Non-essential Elements

Mom, guess what?!What, dear?

I know how to use and correctly punctuate non-essential elements!

Oh baby, I’m so proud of you!

What the @%#^ is a non-essential element?

• A word, phrase, or clause that adds information to a sentence, but is not important to understanding the main thought.

• Cannot act alone

• Often needs to latch onto the main clause with a comma

Names

• Mr. Salyer, why does your car smell like cat poop?

• Why does your car smell like cat poop, Mr. Salyer?

Transitions

• For example,• Additionally,• Furthermore,• Secondly,• However,• Therefore,• Next,• Lastly,• Consequently,

Participial phrases

• A phrase that includes a verbal and functions as an adjective.

• The verb ends in ING or ED

• Some past tense verbs are irregular and don’t end in ED

• I can’t wait until the weekend.

Examples! Heck yeah!

• Tired from playing Clash of Clans all night, Mr. Salyer took a nap during lunch.

• Mr. Salyer, tired from playing Clash of Clans all night, took a nap during lunch.

• Mr. Salyer took a nap during lunch, tired from playing clash of clans all night.

• However…• Maria risked petting the pit bull wagging its tail.

Appositive phrase• A noun phrase that rename another noun BESIDE IT

• Dylan, a skilled pokemon trainer, defeated Blastoise with his Charmander.

• A skilled pokemon trainer, Dylan defeated Blastoise with his Charmander.

• (WRONG!!!) Dylan defeated Blastoise with his Pikachu, a skilled pokemon trainer.

• (Right!!!) There is much we can learn from Dylan, a skilled pokemon trainer.

Relative clause

• A dependent clause that begins with a relative pronoun (who, whom, whose, that, which) or relative adverb (when, where, why) and acts as an ADJECTIVE. Similar to an appositive.

Examples! Bring’em on!

• Mr. Salyer, who was a four time All-Ohioan in cross country and track, is now a washed-up, lazy bum who sits on his sorry but all day playing CoC.

• Mr. Salyer’s E-day assignment, which was a bunch of bull $#!+ because he required two quote options, took me four hours to complete.

• I can’t stand Mr. Salyer, who is one of those teachers who thinks his class is the only one I’m taking.

Prepositional Phrase

• A phrase that begins with a preposition.• Prepositions give information about time,

movement, and location.

• In about an hour, I’m going to rush back to my house to play Mario Kart.

• I’m going to rush back to my house in about an hour to play Mario Kart.

Infinitive Phrase

• A phrase that begins with the verb “to” and is followed by a verb.

• To avoid burning another bag of popcorn, Brendan pressed his nose against the microwave door, sniffing suspiciously.

• Those basketball shoes, to be perfectly honest, do not complement the suit you are planning to wear to the interview.

• Janice and her friends went to the mall to flirt with the cute guys who congregate at the food court.

Your turn!

• These concepts won’t make sense unless you start incorporating them into your own writing.

• Quiz…why is there no comma after the word “sense”?

Answer

• Independent clause followed by dependent clause

• Could reverse it (Dependent COMMA Independent)

• Unless you start incorporating these concepts into your own writing, these concepts won’t make sense.

• Write 3 participial sentences– Modified word close to phrase (beginning, middle)– Determine if comma needed at end

• Write 3 appositive sentences– Make sure word being renamed is close to phrase

• Write 3 infinitive sentences– Won’t need comma if it comes at end

• Write 3 relative clause sentences– Who for person and which for object

• Write 2 prepositional sentences (Beginning and end)– Need comma if comes at beginning