Lesson 6 — Activity 2: Kinds of Sentences


Writing a thank you note is an occasion to use complete sentences.
It may not be as important to use a complete sentence when you are talking to or texting a friend.

But there are times when you should use complete sentences. 
And there are times when you might need to be able to use a variety of types of complete sentences correctly.


Here are some of those times.


When you are writing:

  • a letter to apply for a job
  • a speech to a group of people such as a meeting or a celebration such as a wedding or graduation
  • a report for a class assignment
  • a thank you letter following a job interview
  • a letter of complaint to a company about a product that does not work correctly
  • a PowerPoint presentation or other multimedia message
Giving a speech is another occasion to use complete sentences correctly.


For these kinds of situations, it is important to communicate your message well.

You know that a very simple sentence can be written with one word as the subject and one word as the predicate.

But what would it sound like if you were to write a report or a letter using only two-word sentences?

The explorer sailed.     I ate.     I watched.     
I read.     I whispered.     I slept.       


Even though you are expressing a complete idea, there is not any variety or details added.

That is why you should try to add information using other parts of speech. Then you will add to the basic information and make your sentences much more detailed and interesting, as in the sentence below.

The explorer sailed for many months and then discovered a new land.





Click here to watch the Learn Alberta video Identifying Sentence Types to learn more about writing good sentences.





Go to the next page to try a Self-check Activity to practise identifying complete and incomplete sentences.