compund sentences

i really hope that my last post helped at least a few of you guys write your essays. if it didn't, i'm terribly sorry. so today, i would like to continue about sentence structure, more specifically COMPOUND sentences. it's a little tricky so read carefully in order to understand.

generally, a compound sentence is a combination of two or more simple sentences or even complex sentences (we'll go through complex later). here's the tricky part; the sentences MUST both be independent clauses making statements, questions or commands. so to be a little more specific, a compound sentence is a sentence which contains two or more INDEPENDENT CLAUSES.

so what are independent clauses? they are sentences that can stand on its own. in other words, they are complete sentences which can be understood.
example of a complete sentence: i lack confidence.
example of an incomplete sentence: i lack. (hence, cannot be considered as an independent clause)

back to the main topic of this post, compound sentences are sentences which contains two or more independent clauses joined together by coordinators. coordinators are easy to remember if you remember this acronym. FANBOYS. For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet and So. these coordinators act as a bridge between two seperate independent clauses.

example A:

1. Mr. Firdaus sent a bouquet of roses to Mrs. Haziah, FOR she has stolen his heart.
2. Mrs. Haziah has stolen Mr. Firdaus's heart, SO he sent a bouquet of roses to her.

from these two examples, there are three main points that i would like to highlight.

FIRSTLY, you can now see the usage of coordinators (for, so) in compound sentences.

SECONDLY, in both sentences, u can see the common arrangement of subject (mr. firdaus, mrs. haziah), followed by a verb (sent, stolen), thus continued with a comma and the coordinator as a bridge in the middle of the sentences. *note that commas are only used in long compound sentences*

THIRDLY, choice of coordinators directly affects the meaning of the sentence. in the A(1) example, the coordinator FOR gives the information that the event of Mrs. Haziah stealing Mr. Firdaus's heart occurs first although it is written in the 2nd independent clause. In the A(2) example, the coordinator SO shows that due to the event of Mrs. Haziah stealing Mr. Firdaus's heart, hence Mr. Firdaus sends her a bouquet of roses.

example B

1. Syahmi did his Biolody homework AND Hafizi did his Chemistry homework.
2. Bella did not see the frog on the floor, NOR did she intentionally step on it.
3. Wafi has a serious face, BUT he also has a great sense of humour.
4. Would you like an ice cream OR a cotton candy?
5. The water tank seems so peaceful YET haunting to look at.

AND of example B(1) simply connects independent clauses.

the coordinator in example B(2) which is NOR is considered as a paired conjuction, as it is usually paired as 'not...nor'. it represents a negative idea. other examples of paired conjuctions are:

both..and
either..or
neither..nor
not..but
not only..but also
whether..or

in example B(3), the word BUT combines statements that are quite contrast or contradict one another.
in example B(4), the coordinator OR allows us to write different choices in a sentence.
last but not least, YET in example B(5) is somewhat similar to BUT or nevertheless.

i hope this post about compound sentences will at least improve your writing in English a bit, if not much. if there are any enquiries about this topic or if it is quite hard to truly understand, feel free to ask anytime for further enlightenment. =)

as fellow emc's, the pleasure is ours =D