2. Elements of a sentence - SVO
Course objective :
1) to appreciate the basic elements – Subject (S),
Object (O) and Verb (V) – that make up a
sentence,
2) to understand the importance of these
elements and,
3) to modify sentences by adding to these
elements so as to give your stories greater
readability.
3. Elements of a sentence - SVO
Have you ever wondered:
1) why some sentences are so memorable?
2) why you are kept glued to a book as the
hours pass by?
3) why your sentences seem flat and
uninteresting and,
4) you know that there are better ways of
phrasing your ideas but you do not know
quite how?
These and more of these questions will be
answered in this lesson!
4. Elements of a sentence - SVO
In any complete sentence, there is always a
subject, object and a verb.
Subject – the most important or key
idea/state/quality/character in a sentence.
Object – is an object the subject is interacting
with. It could be an item/state/quality or
another character.
Verb – To express the action that the subject
has taken in relation to the object.
5. Elements of a sentence - SVO
1) “Quickly, Ben learns that he can
manipulate this device and harness the
DNA of one of the 10 aliens like 'Fourarms'.”
2) “Naruto's fortunes began to change
when he learnt that the Nine-Tailed
Demon Fox was within him.”
What are the subject, object and verb in each
of the above sentences?
6. Elements of a sentence - SVO
If you remembered your earlier flash card, the
answers for the two sentences would be:
Subject (most important) :
1) Ben / 2) Naruto
Object (focus of the subject) :
1) device / 2) Nine-tailed Demon Fox
Verb (the action the subject is taking) :
1) manipulate / 2) change
7. It's easy, isn't it?
There you go!
It was not difficult to understand 3 elements
of SVO in a sentence.
With the understanding of SVO, you can then
modify them to enhance your sentences as
long as they have these basic 3 elements.
8. Improving sentences
For e.g., let's take a simple sentence with all the
3 elements of SVO - “Ben changed into
Fourarms.”
Using Adverbs:
Instantly, Ben changed into Fourarms.
Using Adjectives:
Instantly, Ben changed into the fearsome
Fourarms .
Using Conjunctions:
Instantly, Ben changed into the fearsome
Fourarms and beat the living daylights out of his
enemies.
9. Improving sentences
This is the trick that all writers use when
giving their writing a greater depth or
meaning.
Good writers ensure that they have the basic
elements of SVO inside their sentences and
then use ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS or
CONJUNCTIONS (and sometimes, all three)
to enhance them!
10. It's cool, isn't it?
Like Ben and Naruto, it's cool to change the
original (sentence) into as many different
forms as you like.
You don't have any 'enemy' to beat but you
sure are going to enjoy writing so much more!
11. In Summary
You can improve on your writing by
understanding the basic elements of SVO in
your sentences.
Once you have the basic elements, you can
modify them through:
Adjectives, Adverbs or Conjunctions for
greater readability.
Practice makes perfect; the more you write,
the better you will be in enhancing your
sentences.
