The practice exercises on this page are designed to help you understand the concepts in this section more fully. These include a set of interactive exercises and a set of more complex exercises. For those looking for more samples to review, you can go to the ANALYZING EXAMPLES page.

The table below contains the interactive exercises for Section 6, covering the key concepts. Each exercise will open a new tab.

Please review the INTERACTIVE ANSWERS page for explanations of select interactive exercises.

Below are two practice exercises that are more complex:

Exercise 1

Using the following sentences adapted from Judith Freeman’s The Long Embrace, 1) punctuate the sentence correctly using the 11 rules for punctuation, and 2) explain your punctuation choices with reference to the rules. DO NOT add words or periods to the sentences; each sentence can be punctuated as a single unit.

1. War broke out and he and Cissy continued their pattern of moving constantly from place to place.
2. My reaction may be uncharitable they just make me sick.
3. The next morning I took a taxi to the Church of the Transfiguration at Fifth Avenue and Twenty-ninth Street also known as The Little Church Around the Corner wher Cissy Hurlburt had married Leon Brown Porcher in December 1897.
4. She was often ill suffering from bronchitis and pneumonia no doubt she had been a lifelong smoker and he began going out in the evening without her.
5. Not willing to accept this situation Ray who had no doubt been drinking went into the bedroom and tried to pull Mrs. Philleo out of bed.
6. Natasha met Raymond Chandler in April 1955 a few months after Cissy’s death and a few weeks after Chandler distraught over his loss had tried to commit suicide.
7. Ray worked a little longer in Hollywood trying to adapt his novel Lady in the Lake for the screen but he got disgusted with the project and he walked.
8. Bogart had a sense of humor that fit with Marlowe.
9. The last time I visited the house holes had begun appearing in the floor here and there Kevin cutting through the wood to check the state of the foundation.
10. Neil Morgan the young journalist who worked for the San Diego Tribune had become one of Ray’s closest friends.

Exercise 2

Analyze the following passage adapted from The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan:

An important theme of this book is that the way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world. As we eat every day, we transform nature into culture by transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds. Agriculture has transformed the world, through changes to both landscapes and flora and fauna.  Our eating also constitutes a relationship with dozens of other species with which we have coevolved to the point that our fates our deeply entwined. Many of these species have evolved expressly to gratify our desires, in the intricate dance of domestication that has allowed us and them to prosper together as we never could have prospered apart. But our relationship with the wild species that we eat—from the mushrooms we pick in the forest to the yeasts that leaven our bread—are no less compelling, and far more mysterious. Eating puts us in touch with all that we share with other animals, and all that sets us apart. It defines us.

• Identify all sentences as simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex
• Assign a Clause Type to each clause

Consult the COMPLEX ANSWERS page to review your understanding of the concepts in this section.