13 Putting It All Together

Now that you can find the subject and verb in a sentence, we return to the last of the three requirements of a sentence: it must express a complete thought.

This idea is challenging, because “complete” is difficult to describe. Identifying the completeness of a sentence is a matter of feel and instinct. The more you read, the stronger your instincts will be.

I can offer a few pieces of advice, though, to help you get used to identifying complete thoughts.

First, complete does not mean perfectly clear. Plenty of sentences might leave you with questions, like this one here:

He lifted it.

Lifted what? Who is “he”? We might be asking these questions, but this sentence is complete. As readers, we might want the writer to write a new sentence to answer these questions, but we aren’t waiting for the author to finish this thought.

Now let’s look at another group of words.

Just as David lifted up his fork

As you read that, my hope is that you’ll be saying to yourself, “Well, what happened just as David lifted up his fork? Finish that thought!” This group of words is not a complete thought. The writer has set up an idea by giving us context, but they haven’t finished this idea by telling us what happens.

In my experience, this last aspect of completeness can be challenging, so let’s get some practice.