G.L Commas Part 2: Direct Address, Appositives, Academic Degrees A noun of direct address names the person who is being spoken to (the person who is receiving the information in the sentence) The noun can be the person’s name or a “name” you are using for him/her They can appear anywhere in a sentence. We offset them with commas. Example: Miss Garby, are we going to read any poems by Frost? Please, Abby, recite the poem for us.

Appositives An appositive is a word or group of words that immediately follows a noun to identify or give more information about the noun Whether or not an appositive is offset with commas depends on how essential it is to the meaning of the sentence Nonessential appositives are offset with commas Essential appositives are not offset by commas

Academic Degrees When an academic degree or similar title follows a person’s name, it is usually abbreviated. (examples: M.D., D.D.S., Ph.D.) We use commas to offset academic degrees or other titles that follow a person’s name Example: Elizabeth Brown, Ph.D., analyzed Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queen for her doctoral thesis.

G.L Overused Adjectives/ Unnecessary Articles We should try to use more specific or interesting adjectives when we can. Overused adjectives: great, nice, good, bad, terrible, awful, rotten, wonderful, super Example: The Bowl Championship Game was good! (instead of good you could use stupendous, magnificent, thrilling)

Unnecessary Articles We have learned that a, an, and the are adjectives. Sometimes they are used unnecessarily. We do not use the before “both”. NO: The both of them need a vacation. We do not use a or an after the phrases “kind of”, “sort of”, or “type of” NO: Grandma was that kind of a person. NO: Do you like that type of a cat?

G.L Verbals as Adjectives: Infinitives and Participles An infinitive can function as a noun and can be the subject of a sentence. They can also function as adjectives. Infinitive as noun: To celebrate would be appropriate. Infinitive as adjective: This is the day to celebrate. Diagramming: we diagram an infinitive that is used as an adjective on stilts underneath the word it modifies (see board)

Participles A verb form that usually ends in ing or ed but sometimes ends in en, d, or t When a participle stands alone (without a helping verb), it usually functions as an adjective. Examples: Our barking dog irritated the neighbors. The carpenter could not use the bent nail.

Tense forms of the participle The participle has three tense forms: present, past, and perfect Present participle- hiding, speaking Past participle- hidden, spoken Perfect participle- having hidden, having spoken Diagramming participles- we place the participle on a pair of angled lines below the noun it modifies (see board)