REVIEW OF GRAMMAR
• Wrighting guud meens u gott 2 follo oll uf
za ruls; lake korrect spelin, propper
punctuashun end coreckt gramer.
LuVLeH nut , aint’t !?!
Your Brain at work!
• Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde
Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr
the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt
tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer be at
the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total
mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit
porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid
deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the
wrod as a wlohe.
WHY THE FUSS?
• CREDIBILITY: How can a person’s work
be considered believable if that person is
so weak grammatically & linguistically as
to be unable to write correctly?
WHY THE FUSS?
• ACCURACY: A misspelled word, a
misplaced comma, or a missing verb can
change, hide, or confuse the meaning of a
sentence.
WHY THE FUSS?
• EFFICIENCY: A document that requires
much effort to decipher simply will not be
read. Likewise, the message of a speaker
who is difficult to hear or follow will simply
be ignored. In both cases, the effort is a
waste.
WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA?
• Spelling
– Use a spell checker or a dictionary
– Use a proof reader
• Punctuation
– Use a ___________
MORE CRITERIA
• Grammar and structure
– Use a ___________
• Format
– Use a ___________
PAGE FORMATTING
• Use a cover sheet and NO PLASTIC
COVERS!
• Staple pages at upper left hand corner
• Use FLUSH LEFT justification (ragged
right)
MORE PAGE FORMATTING
• Double CHARACTER space between
sentences
• Double LINE space within paragraph
• TRIPLE line space between paragraphs
• Margins: L=1.5”; R, T, & B=1.0”
STILL MORE FORMATTING:
Page Numbers
• “Front Matter” (title page, table of contents,
abstract, acknowledgements, and preface)
– the pages preceding the text- are
numbered using lower case Roman
numerals.
STILL MORE FORMATTING:
Page Numbers
• The first page of text is page 1, but the
page number is not printed.
• Others are printed, centered at the bottom
of the page preceded by your name, a
comma, a space, Page, and the page
number.
SPELLING
• Poor spelling reveals the writer’s lack of
proper communication skills (ignorance
harshly-stated) for all the world (or the
person[s] the writer is trying to
convince/impress/educate) to see.
• USE A SPELL CHECKER & PROOFREAD YOUR OWN WORK --- or have
someone qualified to do so!!
SPELL CHECKERS
• Can’t find properly spelled- but misusedwords (homonyms).
For example, using the word “there” when
you mean “their” is both a spelling error
and an inappropriate word selection – a
grammatical error!
PUNCTUATION
• Period
Ends sentence and most abbreviations
Decimal point
URL* & E-Mail delimiters
* Uniform/Universal Resource Locator
PUNCTUATION (CONT.)
• Question mark
– Direct, but not indirect (rhetorical) questions
– In parentheses to indicate uncertainty (?)
PUNCTUATION (CONT.)
• Exclamation point
• Comma
• Semicolon
– As conjunctions with adverbs.
– Separates independent clauses.
– Separates items in a series that contain
internal commas.
PUNCTUATION (CONT.)
• Colon
– Following the salutation in a letter.
– Following the date, to, from, and subject
headers in a memorandum.
– To separate a statement from its following
amplifier.
PUNCTUATION (CONT.)
• Quotation marks
– Periods & commas stay within.
– Colons & semicolons stay outside.
– Exclamation and question marks may be
either in or out, depending whether it is a part
of a quotation.
PUNCTUATION (CONT.)
• Quotation marks- cont.
– Enclose titles of articles, book chapters,
poems, and unpublished reports.
PUNCTUATION (CONT.)
• Use quotation marks to enclose verbatim
phrases of less than fifty words.
– Verbatim phrases of fifty or more words
should be set off by indenting as an entire
paragraph five spaces and using single line
spacing.
PUNCTUATION (CONT.)
• Apostrophe
• Ellipses
– 3 dots (…), each separated by a character
space.
– Purpose?
PUNCTUATION (CONT.)
• Italics (for emphasis / used to get
attention)
• Parentheses/Brackets:
(…)
[…]
{…}
<…>
• Dashes: --• Underscore: _ _ _*
(*Note: be extra careful with their usage in
emails, to protect proprietary information.)
PUNCTUATION (CONT.)
•
•
•
•
Hyphen (like dashes -, between words)
Slash (slash or forward /) (backslash \)
Capital versus lower-case letters
Numbers (English uses Arabic numerals)
GRAMMATICAL ERRORS
•
Fragmented sentence: pieces of sentences, or incomplete sentences.
They do not have a subject + finite verb + any other necessary parts, actual
or implied. Example:
“Happily dancing on the table.”
•
Comma splice: is the attempt to join two independent clauses with a
comma, but without a coordinator. Example:
Wrong:
- I got up late this morning, I didn't have time for breakfast.
Correct:
- I got up late this morning. I didn't have time for breakfast.
Grammatical Errors – continued
• Fused sentence: also called a run-on, occurs
when a writer has connected two main clauses
with no punctuation. Example:
“Driving home from school, Brett vowed to
protect the fragile ecosystem all the while the
tires of his Cadillac Escalade flattened the toads
hopping on the wet streets.”
Corrected as follows:
“Driving home from school, Brett vowed to
protect the fragile ecosystem. All the while, the
tires of his Cadillac Escalade flattened the toads
hopping on the wet streets.”
Grammatical Errors – continued
Choppy sentences: too many short simple sentences
can make your writing appear unsophisticated and your
ideas seem disconnected. Examples:
Choppy:
• Bears emerge from hibernation in the spring.
• They wander through wetlands.
• They feed mainly on grasses.
Revised:
• When bears emerge from hibernation in the spring, they
wander through wetlands and feed mainly on grasses.
Grammatical Errors – continued
• Faulty coordination: occurs when two ideas
are not of equal value; one of the ideas should
be subordinated. Examples:
Wrong: We keep our rat poison, insecticides,
and paint thinner locked in a cupboard and we
are conscientious about our children’s safety.
Corrected: We keep our rat poison,
insecticides, and paint thinner locked in a
cupboard because we are conscientious about
our children’s safety.
MORE GRAMMATICAL ERRORS
• Faulty subordination
• Faulty agreement — with subject & verb
singular/plural
• Dangling modifiers
• Faulty parallelism
Faulty Subordination
• Faulty subordination occurs when the more important clause is
placed in a subordinate position in the sentence or when the
expected relation between clauses is reversed.
• Example: Japanese-made cars are popular with American
consumers although their import poses at least a short-term threat to
the livelihood of some American workers (In an essay or
composition about he problems of the American worker this
sentence would take attention away from the worker and incorrectly
emphasize Japanese-made cars.)
• Correct faulty subordination by changing the position of the
subordinating word or phrase; Example: Although Japanese-made
cars are popular with American consumers, their import poses at
least a short-term threat to the livelihood of some American workers.
Faulty Agreement
• Be sure that your subject agrees with the verb,
even when there are intervening components of
the sentence. In the sentence:
“The group of bizarrely dressed youths are
taking over the cafeteria.”
• The writer has used a plural verb because of the
proximity of "youths," but the subject of the
sentence is "group." The sentence should read:
“The group of bizarrely dressed youths is
taking over the cafeteria.”
Dangling Modifiers
• A dangling modifier is a word or phrase that
modifies a word not clearly stated in the
sentence. A modifier describes, clarifies, or gives
more detail about a concept.
• The following sentence has an incorrect usage:
“Having finished the assignment, the TV
was turned on.”
• The statement is better structured as such:
“Having finished the assignment,
Jill turned on the TV.”
Faulty Parallelism
• Faulty parallelism occurs when the elements put into
pairs and series "go in different directions" because they
do not have the same form. In other words, nouns
should be coordinated with nouns, verbs with verbs,
adjectives with adjectives, adverbs with adverbs,
phrases with phrases, and clauses with clauses.
• WRONG:
• ~He liked to play basketball and riding horses.
•
•
•
•
CORRECT:
~He liked playing basketball and riding horses.
~He liked to play basketball and to ride horses
~He liked to play basketball and ride horses.
MORE GRAMMATICAL ERRORS
• Inappropriate word choices:
- Words that sound similar (almost like
homonyms), but have quite different
meanings.
- Idea (a thought) vs. Ideal (a standard of
perfection).
DOCUMENTING SOURCES
(CITATIONS)
• The APA* Manual is the standard for
documentation formatting.
• Language Skills Handbook (2nd edition),
covers most of the bases.
* American Psychological Association
MORE YET ON SOURCE
DOCUMENTATION
• The primary factor in formatting citations
and referencing is to be honest and
consistent.
• Nonetheless, the appropriate format
should be used.
THE END