How to Diagram Sentences

A Sentence Diagram is a pictorial representation of the grammatical structure of a natural-language sentence.
Diagramming sentences is a way to visualize how the different parts of a sentence fit together: the subject of a clause goes in one slot, the verb in another, and so on. Words that modify another word are attached to the word they modify. Understanding the functions of parts of the speech in a sentence and their relationship to one another can be very helpful in learning to construct good sentences.
The diagram of a sentence begins with a horizontal line called the base. The subject is written on the left, the predicate on the right, separated by a vertical bar which extends through the base. The predicate must contain a verb, and the verb either requires other sentence elements to complete the predicate, permits them to do so, or precludes them from doing so. The verb and its object, when present, are separated by a line that ends at the baseline.
For example, let's consider the following sentence: James bought a new book and gave it to his little sister. So, we see such parts of a sentence:
- James is the subject;
- bought a book and gave it are the compound predicate with direct objects (book, it);
- his sister is the indirect object;
- new, little are adjectives.
[Sentence diagram. Wikipedia]
This sentence diagram template for the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software is included in the Language Learning solution from the Science and Education area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.

"A sentence is a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that are grammatically linked. A sentence can include words grouped meaningfully to express a statement, question, exclamation, request, command or suggestion.
A sentence can also be defined in orthographic terms alone, i.e., as anything which is contained between a capital letter and a full stop. ...
As with all language expressions, sentences might contain function and content words and contain properties distinct to natural language, such as characteristic intonation and timing patterns.
Sentences are generally characterized in most languages by the presence of a finite verb..." [Sentence (linguistics). Wikipedia]
This sentence diagram sample was created using the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software extended with the Language Learning solution from the Science and Education area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.

"There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. The first concerns traditional grammar, which tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other part being the subject; the purpose of the predicate is to modify the subject. The second derives from work in predicate calculus (predicate logic, first order logic) and is prominent in modern theories of syntax and grammar. In this approach, the predicate of a sentence corresponds mainly to the main verb and any auxiliaries that accompany the main verb, whereas the arguments of that predicate (e.g. the subject and object noun phrases) are outside the predicate." [Predicate (grammar). Wikipedia]
The sentence diagram example "Compound predicate with one direct object" was created using the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software extended with the Language Learning solution from the Science and Education area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.

The vector stencils library "Sentence diagrams" contains 18 shapes for drawing sentence diagrams or parse trees.
"In pedagogy and theoretical syntax, a sentence diagram or parse tree is a pictorial representation of the grammatical structure of a sentence. The term "sentence diagram" is used more in pedagogy, where sentences are diagrammed. The term "parse tree" is used in linguistics (especially computational linguistics), where sentences are parsed. The purpose of sentence diagrams and parse trees is to have a model of the structure of sentences. The model is informative about the relations between words and the nature of syntactic structure and is thus used as a tool to help predict which sentences are and are not possible." [Sentence diagram. Wikipedia]
The shapes example "Design elements - Sentence diagrams" was created using the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software extended with the Language Learning solution from the Science and Education area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.

This sentence diagram sample was createb on the base of the webpage "Diagramming Sentences" from the website of the Capital Community College, Hartford CT. [grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/ grammar/ diagrams2/ one_ pager2.htm]
"In grammar, clause structure refers to the classification of sentences based on the number and kind of clauses in their syntactic structure. Such division is an element of traditional grammar.
A simple sentence consists of only one clause. A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses. A complex sentence has at least one independent clause plus at least one dependent clause.
A sentence consisting of one or more dependent clauses plus two or more independent clauses may be called a complex-compound sentence or compound-complex sentence. ...
A compound sentence is composed of at least two independent clauses. It does not require a dependent clause. The clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction (with or without a comma), a semicolon that functions as a conjunction, a colon instead of a semicolon between two sentences when the second sentence explains or illustrates the first sentence and no coordinating conjunction is being used to connect the sentences, or a conjunctive adverb preceded by a semicolon. A conjunction can be used to make a compound sentence. Conjunctions are words such as for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so (the first letters of which spell "fanboys"). The use of a comma to separate two independent clauses without the addition of an appropriate conjunction is called a comma splice and is generally considered an error (when used in the English language)." [Sentence clause structure. Wikipedia]
The example "Compound sentence" was created using the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software extended with the Language Learning solution from the Science and Education area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.

This sentence diagram example was redesigned from the Wikipedia file: Examples of Reed-Kellogg diagrams.jpg.
[en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ File:Examples_ of_ Reed-Kellogg_ diagrams.jpg]
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. [creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 3.0/ deed.en]
"Most methods of diagramming in pedagogy are based on the work of Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg in their book Higher Lessons in English, first published in 1877, though the method has been updated with recent understanding of grammar. Reed and Kellogg were preceded, and their work probably informed, by W. S. Clark, who published his "balloon" method of depicting grammar in his 1847 book A Practical Grammar: In Which Words, Phrases & Sentences are Classified According to Their Offices and Their Various Relationships to Each Another.
Some schoolteachers continue to use the Reed-Kellogg system in teaching grammar, but others have discouraged it in favor of more modern tree diagrams. However, these modern tree structures draw on techniques that were already present in Reed-Kellogg diagrams. Reed and Kellogg defend their system in the preface to their grammar:
The Objections to the Diagram. - The fact that the pictorial diagram groups the parts of a sentence according to their offices and relations, and not in the order of speech, has been spoken of as a fault. It is, on the contrary, a merit, for it teaches the pupil to look through the literary order and discover the logical order. He thus learns what the literary order really is, and sees that this may be varied indefinitely, so long as the logical relations are kept clear.
The assertion that correct diagrams can be made mechanically is not borne out by the facts. It is easier to avoid precision in oral analysis than in written. The diagram drives the pupil to a most searching examination of the sentence, brings him face to face with every difficulty, and compels a decision on every point.
These statements bear witness to the fact that Reed-Kellogg diagrams abstract away from actual word order in order to focus more intently on how words in sentences function and relate to each other." [Sentence diagram. Wikipedia]
The examples of Reed-Kellogg diagrams was created using the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software extended with the Language Learning solution from the Science and Education area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.

"Most methods of diagramming in pedagogy are based on the work of Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg in their book Higher Lessons in English, first published in 1877, though the method has been updated with recent understanding of grammar. ...
Some schoolteachers continue to use the Reed-Kellogg system in teaching grammar, but others have discouraged it in favor of more modern tree diagrams. However, these modern tree structures draw on techniques that were already present in Reed-Kellogg diagrams. Reed and Kellogg defend their system in the preface to their grammar:
The Objections to the Diagram.--The fact that the pictorial diagram groups the parts of a sentence according to their offices and relations, and not in the order of speech, has been spoken of as a fault. It is, on the contrary, a merit, for it teaches the pupil to look through the literary order and discover the logical order. He thus learns what the literary order really is, and sees that this may be varied indefinitely, so long as the logical relations are kept clear.
The assertion that correct diagrams can be made mechanically is not borne out by the facts. It is easier to avoid precision in oral analysis than in written. The diagram drives the pupil to a most searching examination of the sentence, brings him face to face with every difficulty, and compels a decision on every point.
... Reed-Kellogg diagrams abstract away from actual word order in order to focus more intently on how words in sentences function and relate to each other.
The Reed-Kellogg System. Simple sentences in the Reed-Kellogg system are diagrammed in accordance with the ... basic schemata" shown in this diagram example. [Sentence diagram. Wikipedia]
The example "The Reed-Kellogg system - Basic schemata" was created using the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software extended with the Language Learning solution from the Science and Education area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.