Argumentative Essays Common problems…

Common Problems Commas Pronoun-antecedent and subject-verb agreement (P-A and S-V) Hyphens Claims and Counterclaims Unclear pronoun-antecedent referents Avoiding personal pronouns and personal stories Writing out numbers

Commas and Semicolons Commas separate independent clauses and dependent clauses. Example: Because I enjoy Italian food, I learned to cook lasagna. Semicolons separate two independent clauses that are related. Example: I enjoy Italian food; I learned to cook lasagna. – *When you use a comma in place of a semicolon, you have created a comma splice! You can also join two independent clauses with a comma and a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), or a semicolon and a conjunctive adverb (however, moreover, nevertheless, etc.). – Example: I like Italian food, and I learned to cook lasagna. – Example: I like to cook; however, I cannot make lasagna.

Commas and Semicolons, cont’d Tip: You can begin a sentence with a conjunctive adverb as long as it is followed by a comma. When joining two sentences, be sure to precede the conjunctive adverb with a semicolon and follow it with a comma. Tip: Remember that commas separate items in a list (include the Oxford comma, please!) and come before coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) ONLY when they are joining two independent clauses. – Strong: I enjoy eating ice cream, and I enjoy eating cake. – Weak: I enjoy eating ice cream, and cake. – Strong: I enjoy eating chocolate, peanut butter, and butter pecan ice creams. – Weak: I enjoy eating chocolate, peanut butter and butter pecan ice creams. Tip: Remember that semicolons by themselves join two related independent clauses. COMMAS CANNOT DO THIS! – Strong: I enjoy eating ice cream; I also enjoy eating cake. – Weak: I enjoy eating ice cream, I also enjoy eating cake.

Practice: Insert commas and/or semicolons where necessary. Write a “C” if the sentence is written correctly. 1. The rabbit ran to the meadow and jumped through the flowers. 2. Frodo barked loudly at the window but I didn’t see anyone out there when I looked. 3. I looked outside but didn’t see anything. 4. I looked outside I didn’t see anything. 5. Mrs. Smith likes diamond earrings pearl bracelets and ruby neclaces.

Pronoun-Antecedent and Subject-Verb Agreement Quick Summary: Subjects and their verbs, pronouns, and antecedents must agree in terms of number (singular/one or plural/ more than one) and gender (male, female, neutral).pronouns Ex: The boy picks up his hat. Ex: All of the cats eat their food. Ex: One of the people picks up his or her form. Rules for Subject-Verb Agreement: The number of the subject usually is not determined by a word in a phrase or clause following the subject. – Example: The apartments across the street do not have balconies. (Do have agrees with apartments, not street.)

As well as, along with, together with, and in addition to are compound prepositions. Words in phrases beginning with compound prepositions do not affect the number of the subject or verb. – Example: Anne, together with her cousins, is backpacking in Nevada. Subjects joined by and take a plural verb, and subjects joined by or or nor take a singular verb. – Sam and Nick are going to the store. Tom or Bob is going to the store. Singular Words for Subject-Verb and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement: (all these words take singular verbs and make a noun or pronoun singular): anybody, every, no one, someone, anyone, everybody, nobody, something, each, everyone, either, neither, somebody – Ex: Someone who likes English usually makes it his or her major in college. (Someone is always singular, so it takes a singular verb, and we don’t know the gender, so we have to say his or her).

These Words are Just Tricky (these antecedents may be singular or plural, so you will need to check what they’re referring to in order to determine whether to give them singular or plural verbs and pronouns): All, many, more, most, none, some – Examples:All of the students take their bags. All of the pie is delicious. Some of the soup fills its bowl. Most of her cooking tastes good; it is delicious.

Biggest P-A Errors Singular Antecedents with plural pronouns: – Incorrect: Someone who watches this commercial will want to change their actions. – Correct: Someone who watches this commercial will want to change his or her actions. Unclear/unmatched antecedents: – Incorrect: The commercial wants to convince their audience to turn off the faucet. (The commercial is singular, and it doesn’t have feelings, so it doesn’t want anything). – Correct: The commercial’s creators want to convince their audience to turn off the faucet.

Practice 1.Each of the students should pick up (his/her/their) folder. 2.A person who doesn’t understand something should ask (his/her/their) teacher. 3.None of the ice cream flavors (is/are) my favorite. 4.The commercial effectively advertises their product.

Claims and Counterclaims Each counterclaim must specifically refute the claim. – Incorrect: Claim: This commercial uses logos effectively. Counterclaim: While the commercial may use logos effectively, it fails to make effective use of pathos. – Correct: Claim: This commercial uses logos effectively. Counterclaim: Some may argue that the commercial does not, in fact, use logos effectively because it does not use recent sources. This counterclaim is faulty because the facts provided are historical facts from long ago; therefore, recent sources are not necessary as the facts themselves have not changed in many years.

Hyphens Compound adjectives that precede a noun are hyphenated. Compound adjectives that come after a noun are not hyphenated. – Mr. Smith is a well-respected teacher. – Mr. Smith is a teacher who is well respected. – I am wearing a brightly-colored shirt. – My shirt is brightly colored. – Look at my state-of-the-art game room! – My game room is state of the art.

Numbers Write out numbers less than one hundred or those that can be written in two or fewer words. Write out all numbers that start a sentence. – One hundred (two words) – Six (less than one hundred and two or fewer words) – 1,215 (more than one hundred and can’t be written in two or fewer words) – 7.6 (can’t be written in two or fewer words) – 1.5 million (more than one hundred and can’t be written in two or fewer words)

Other Stuff Super Bowl is capitalized Don’t use personal pronouns in formal writing (i.e. Narratives are OK to use personal pronouns, but argumentative essays are not. The argumentative AP prompt is OK, but the analysis AP prompt is not.) The same goes for personal stories. No “I think,” “I feel,” or “In my opinion…”

Task: For each topic/rule with which you struggled in your paper, do the following: – Write the topic/rule. – Write one incorrect application of the rule from your paper— exactly how it is written in your paper. – Revise that example to make it correct. – Highlight the error in your paper If you did not break any of these rules in your paper, do the above assignment for another area of weakness in your paper. Don’t forget to highlight the mistake! Homework submitted without highlighted papers will receive a zero.