Identify the sentence’s subject and verb
Find any direct object, indirect object, or subject complement
Separate the complete subject from the complete predicate
Draw the main horizontal line
Place the subject on the left side of the line
Place the verb on the right side of the line
Add a vertical divider between subject and verb
Add direct objects, indirect objects, or complements on the same baseline as the verb
Place modifiers on slanted lines beneath the words they modify
Place prepositional phrases on slanted lines attached to the words they modify
Place articles, adjectives, and adverbs on slanted lines
Connect compound subjects and compound verbs with a dotted line and conjunction
Connect compound objects and compound predicates the same way
Place clauses on separate lines attached to the main sentence
Keep punctuation out of the diagram
Check that each word is placed according to its grammatical role