Diagramming Sentences

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Barbara J. Feldman

Sentence diagramming (also known as Reed-Kellogg diagramming) was a popular classroom grammar technique for nearly a century. It lost favor about thirty years ago, but several Surfnetkids readers recently suggested sentence diagramming as a topic. I hope this means that grammar is making a comeback!

AP Language and Composition: Sentence Diagramming Guide

4 stars

This guide from the English department of Southwest High School (Green Bay, WI) covers sentence diagramming in seventeen sections. Section One starts with the simplest sentence structure (noun, verb) and each section adds a new part of speech. There is a small parts-of-speech guide with tips on how to recognize them, linked from the front page. "Conjunction - Just remember this: FAN BOYS (F= for, A= and, N= nor, B= but, O= or, Y= yet, S= so)."

Diagramming Sentences

3 stars

"Diagraming sentences is such a fun way to learn about what makes a sentence tick. It's like solving a puzzle!" With a bright orange background, this page is clearly aimed at upper elementary students. It introduces sentence diagramming with subjects and predicates, and only briefly touches on adding adjectives and adverbs into the mix.

Guide to Grammar and Writing: Diagramming Sentences

5 stars

There are four terrific sentence-diagramming tutorials here, but finding them is a challenge. . Here's some help. For a Powerpoint introduction to sentence diagramming, click the blue graphic in the middle of the a yellow box, near the middle of the page. For a more in-depth tutorial (fifty pages long!) use the round blue Enter button, a half screen further down the page. Curious about how to diagram the Pledge of Allegiance or the Preamble to the U.S, Constitution? Look for those links below the Summaries subhead near the bottom of the page.

Mr. Hellmer's Diagramming Sentences

3 stars

"Sentence diagramming is the process of taking a sentence apart, word by word, and placing each word on a pictorial relationship diagram which helps to show how the words are related to one another." No color or fancy graphics here, but Mr. Hellmer of Wonderview High School (Hattieville, AR) takes us by the hand and explains sentence diagramming in one long page.