At first, subordination and coordination may seem like another way to vary sentence structure. In actuality, these techniques allow writers to emphasize certain elements in a sentence, and de-emphasize others; consequently, they become essential to writing papers that require students to express, contrast, and compare information.

Use coordination to show that two or more elements in a sentence are of equal importance.

The following are different ways to show coordination in a sentence:

• use a comma and a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or).

  Example: The college community can listen to Buffalo radio,but it only provides a small sampling of music from the Top 40, Urban, Alternative, Classic Rock, and Adult Contemporary formats.

• use a semicolon between two main clauses. (Note that, like the following example, a conjunctive adverb such as "however," "therefore," and "consequently" can be added to the second main clause.)

  Example: McCullough's book contains excerpts from letters that John and Abigail Adams wrote to each other; consequently, Minzesheimer suggests that their romance appealed to readers.

• use a coordinating conjunction between words or phrases to show their equal importance.

  Example: Viacom can make its products successful in the marketplace and cross-promote them on its various media outlets.

Use subordination to show that one element in a sentence is less important than another.

The following are different ways to show subordination in a sentence:

• use a subordinate clause that begins with "since," "although," "if," "whereas," etc.

  Example: Emile Durkheim argued that people in preindustrialized societies felt united because they worked on similar tasks with each other, whereas economic interdependence created bonds between people in industrialized societies.

• use a subordinate clause that begins with "that," "which," "who," etc.

  Example: Publicist often create promotional tools called press kits, which usually include newspaper and magazines articles about their clients.

• use an appositive phrase

  Example: "London," William Blake's 1794 poem, uses various literary techniques to suggest that industrialization alienates members of a modern society.