essential & non-essential elements

It’s all about the comma…

# 14 – Essential and non-essential elements Essential element: a part of the sentence

that is necessary to make the meaning clear.

Mr. Miller is one of the teachers who BHS students learn the most from.

The students who take Mr. Hinrichs usually laugh at the way he dresses.

Non-essential element: a phrase or clause that adds information but the sentence makes sense without it.

Mr. Miller , who teaches at BHS, quit his job as a reporter to become a teacher.

All juniors at BHS must register for American Lit , which is required course graduation.

# 14 – Essential and non-essential elements

Let’s practice…

Branford which is between East Haven and Guilford has a population of 29,000 people.

Several sports teams at BHS including field hockey swimming and baseball have won state championships in the last year.

Dr. Higgins the principal of BHS likes to write with a green pen.

More practice…

It’s hard to imagine that summer is here already.

The summer reading assignment that students get in June is the most popular thing about summer

BHS students like most teenagers in America love to read over the summer.

Sentence combining task

Combine the sentence clusters on your handout to create a new paragraph

In your newly created paragraph, use examples of introductory elements

In your newly created paragraph, use examples of essential and non-essential elements

Punctuate all sentences properly

Sentence combining Quiz Mark the examples of 1) introductory elements,

and the 2) essential and 3) non-essential elements

In groups, make sure everyone has completed the task accurately and completely – two examples of each element, for a total of six (6)

Each student will hand in their combined sentences for a quiz grade. Each group member will earn the total score for all quizzes handed in today.