Grammar Exercise #2: Recognizing Independent Clauses and Dependent Clauses

  

Independent clauses and dependent clauses both have subjects and verbs. Independent clauses can stand alone as sentences because they express complete thoughts. Dependent clauses are fragments; they do not express complete thoughts because they begin with subordinating words. A dependent clause must be attached to an independent clause to form a sentence. Look at the following clauses. Print this page and write "Ind." if the clause is independent and "Dep." if it is dependent. When you are finished, look at the key.

 

The following grammar exercise features information taken from "For Personal-Injury Lawyer, Michael Pollan’s Book Is Worth Fighting For," by Patricia Cohen, published May 29, 2009, by the New York Times.

 

  1. Many campuses institute "common book" reading programs for incoming freshman                    
  2. Washington State University's 2009 choice was The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan             
  3. After he heard that the program requiring all freshmen to read the same book was cancelled                  
  4. Attorney Bill Marler, an alumnus of WSU, decided to get involved                    
  5. While school administrators claimed that budget cuts forced them to cancel the 2009 program               
  6. Some faculty and students suspected there was another reason that the administrators weren't owning up to                   
  7. Because 4,000 copies of the book had already been bought and paid for                      
  8. The book examines the economic, ecological, and health problems that American society faces due to some agribusiness practices               
  9. Skeptics charged that the administrators' action came after pressure from the state’s powerful agribusiness interests                        
  10. When Marler heard of the controversy             
  11. He decided to find out             
  12.  If money really was the issue               
  13. He offered to pay the program’s projected $40,000 shortfall                
  14. Since he came up with the money                     
  15. The common reading is back on                       
  16. An important part of the program is bringing the author to campus                     
  17. Marler said he would be surprised                    
  18. If bringing Pollan to the school would really cost so much                      
  19. Since Pollan has offered reduced fees to schools and even offered to do video interviews                      
  20. Pollan is glad that the program is back on at the land-grant university                 
  21. “Because we are in the midst of this national conversation about the future of food and agriculture, and land grant universities have a critical role to play”