2. Have You Ever?
Been penalized for too many errors on your
paper?
Sharpen your eye for correct English. Make
proofreading a habit.
Learned something and then found you
couldn’t remember it?
Practice and application of skills help you
remember.
3. Have You Ever?
Made a grammatical error but couldn’t
explain why?
Learn how to identify common errors and ways
to correct them—and why.
Questioned whether you will ever use what
you are learning?
You will be writing to communicate for the rest
of your life.
4. Errors = Social
Markers
Speaking and writing errors signal
Social background
Educational background/level
One's concern for correctness
6. Common Errors
Word Usage
Dangling/Misplaced Modifiers
Parallel Structure
Homonyms
7. Spelling
Serious Errors: common words
Be aware of your “enemies”
Words you often misspell
Create mnemonic tricks
Help remember
8. Word Usage
Errors
Usage—words often
confused
Accept, except
Advice, advise
Affect, effect
Between, among
Lie, lay
Than, then
Really, real
Good, well
More errors
A lot alot
All right alright
Could have could of
From off of
Regardless
irregardless
Through thru
Wrong!
9. Homonym Errors
Homonyms—similar sounds; different meanings
To, too, two
Their, they’re, there
Your, you’re
Whose, who’s
Coarse, course
Complement, compliment
Council, counsel
Principal, principle
10. Capitalization
Titles—all words 4+ letters long
First word in complete sentence
Including direct quotes
Proper nouns
Names with Titles—President Obama
Sacred Names—God, Allah
11. Capitalization
Seasons
Only when personified—Spring danced joyfully.
Directions
When naming specific regions—The North won.
School Subjects
Names of languages—French, English
Numbered courses--Biology I, History 211
12. Review:
Sentence Elements
1. Subject
Who is doing the action
1. Verb
Action—State of being
1. Complete Thought
Independent
Clause—IC
Stands alone
Dependent
Clause—DC
Must be
attached
13. Phrases
Prepositional phrase—most common
Mnemonic trick: Preposition = anything a plane
can do to a cloud
To, From
Over, Under
Through, Around
Inside, Outside
The Subject will NOT be in a prep. phrase
14. Review:
Sentence Structure
Who Did (What)
Subj. Verb Obj.
Tom hit the ball.
Where
?
When?
How?
Why?
Where
?
When?
How?
Why?
(Optional)
Moveable
(Optional)
Moveable
16. Comma Usage
Compound Sentence
IC ,conj IC (IC=Independent
Clause=sentence)
Coordinating Conjunctions—see mnemonic device
F For
A And
N Nor
B But
O Or
Y Yet
S So
Tom hit the ball, and he ran the bases.
17. Comma Usage
Set off nonessential elements—not
necessary to the meaning of the sentence
Phrases/clauses
Mary, who has a great deal of talent, is a senior.
Shaneka, wearing a jacket, walked into the room
Parenthetical expressions
however, of course, for example
– Each student, however, expected a new computer.
18. Comma Usage:
The Oxford
Comma
Separate items in a list—3+
The store sold potatoes, carrots, and beans.
Kevin ran, leaped, and pranced for joy.
She learned of her husband’s loss, of his great
labor, and of other efforts to make amends.
Maintain Parallel Structure
19. Comma Usage
Who Did What
Subj. Verb Obj.
Tom hit the ball.
Where
When
How
Why
Where,
When,
How,
Why,
At May Park,
Saturday,
With my bat,
Because he was mad,
Separate introductory
words, phrases, and
clauses with a comma.
20. Parallel Structure
Items joined by a conjunction must be
expressed in the same grammatical form.
Word, word, and word
reading, dancing, and cooking
Phrase, phrase, or phrase
over the hill, under the bridge, and into the cave
either move to Kansas or move to Texas
21. Parallel Structure
The new school is large, rambling, and
it looks ugly.
The new school is large, rambling, and ugly.
All items needed to be adjectives. The last
item was an IC.
Wrong!
22. Parallel Structure
I enjoy reading, writing, and to dance.
I enjoy reading, writing, and dancing.
First two items end in –ing. The last item
was an infinitive. (to + verb)
Wrong!
23. Parallel Structure
Charlie is not only talented as a writer but also
as an artist.
Charlie is talented not only as a writer
but also as an artist.
Move verb to indicate both items.
Items following not only and but also must
be worded exactly the same.
Wrong!
24. Parallel Structure
The juniors decided that they neither found
the dance nor the breakfast enjoyable.
The juniors decided that they found neither
the dance nor the breakfast enjoyable.
Place neither and nor directly in front of
ideas that are parallel.
Wrong!
25. Apostrophes
Possessives
‘s singular noun
dog’s Mary’s
s’ plural noun or
ends in -s
dogs’ Charles’
Contractions
Did not = didn’t
Are not = aren’t
It is = it’s
Drop contractions
from academic
work, except from
direct quotes
Do Not Add an ‘ to a possessive pronoun—your’s
Do Not Add an ‘ to form the plural of a noun—paper’s
26. Quotation Marks
Direct Quotations
Mary said, “You will be hungry because it’s late.”
“You will be hungry,” Mary said, “because it’s late.”
“Are you going to New York?” asked Bernie.
“I remember that she said, ‘Turn here,’” said Al.
27. Titles
Italicize the titles of
long works
Books
Magazines
Journals
Newspapers
Movies
Websites
“Quotes” around
titles of short works
Short stories
Poems
Chapters
Journal articles
Songs
Essays
Web pages
Web articles
28. Semicolons
Between IC not joined by a ,conj
Between IC joined by one of the following:
However, therefore, consequently, moreover
Between series of items if those items
contain commas
The Student Council elected its officers: Sarah
Long, president; Megan Wright, vice-president;
and Peg Miller, secretary/treasurer.
29. Capitalization
Titles—all words 4+ letters long
First word in complete sentence
Specific nouns
Names with Titles—President Obama
Sacred Names—God, Allah
30. Capitalization
Seasons
When personified—Spring danced joyfully.
Directions
When naming specific regions—The North won.
School Subjects
Names of languages—French, English
Numbered courses--Biology I, History 211
31. Pronouns
Pronoun Shifts
Do not shift between person
I, we, us
He, she, it, they, them
Pronoun Reference
Make sure clear
She was one of those people who is always
helping others.
YO
U
32. Pronouns
Pronoun Agreement
Agree with antecedent
Number—singular, plural
Gender—masculine, feminine
Case—subject, object, possessive
Pronouns ending in –one, –body, or –thing
Always singular
Has everyone brought his or her book?
34. Pronoun/Anteceden
t Agreement
Each of them left their books on the
table.
Each of the students left his or her books on
the table.
The students left their books on the table.
Wrong!
35. Pronoun/Anteceden
t Agreement
Everybody on my floor hates their room.
Everybody on my floor hates her room.
Everybody on my floor hates his room.
All of the students on my floor hate their
rooms.
Wrong!
36. Verb Forms
Subject-Verb Agreement
Problem areas—finding the subject
Prepositional phrases
Sentences beginning with It, There, Here
Questions—verb before subject
Appositive phrases
Problem areas—deciding number
Indefinite pronouns—anybody, few, some
Collective nouns—faculty, team, class
Compound subjects—Tom and Shaneka
37. Verb Forms
Verb Tense—indicates time of action
Keep tenses consistent
Past perfect tense (had done, had left…)
Indicates which of two actions took place earlier
1. When we entered the room, the fire started.
2. When we entered the room, the fire had started.
-ing verbs must have a helping verb
38. Sentence
Fragments
Missing one or more elements of an IC.
Phrase
Dependent Clause
Corrections:
Add the element(s)
Attach the fragment to the IC before or after it.
40. Correcting
Sentence
Fragments
Our country has many famous musicians.
Such as Pearl Bailey and Bing Crosby.
Our country has many famous musicians
such as Pearl Bailey and Bing Crosby.
41. Correcting
Sentence
Fragments
Because she was too tall.
Because she was too tall, Anna had to duck
to enter the room.
Anna had to duck to enter the room
because she was too tall.
42. Run-On
Sentences &
Comma Splices
Two or more sentences joined together
(usually with only a comma – comma splice)
Corrections:
Use a period to separate the two sentences.
Add a ,+ coordinating conjunction.
Use a semi-colon—esp. if they’re closely related.
Add a subordinating conjunction to make one
sentence subordinate to the other.
Rewrite the sentence completely.
43. Correcting
Run-ons & CSs
Finals week is next week, I am already
starting to feel stress.
Finals week is next week. I am already
starting to feel stress.
44. Correcting
Run-ons & CSs
I only have one final exam it is in my history
class.
I only have one final exam, and it is in my
history class.
I only have one final exam; it is in my history
class.
45. Correcting
Run-ons & CSs
I just really need to pass this class, I plan to
graduate in June.
Because I plan to graduate in June, I just
really need to pass this class.
I plan to graduate in June; therefore, I just
really need to pass this class.
46. Dangling/Misplaced
Modifiers
Modifiers—adjectives & adverbs
Adjectives + nouns/pronouns
Which one?
How many?
What kind?
Adj, Adj + noun
The small, blue hat
Driving down the street, I ran over a bag of trash.
47. Dangling/Misplaced
Modifiers
Modifiers—adjectives, adverbs
Must be placed as close to word being described
as possible
1. Running down the hall, his jacket caught on a nail.
2. At the age of four, Alice’s family moved to Texas.
3. To improve our wrestling team, new weight
equipment was purchased by the school.
48. Authors Cited
Gayla S. Keesee
Education Specialist
Mack Gipson, Jr.
Tutorial & Enrichment Center
Vicki LeQuire
Lecturer, Rhetoric & Composition