87 Section 4.1 Sentences Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Sentence Structure Sentences are structured as simple sentences, compound sentences, or complex sentences. A simple sentence has one independent clause and no dependent clauses. It often contains one or more phrases. The subject or predicate of a simple sentence can be compound. The first example has a compound subject. The second example has a compound predicate. Paula and Jan ate lunch in the cafeteria. Alberto will ride his bike this afternoon and swim tomorrow. The cart rolled down the narrow, winding road. Julie is an administrative assistant. A compound sentence has two independent clauses joined by a conjunction, such as and or but. Examples of compound sentences are as follows. Paula ate lunch in the cafeteria, and Kim ate lunch in the park. Aman invited me to study with him, but I had other plans. A heavy rain fell, and the game was delayed. Complex sentences have an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. Examples of complex sentences are as follows. The first example has one independent clause (shown in italics) and one dependent clause. The second example has one independent clause (shown in italics) and two dependent clauses. When you write a business letter, you should use clear and concise language. Mrs. Parsons, who lives on Maple Street, complained about the noise, which was keeping her awake at night. A sentence that has two independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses is called a compound-complex sentence (or a complex- compound sentence). Examples of compound-complex sentences are as follows. Mrs. Parsons complained about the noise, which was keeping her awake at night, but the police officer did not file a report. Whenever she dines at a restaurant, she orders a salad, and this helps her stay healthy. When writing business documents, varying the type and length of the sentences you use can make the message more interesting. Your goal is to make the message flow smoothly from one thought to the next and be easy to understand. Using too many short sentences can make the message seem choppy with disconnected thoughts. Using too many long, complex sentences can make the message difficult to understand. Reading level is a measure of the difficulty of a written message. It is often correlated to a grade or age range. Readability is a measure of whether the document is easy to read. You can use the spelling- and grammar- checking features of a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word, to see the readability statistics of a passage, as shown in Figure 4-3. In this example, one paragraph contains four sentences.