GRAMMAR GUIDE
What is wrong with this sign?
Grammar Terms:
Independent Clause: part of a unit (sentence) that CAN stand on its own. Dependent clause: part of a sentence that canNOT stand on its own; it is imbedded in the sentence and used as an adv., adj., or noun.
Example: Unpon entering the class, the student quickly sat at the first available desk.
Dep. Indep.
Fragment: Incomplete sentence; it is missing either a complete subject or predicate.
Example: A great show with a great cast.
Run-On/Fused Sentence: Two independent clauses run together without any punctuation.
Example: The movie was great however it was too long.
Comma Splice: Incorrect use of a comma to separate two independent clauses.
Example: Robert Pattison is the star of the movie, he is a really great actor.
Conjunctions: Words used to connect other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences that can also connect a dependent to an independent clause. [and, but, nor, or, for, so and yet]
Example: I had to work, so I couldn’t go to the concert.
Semicolon: Connects grammatically equal elements such as two independent clauses and separates grmmatically equal elements that contain internal commas.
Example: The movie was great; however, it was gtoo long.
Example: Some fo the main goals of the class are to learn to write clear, cohesive paragraphs; edit, proofread, and rewrite essays; demontrate a knowledge of ethical, scholarly research; and to identify and avoid grmmatical and mechanical errors.
Commas: Come before conjunctions when linking independent clauses.
Example: Van Gogh’s paintings are among the most valuable pieces of art, yet he was poor his whole life.
Follow introductory clauses: Ex. Although English is not my favorite subject, Miss Hollie’s class is very interesting.
Separate items in a series: Ex. I need to buy paper, pens, and two textbooks for this class.
Set off NONessential elements [these are words or groups of words that modify other words or groups of words but do NOT provide information that is essential in their identification]. Ex: The Basketball Diaires, Jim Carroll’s famous book, stirred up some controversy after the Columbine shootings.
Essential elements are necessary for providing information that is essential in identification; therefore, no comma is necessary. Ex. Jim Carroll’s famous book The Basketball Diaries stirred up some controversy after Columbine.
I met my friend Daryl when he was a student in my class. [Essential]
I met Daryl, my friend, when he was a student in my class. [Nonessential]
Parenthetical elements: are non-essential words and phrases. Ex. A song, for example, can be viewed as poetry.
Commas also set off geographical names and dates. Ex. August 28, 2009.
Before a quote in a sentence: Ex. When my daughter Reece was interviewed about what she likes about her teacher she said, “Mrs. Philips is kind in many ways”.
Modifiers: a word or group of words that describes, limits, or qualifies another.
Dangling Modifiers: word or phrase that does not clearly modify a word or word group in the sentence. Ex. The hotel only costs $100. The hotel costs only $100. [Put modifiers immediately before the word/words it modifies].
Dangling Participial Phrase: same as above. Ex. Driving too fast, the truck skid and flipped over.
Misplaced Modifier: a descriptive or qualifying word or phrase placed in a position that causes confusion to the reader. Ex. There is a list of the names of all the babies that were born on 11 September 2001 in the newspaper.
Apostrophe: shows ownership and forms certain plurals. Ex. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story … it’s [its] Be Careful!
1st person: “I”, “We” [personal—rarely used in scholarly writing].
2nd person: “you” [addresses readers but can offend… never used in scholarly writing].
3rd person: “one”, “it”, etc. [objective; appropriate for scholarly writing].
Ex. I believe that “Friends” is an excellent show because when you watch it, it makes you feel good about life. REVISE: “Friends” is an excellent show that can make one feel good about life.
Exercise: Correct the following.
Exact Language:
1. The health officer decided to check out the restaurant’s kitchen.
2. It was a sure thing that the President would be re-elected.
Modifiers:
3. Although not invited to speak at the conference, Blair’s address excited the audience.
4. Although hidden under the doormat, the burglar easily found the spare key.
5. Being from a small town, riding the subway was a new experience for Leslie.
6. Before donating these clothes to Goodwill, they must be cleaned.
7. Having seen the play on Broadway, the movie came as a disappointment to Madeline.
Comma Splices and Fused Sentences.
8. A protagonist is the main character in a story. An antagonist is an adversary.
9. A snowstorm can lead to dangerous driving conditions. An ice storm can result in serious accidents too.
10. An eclipse usually lasts only a few minutes. The sun, moon, and Earth do not remain in alighment but instead are in constant motion.
11. The medicine chest is no place for small children, precautions should be taken with them.
12. Some people have overstocked medicine chests others lack the bare necessities.
13. Tea can also be used to soothe bites or sunburn it should not be used on a serious burn.
14. Many of today’s adults recall drinking ginger ale to soothe an upset stomach, carbonated drinks of any kind still do the trick.
Commas:
15. Bearden founded Spiral a black artists’ group in the 1960’s.
16. Bearden’s work which has toured the country includes both urban and rural images.
17. Johnny Cash was raised, in and around, Kingsland, Arkansas.
18. While on tour, Johnny fell in love with, June Carter, and asked her several times to marry him.
19. From an early age Johnny wanted to be a singer, and practiced while he was in the army.
20. In 1999, Cash released one of his greatest albums, called, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, which he performed live, for the inmates.
Semi-colons:
21. Some people don’t watch television however, bad programs survive.
22. Exercise is an essential activity it keeps people healthy.
23. Evan, a single man, adopted three children. He provided them with a family atmosphere.
24. One of his children had trouble learning. Evan took him to many doctors.
Person:
25. I think that the main character Emily in Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” symbolizes the idea of tradition. When you read the story, you find out that even as Emily grows older, she is unwilling or unable to change her views and attitudes to adapt to the changing world around her. In my opinion, this has devestating consequences for her.
Independent Clause: part of a unit (sentence) that CAN stand on its own. Dependent clause: part of a sentence that canNOT stand on its own; it is imbedded in the sentence and used as an adv., adj., or noun.
Example: Unpon entering the class, the student quickly sat at the first available desk.
Dep. Indep.
Fragment: Incomplete sentence; it is missing either a complete subject or predicate.
Example: A great show with a great cast.
Run-On/Fused Sentence: Two independent clauses run together without any punctuation.
Example: The movie was great however it was too long.
Comma Splice: Incorrect use of a comma to separate two independent clauses.
Example: Robert Pattison is the star of the movie, he is a really great actor.
Conjunctions: Words used to connect other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences that can also connect a dependent to an independent clause. [and, but, nor, or, for, so and yet]
Example: I had to work, so I couldn’t go to the concert.
Semicolon: Connects grammatically equal elements such as two independent clauses and separates grmmatically equal elements that contain internal commas.
Example: The movie was great; however, it was gtoo long.
Example: Some fo the main goals of the class are to learn to write clear, cohesive paragraphs; edit, proofread, and rewrite essays; demontrate a knowledge of ethical, scholarly research; and to identify and avoid grmmatical and mechanical errors.
Commas: Come before conjunctions when linking independent clauses.
Example: Van Gogh’s paintings are among the most valuable pieces of art, yet he was poor his whole life.
Follow introductory clauses: Ex. Although English is not my favorite subject, Miss Hollie’s class is very interesting.
Separate items in a series: Ex. I need to buy paper, pens, and two textbooks for this class.
Set off NONessential elements [these are words or groups of words that modify other words or groups of words but do NOT provide information that is essential in their identification]. Ex: The Basketball Diaires, Jim Carroll’s famous book, stirred up some controversy after the Columbine shootings.
Essential elements are necessary for providing information that is essential in identification; therefore, no comma is necessary. Ex. Jim Carroll’s famous book The Basketball Diaries stirred up some controversy after Columbine.
I met my friend Daryl when he was a student in my class. [Essential]
I met Daryl, my friend, when he was a student in my class. [Nonessential]
Parenthetical elements: are non-essential words and phrases. Ex. A song, for example, can be viewed as poetry.
Commas also set off geographical names and dates. Ex. August 28, 2009.
Before a quote in a sentence: Ex. When my daughter Reece was interviewed about what she likes about her teacher she said, “Mrs. Philips is kind in many ways”.
Modifiers: a word or group of words that describes, limits, or qualifies another.
Dangling Modifiers: word or phrase that does not clearly modify a word or word group in the sentence. Ex. The hotel only costs $100. The hotel costs only $100. [Put modifiers immediately before the word/words it modifies].
Dangling Participial Phrase: same as above. Ex. Driving too fast, the truck skid and flipped over.
Misplaced Modifier: a descriptive or qualifying word or phrase placed in a position that causes confusion to the reader. Ex. There is a list of the names of all the babies that were born on 11 September 2001 in the newspaper.
Apostrophe: shows ownership and forms certain plurals. Ex. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story … it’s [its] Be Careful!
1st person: “I”, “We” [personal—rarely used in scholarly writing].
2nd person: “you” [addresses readers but can offend… never used in scholarly writing].
3rd person: “one”, “it”, etc. [objective; appropriate for scholarly writing].
Ex. I believe that “Friends” is an excellent show because when you watch it, it makes you feel good about life. REVISE: “Friends” is an excellent show that can make one feel good about life.
Exercise: Correct the following.
Exact Language:
1. The health officer decided to check out the restaurant’s kitchen.
2. It was a sure thing that the President would be re-elected.
Modifiers:
3. Although not invited to speak at the conference, Blair’s address excited the audience.
4. Although hidden under the doormat, the burglar easily found the spare key.
5. Being from a small town, riding the subway was a new experience for Leslie.
6. Before donating these clothes to Goodwill, they must be cleaned.
7. Having seen the play on Broadway, the movie came as a disappointment to Madeline.
Comma Splices and Fused Sentences.
8. A protagonist is the main character in a story. An antagonist is an adversary.
9. A snowstorm can lead to dangerous driving conditions. An ice storm can result in serious accidents too.
10. An eclipse usually lasts only a few minutes. The sun, moon, and Earth do not remain in alighment but instead are in constant motion.
11. The medicine chest is no place for small children, precautions should be taken with them.
12. Some people have overstocked medicine chests others lack the bare necessities.
13. Tea can also be used to soothe bites or sunburn it should not be used on a serious burn.
14. Many of today’s adults recall drinking ginger ale to soothe an upset stomach, carbonated drinks of any kind still do the trick.
Commas:
15. Bearden founded Spiral a black artists’ group in the 1960’s.
16. Bearden’s work which has toured the country includes both urban and rural images.
17. Johnny Cash was raised, in and around, Kingsland, Arkansas.
18. While on tour, Johnny fell in love with, June Carter, and asked her several times to marry him.
19. From an early age Johnny wanted to be a singer, and practiced while he was in the army.
20. In 1999, Cash released one of his greatest albums, called, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, which he performed live, for the inmates.
Semi-colons:
21. Some people don’t watch television however, bad programs survive.
22. Exercise is an essential activity it keeps people healthy.
23. Evan, a single man, adopted three children. He provided them with a family atmosphere.
24. One of his children had trouble learning. Evan took him to many doctors.
Person:
25. I think that the main character Emily in Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” symbolizes the idea of tradition. When you read the story, you find out that even as Emily grows older, she is unwilling or unable to change her views and attitudes to adapt to the changing world around her. In my opinion, this has devestating consequences for her.
ERRORS
I advise students to revise their essay ONE SENTENCE AT A TIME for grammatical errors.
Sometimes it is difficult to find errors by editing our own papers. Sometimes it helps to see these erroneous sentences isolated in a list. Look at the sentences below; they are from student essays. Try to point out what the errors are in each sentence. This is a learning exercise.
Essay Errors:
1. The American man who does not want to deal with a baby and the girl, Jig who plans to keep her baby; both discuss about what to do with the unborn.
2. Persuading Jig to make up her mind, he explains “they just let the air in and it is perfectly natural” (147).
3. Interpreting he knows how an operation works and makes it seem like it is something not to be afraid of.
4. Conformity holds the poer to tradition. It is determines the efficacy of institution and the likelihood of its continuation.
5. The drawing of the slips of paper in this book is a tradition that has been done for generations in the small town. [topic statement]
6. With all the traditions not being correct, the village does not acknowledge this.
7. The villagers being born into this tradition, they have been victimized from their rights.
8. In the short time following the setting of the time of the story there was a shift in ideas and in morals in society people began to think more outside the box, they were questioning what they had been told and were beginning to rebel.
9. She responds by talking back and shouts, “we are decent”.
10. In the story, Tessie states, “It isn’t fair. It isn’t right” (Jackson 449). She states this after her family, and eventually herself, have been chosen to be sacrificed.
11. For the Hutchinson’s this is a normal thing to do and not out of the ordinary “Get up there, Bill, Mrs. Hutchinson said, and the people near her laughed” (446) until there the ones being chosen to be killed.
12. They seem to stick with the past “women, wearing faded house dresses and sweaters” (443) with the whole thing that the men have the lead role.
Sometimes it is difficult to find errors by editing our own papers. Sometimes it helps to see these erroneous sentences isolated in a list. Look at the sentences below; they are from student essays. Try to point out what the errors are in each sentence. This is a learning exercise.
Essay Errors:
1. The American man who does not want to deal with a baby and the girl, Jig who plans to keep her baby; both discuss about what to do with the unborn.
2. Persuading Jig to make up her mind, he explains “they just let the air in and it is perfectly natural” (147).
3. Interpreting he knows how an operation works and makes it seem like it is something not to be afraid of.
4. Conformity holds the poer to tradition. It is determines the efficacy of institution and the likelihood of its continuation.
5. The drawing of the slips of paper in this book is a tradition that has been done for generations in the small town. [topic statement]
6. With all the traditions not being correct, the village does not acknowledge this.
7. The villagers being born into this tradition, they have been victimized from their rights.
8. In the short time following the setting of the time of the story there was a shift in ideas and in morals in society people began to think more outside the box, they were questioning what they had been told and were beginning to rebel.
9. She responds by talking back and shouts, “we are decent”.
10. In the story, Tessie states, “It isn’t fair. It isn’t right” (Jackson 449). She states this after her family, and eventually herself, have been chosen to be sacrificed.
11. For the Hutchinson’s this is a normal thing to do and not out of the ordinary “Get up there, Bill, Mrs. Hutchinson said, and the people near her laughed” (446) until there the ones being chosen to be killed.
12. They seem to stick with the past “women, wearing faded house dresses and sweaters” (443) with the whole thing that the men have the lead role.
Can you find the errors?
Fall 2010, Essay 1... Errors from students' papers:
1. During the beginning of my freshman year of high school, the time when I was so unaware of who I was and what I wanted to be.
[This is a fragment, so fixing it requires significantly changing and completing the sentence.]
2. School is very important to me, I am an Education major.
[This is a comma splice because the comma is between 2 independent clauses. You can eliminate the comma and add "because" for an optimal fix.]
3. I studied hard, and attended tutoring.
[What comes after the conjunction is a dependent clause; it depends upon the rest of the sentence to make sense. Therefore, no comma is needed.]
4. On the other hand I had been working on a goal since my freshman year.
[You need commas after introductory phrases.]
5. "Hey listen, Grandma is sick again, and we aren't sure how much longer she has."
[All quotes need to be introduced in some way; they cannot be left "hanging" all alone as a sentence unto themselves.]
6. We convinced her to just hold the poor pitiful puppy with no home.
[Commas are used to separate 2 or more adjectives in a sentence.]
7. They went to the park together and Tank even got to eat people food when my mom wasn't around to stop it.
[Here the conjunction separates 2 independent clauses, which are complete sentences that can stand on their own. Therefore, a comma is needed before "and".]
8. They said if I wanted that car I would have to pay for it myself.
[2 errors: If this is a direct quote, then a comma is needed after said, as well as quotation marks around the quote. If it is not a direct quote, then the word "that" needs to come after "said". Also, anytime you write "If", you also need a "then" in the sentence.]
9. The shots were very disgusting but they were super cute colors...
[Comma before conjunction because it separates 2 independent clauses.]
10. Well, my parents wasn't happy about us not telling her, but was happy for us.
[The sentence has issues with agreement (parents is plural, her is singular-- wasn't should be weren't), and the comma needs to be eliminated because what follows the conjunction is a dependent clause. However, the second part of the sentence still needs a subject to be clear.]
11. I was willing to face any consequence, and sacrifice everything to pursue it.
[What is after the conjunction is dependent, so no comma is needed.]
12. She always had to look up at me which gave her an irresistible, helpless look.
[Commas usually come before "which" but not before "that".]
TIPS:
Don't put a comma after the main clause when a dependent (subordinate) clause follows it (except for cases of extreme contrast).
Incorrect: She was late for class, because her alarm clock was broken.
Incorrect: The cat scratched at the door, while I was eating.
Correct: She was still quite upset, although she had won the Oscar. (This comma use is correct because it is an example of extreme contrast)
Comma Abuse
Commas in the wrong places can break a sentence into illogical segments or confuse readers with unnecessary and unexpected pauses.
12. Don't use a comma to separate the subject from the verb.
Incorrect:An eighteen-year old in California, is now considered an adult.
Incorrect:The most important attribute of a ball player, is quick reflex actions.
13. Don't put a comma between the two verbs or verb phrases in a compound predicate.
Incorrect:We laid out our music and snacks, and began to study.
Incorrect:I turned the corner, and ran smack into a patrol car.
4. Do not use commas to set off essential elements of the sentence, such as clauses beginning with that (relative clauses). That clauses after nouns are always essential. That clauses following a verb expressing mental action are always essential.
That clauses after nouns:
The book that I borrowed from you is excellent.
The apples that fell out of the basket are bruised.
That clauses following a verb expressing mental action:
She believes that she will be able to earn an A.
He is dreaming that he can fly.
I contend that it was wrong to mislead her.
They wished that warm weather would finally arrive.
Examples of other essential elements (no commas):
Students who cheat only harm themselves.
The baby wearing a yellow jumpsuit is my niece.
The candidate who had the least money lost the election.
3. Use a pair of commas in the middle of a sentence to set off clauses, phrases, and words that are not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Use one comma before to indicate the beginning of the pause and one at the end to indicate the end of the pause.
Here are some clues to help you decide whether the sentence element is essential:
- If you leave out the clause, phrase, or word, does the sentence still make sense?
- Does the clause, phrase, or word interrupt the flow of words in the original sentence?
- If you move the element to a different position in the sentence, does the sentence still make sense?
If you answer "yes" to one or more of these questions, then the element in question is nonessential and should be set off with commas. Here are some example sentences with nonessential elements:
Clause: That Tuesday, which happens to be my birthday, is the only day when I am available to meet.
Phrase: This restaurant has an exciting atmosphere. The food, on the other hand, is rather bland.
Word: I appreciate your hard work. In this case, however, you seem to have over-exerted yourself.
Paragraph.
