Lesson 2: Reading Well

Skill Lessons

Subjects and Predicates

Sentences that are complete are made up of two major parts: a subject and a predicate. When you read a sentence, try to pick out the person or thing that the sentence is mainly about. You have just found the subject. After you have found the person or thing the sentence is about, try to pick out the part of the sentence that describes what happened to that person or thing. You have just found the predicate.

Most of the time, the subject is the first part of the sentence, and the predicate is the last part. This is the most common sentence pattern found in English. Look at the sentence below:

The Arabian horse galloped across the pasture as the storm approached.

“Horse” is the simple subject. The simple subject is just the someone or something, without all the words that describe or tell more about it. The verb is the word that shows action in the predicate. In the sentence above, the simple verb is “galloped.” It shows the action that the horse is doing. You will learn more about verbs in a later lesson.

The complete subject is all of the words in the subject part of the sentence. The complete predicate is all of the words in the predicate part of a sentence. No word in the sentence should be left out if you are finding the complete subject and the complete predicate. In the sentence above, “The Arabian horse” is the complete subject, and “galloped across the pasture as the storm approached” is the complete predicate.

Sometimes you may be able to find the predicate (action) but you may not be able to find the subject. Look at the sentence below.

Jump over the stream.

In this sentence, the verb is “jump.” Ask yourself “Who jumps?” In this case, the subject is what we call the understood subject (“you”). In an imperative sentence, one that gives directions, the subject is often understood rather than stated.

Self-Check: Copy the following sentences in your journal or onto a piece of notebook paper. In each sentence, draw a line between the complete subject and the complete predicate. Then underline the simple subject once and underline the simple verb twice. When you are finished, check your answers.

1. The skiers raced down the snowy mountain toward the line of trees.
2. One skier broke his pole on the way down.
3. The winner of the race wore a red helmet and a blue jacket.
4. Snow covered the slopes early that next morning.
5. Go get your ski equipment.

Now try writing five sentences of your own, then identify the complete subject and complete predicate in each. If you have both of these parts, you will probably not have a sentence fragment. Share your work with your parent/teacher.

Using an Index

When you are working on a skill lesson, you might need to refer to Writers Express for an explanation. To keep from having to flip through the whole book to find what you need, you can use a handy part of the book called the index. An index is found at the end of a resource book and will keep you from having to search through a book to find exactly the information you are looking for.

An index is arranged alphabetically by topic. It is different from a table of contents, which is arranged according to the sequence of major topics in the book. Many times, a topic you’re looking for will not have a chapter all to itself and will be hard to find using the table of contents. If you are not already familiar with using an index, take a moment to look at all the different information Writers Express lists in the index. You can even find information on using an index in the index! Find the entry for “index” on page 495 of Writers Express. It will refer you to page 262.

When you finish this lesson, you are ready to take the progress evaluation. Follow the Center’s directions for completion of progress evaluations. This progress evaluation is computer-scored and covers lesson 1 and lesson 2.