Sentence diagram

In pedagogy, a sentence diagram is a pictorial representation of the

grammatical structure of a natural-language sentence. A sentence diagram
is a form of a parse tree.
A simple sentence is shown as

subject verb direct object


for example:

I am

The diagram of a simple 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. If the object is a direct object, the line is vertical.
If the object is a predicate noun or adjective, the line looks like a
backslash, \, sloping toward the subject.
Modifiers
Modifiers of the subject, predicate, or object are placed below the base
line. Adjectives (including articles) and adverbs are placed on slanted lines
below the word they modify. Prepositional phrases are also placed beneath
the word they modify; the preposition goes on a slanted line and the
slanted line leads to a horizontal line on which the object of the preposition
is placed.
Compound subjects, predicates, objects, etc. are drawn as multiple
horizontal lines stacked vertically, joined at each end by a fan of diagonal
lines; the coordinating conjunction goes on a vertical line through the left
ends of the horizontal lines.

Prepositional phrases
Prepositional phrases consist of two lines: the preposition itself is drawn
just as an adjective or adverb would, hanging down below the antecedent,
and the complement is drawn on a line protruding horizontally from a point
near the bottom of the line.
Compound sentences
Compound sentences are composed of two or more independent clauses
connected by one or more coordinating conjunctions or semicolons. Each
clause is diagrammed separately; the verbs of the two clauses are joined
by a dotted line which goes vertically, then horizontally with the conjunction
written on the line, and then vertically again.
Appositives
An appositive is written in parentheses.
Participles and participial phrases
A participle is given the same type of line as an adjective (see Modifiers,
above), except that a small horizontal line branches off the end. The
participle itself is written in a curved manner, so that the verb ending is
written on the small horizontal line.
Any adverbs or prepositional phrases modifying the participle branch off of
the small horizontal line, as if the participle were a noun.
Gerunds and gerund phrases
Gerunds are placed on a "pedestal," which is then on a tower that has an
upside down triangle base and a straight line going up to the pedestal. The
pedestal is two steps, and the gerund should be placed onto it diagonally,
as if it were resting full length on the stairs. The remaining parts of the
gerund phrase follow it on a horizontal line connected to the edge of the "."
Interjections
An interjection is placed on a floating line separate from the rest of the
sentence diagram. It is only one word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_diagram