Changing your habits regarding how you combine clauses can be challenging, but it is worth the effort because it can transform your writing from a simple elementary style to a more sophisticated and academic style that better fits the topics that you encounter in advanced classes. There are four types of sentences; understanding how to form all of them can add more resources to your tool box as you explore different types of writing.
Simple – 1 independent clause
Although there may be more than one verb or more than one subject, this type of sentence has only 1 independent clause.
Tom went to school. He and his brother are in my class. They are never on time and always leave early.
Compound – 2 or more independent clauses joined in one of three ways: ,FANBOYS Tom goes to school, but his brother does not. semi-colon Tom goes to school; his brother does not. ;conjunctive adverb, Tom goes to school; however, his brother does not.
Complex – 1 independent and 1 or more dependent clauses joined in one of two ways: subordinating conjunction Because he was late, he missed the meeting. He missed the meeting because he was late. relative pronoun omitted The book that we read was interesting. The book we read was interesting.
Compound-complex – 2 or more independent and 1 or more dependent
These are joined in the same way described above; you must consider whether you are joining independent of dependent clauses as you choose your punctuation