentence that asks a question.
8. Exclamation Point (!)
In technical writing, this should be used sparingly. The exclamation point follows a statement
which expresses strong emotion.
9. Quotation Marks (“”)
It indicates the exact words someone has said.
10. Ellipsis (…)
This shows hesitation or omission of letters or words.
11. Parenthesis (())
It adds information.
12. Dash (--)
It is a mark that abruptly separates items. It often replaces the comma or parentheses.
 13. Slash (/)
The slash separates elements in dates, indicates a fraction and replaces “per”.
Run-on Sentences
Run-on Sentences are two complete sentences but they are incorrectly punctuated. These sentences are
misleading to the readers because there is no clear direction as to where the first idea ends, and the next
idea begins.
Run-on sentences are of two types: the fused sentence and the comma splice. Fused sentences are two
sentences fused together without any punctuations or connectors. A comma splice on the other hand, are
two sentenced joined together by a comma.
Methods on Correcting Run-on Sentences:
1. Put a period after the first sentence to create two complete sentences.
2. Combine the two sentences by using a comma and a conjunction.
3. Break the two sentences by using a semi-colon or by using any subordinating conjunction or
conjunctive adverbs.
Parallel Structures
These are structures or sentence elements having uniform grammatical function. These structures are
presented in the same grammatical form. For sentences to be parallel, the words should parallel with
words, verbs with verbs, nouns with nouns, phrases with phrases, and clauses with clauses.
Series Patterns of Parallel Structures
1. Series of Adjectives
2. Series of Pronouns
3. Series of Infinitives
4. Series of Gerunds
5. Series of Verbs
Dangling Modifiers
A sentence is said to have dangling modifiers when the modifier is misplaced or attached with the wrong
word. When a sentence has a dangling modifier, it will take on an unintended meaning and will cause
confusion because it does not describe the words that the writer intends to describe.
Methods on Correcting Dangling Modifiers:
1. Specify and state the subject or doer of the action.
2. Correct the dangling phrase; make it a complete clause, and state the subject/doer of the action.
3. Fuse together the phrase and the clause, and create a single sentence.
Subject-Verb Agreement
As a general rule, the verb of the sentence must always agree with the subject in person and in number.
1. A compound subject joined by “and” usually takes a plural verb.
 A compound subject joined by “and” may require a singular verb when this subject is thought as
a single unit.
2. Prepositional phrases or intervening phrases that come after the subject do not affect the number
of the subject.
 3. Singular indefinite pronouns like anyone, everyone, somebody, each, neither and the like require
singular verb.
4. Plural indefinite pronouns like few, many, both, several and the like require plural verb.
5. Nouns that are plural in form but singular in meaning take a singular verb. E.g., Physics,
Mathematics, news, measles, aeronautics, aerobics, economics, trousers, gymnastics and ethics.
6. The personal pronoun “you” always take a plural verb.
7. If the subject is joined by “either … or”, or “neither … nor”, the verb agrees with the nearer
subject.
8. “The number” takes a singular verb while “a number” takes a plural verb.
9. Time expressions, monetary expression and units of measurements always take singular verb.
10. Nouns that are always plural in form take a plural verb unless these nouns are preceded by a
quantifier, then it takes a singular verb.
11. After the expletive “there”, the verb agrees with the subject that comes after the verb.
12. Adjectives used as subjects take plural verb.
13. A collective noun usually takes plural verb.
*A collective noun requires a plural verb when the sentence refers to the individual members that
compose the noun.
Use a singular verb if the subject us the name of the book, literary work, magazine, newspaper
and the like.
The Paragraph
A paragraph is a brief composition having only one main thought or idea. It is a group of related
sentences developing into one topic, or with a specific part of a longer composition or a larger topic.
A paragraph is composed of a topic sentence and supporting details. A topic sentence contains the main
idea or thought of the composition. On the other hand, the supporting details substantiate or help develop
the main idea expressed in the topic sentence.
Paragraph Unity: A paragraph is considered to be unified when all of its supporting details relate to the
main topic.
Transitional Markers
Transitional markers are considered as aid to the readers because its main purpose is to help readers
comprehend the relationship of thoughts, and how these thoughts are connected smoothly in the
paragraph.
List of Common Transitional Markers

Addition Again, also, and, as well as, further, furthermore, in addition, likewise, moreover,
next, similarly
Cause Because, for, for this reason, since
Chronology Briefly, after, always, at last, before, in the meantime, meanwhile, next, soon,
suddenly
Comparison All, and, as, both, like, similarly
Conclusion Finally, hence, so, therefore, thus, to conclude
Contrast Despite, although, but, conversely, however, even so, difference, nevertheless
Effect As a result, consequently, for that reason, effect, hence, so, then, therefore, thus
Emphasis Above all, especially, indeed, in fact
Example For example, for instance, in other words, specifically, such as, to illustrate
Importance Finally, first, last, least, next, primarily
List Finally, first, furthermore, last, moreover, next, second, third
Repetition Again, as stated before, in summary, to reiterate, to repeat
Summary Finally, in brief, in short, on the whole, overall