grammar/usage/punctuation
Angela Crow
1. Mindset Quiz:
http://mindsetonline.com/testyourmindset/step1.php
Assessment Option One:
We won’t have time to work through every one of these questions, but in pairs, I want
you to answer 10 questions from the grammar quiz, and make a list of words you don’t
know, concepts you don’t know, or words you couldn’t explain easily to another person.
If you can’t explain it or give an example of it, you need to write it down. Also, keep a
tally of how many you mark correctly.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/niu/niu15.htm
Later on, if you want to come back, you can take another general grammar /
punctuation quiz:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/niu/niu16.htm
or
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/niu/niu17.htm
This site has a ton of resources + overviews/explanations. I find it a good FREE
resource.
Assessment Option Two:
Read through this paragraph, and see if you can define each sentence’s structure. Is it
a simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex sentence.
I am a rather successful artist just past 65 years of age. On January 2nd of this year I
was driving my car and was hit by a small truck on the passenger side of my vehicle.
When visiting the emergency room of a local hospital, I was told I had a concussion.
While taking an eye examination, it was discovered that I was unable to distinguish
letters or colors. The letters appeared to be Greek letters. My vision was such that
everything appeared to me as -viewing a black and white television screen. Within days,
I could distinguish letters and my vision became that of an eagle-I can see a worm
wriggling a block away. The sharpness of focus is incredible. BUT-I AM ABSOLUTELY
COLOR BLIND. I have visited ophthalmologists who know nothing about this color-blind
business. I have visited neurologists, to no avail. Under hypnosis I still can't distinguish
colors. I have been involved in all kinds of tests. You name it. My brown dog is dark
grey. Tomato juice is black. Color TV is a hodge-podge .... From Oliver Sacks’s “The
Case of the Color-Blind Painter.” In Nora Bacon’s The Well-Crafted Sentence.
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I am a rather successful artist just past 65 years of age.
On January 2nd of this year I was driving my car and was hit by a small truck on the
passenger side of my vehicle.
When visiting the emergency room of a local hospital, I was told I had a concussion.
While taking an eye examination, it was discovered that I was unable to distinguish
letters or colors.
The letters appeared to be Greek letters.
My vision was such that everything appeared to me as -viewing a black and white
television screen.
Within days, I could distinguish letters and my vision became that of an eagle--I can see
a worm wriggling a block away.
The sharpness of focus is incredible.
BUT I AM ABSOLUTELY COLOR BLIND.
I have visited ophthalmologists who know nothing about this color-blind business.
I have visited neurologists, to no avail.
Under hypnosis I still can't distinguish colors.
I have been involved in all kinds of tests.
You name it.
My brown dog is dark grey.
Tomato juice is black.
Color TV is a hodge-podge ....
2
Vocabulary: Make flashcards or use your version of flashcards to memorize these
words/meanings. Be able to give examples with each.
Subject:
Predicate:
Clause:
Phrase:
Noun:
Verb: (transitive/instransitive/linking)
Adjective:
Adverb:
Pronoun
Preposition
Conjunction:
Conjunctive Adverb:
Verbal:
Modifying Phrases
Prepositional Phrase
Noun Phrase
Infinitive phrase
Participial Phrase
Appositive phrase
Verb Tenses
Dangling Modifiers
Relative Pronouns
Clauses versus phrases
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Words that help with scanning a document and figuring out type of sentence:
Coordinating Conjunctions: And, or, so, yet, but, for, nor
Subordinating Conjunctions: Because, since, after, although …
Conjunctive Adverbs: However, thus…
Relative pronouns: that, what, which, etc
Prepositions:
Rules for punctuation based on sentence type:
Simple
Compound
Complex
Compound-Complex
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