Writing may be a demanding communication task which is no less than others but it isn't compulsory that you master the whole grammatical aspects before you start it. In fact, nobody has ever been able to master every grammatical aspects, esp., before they start writing.
This writing pro agenda, if followed adequately and patiently studied to great understanding, will help you from a very beginner to someone who feels comfortable and natural while writing.
If you want to be a good writer, you need to learn the basics of sentence structure which is what this piece will show you now.
What's sentence? It is a complex combination of different grammatical elements <subject, predicate, complement, object and adjunct> to make a whole. They are written like: SV(COA) as in subject, verb, complement, object and adjunct. Others are in bracket because they are optional, not actually important. Once you have a subject and a verb, it's a complete sentence already. Ex.: Jesus died. You may find the verb referred to as predicate in some texts but you must also know that in a sentence, every element after the subject is predicate. See this: Kate... Subject / became a good mountain climber... Predicate.
What! If you feel the elements are strange to your hearing, don't freak out because you will understand everything about them this particular minute.
The subject> this is the doer/performer of an action in sentence. Ex.: Freya scrambled along. Can you identify the subject in the above sentence? Freya! Yes, it's Freya!
OK, now that you have understood the subject, let's see what others look like.
Verb/Predicator can indicate action, as in jump or state of being, as in are. Ex.: he killed the rat. They are soldiers. "Killed" and "are" in the above sentences indicate action and state of being respectively. The latter is called state of being verb because it tells you the position of the subject they. Our grammarian agenda explains more about verb, find it in the post list.
Complement which means addition, that is, telling you more about an element in the sentence, can be in two forms. Mind you, the complement should be placed as close as possible to what it complements. The two forms are: subject complement (Cs) or object complement (Co). See examples below:
Freya is the mob that slapped the fat chap.
They gave alms to Mrs Stone, a widow. In the examples, the mob is a subject complement because it tells you more about the subject, Freya while a widow is an object complement because it tells you more about the object, Mrs Stone.
Object in a sentence can either be a receiver or what is received in a case where the object is more than one. Ex.: she slapped the man.
I gave him some amount of money. Here, the man in the first example is an object because he receives the slap but in the second example, both receiver and what is received are objects. Since there are now two objects, one is a direct object (Od) while the other is an indirect object (Oi). The direct, now, is some amount of money while him , the receiver, is the indirect object. Have you understood the scope? When you have two objects, the receiver will be the INDIRECT while what is received/given will be the DIRECT.
Adjunct, according to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, is an adverb or a phrase that adds to the meaning of a sentence . Saw the italised word? Yes, sentence. The adjunct adds to the meaning of a sentence while object and complement add to the meaning of an element or two. Examples of adjunct: she went home yesterday.
He ran away in a panic. Can you identify the adjuncts in the examples above? Yesterday , in the first sentence, is the adjunct there. It indicates time. in a panic in the second example is its own adjunct which indicates the manner in which he ran. You can learn more about the behaviour of adverb from our grammarian agenda.
Lastly, you must know that sentence structure does not, every time, necessitates the subject as the beginner of a sentence. Sometimes, we can have the subject at the end of a sentence, esp., in a passive voice statement. Ex.: he was awarded the best student by Cambridge school authority in 1967. If you study the sentence closely, you'll realise that the subject isn't he but Cambridge school authority because it performs the action. He being the INDIRECT OBJECT while the award, best student is the DIRECT OBJECT. Awarded is the predicator/verb while in 1967 is the adjunct.
Again, you must have noticed there's no complement, remember it's stated that (COA) are optional. Your subject and a verb or predicator make a sentence already. Also you must know that the most important element in a sentence structure is the verb, as it can simply be referred to as a sentence, esp., in directive/command mood. Ex.: go!