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Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic A word that describes or modifies a verb. Example: “Quickly” in the phrase “he ran quickly.” To learn about adverbs of manner, click here.here USE: The part of speech that is used to name a person, place, thing, quality, or action and can function as the subject or object of a verb, the object of a preposition, or an appositive. The part of speech that modifies a noun or other substantive by limiting, qualifying, or specifying and distinguished in English morphologically by one of several suffixes, such as -able, -ous, -er, and -est, or syntactically by position directly preceding a noun or nominal phrase. The part of speech that expresses existence, action, or occurrence in most languages.

Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic (When a participle phrase is used to begin a sentence, it should be set off by a comma.) A participle is an adjective formed from a verb, when one changes a verb in order to make it describe. Adding “-ing” to a verb makes a present participle. A past participle is formed differently, since not all verbs form the past tense regularly. We saw Mr. Swindells jumping into the lake. Here the participle phrase “jumping into the lake" acts as an adjective describing the proper noun “Mr. Swindells." A participle phrase usually begins with a participle

Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition… … and usually ends with a noun or pronoun (called the object of the preposition). In the sentence, “Mr. Swindells hit the ball over the fence,” the prepositional phrase “over the fence” modifies the verb “hit,” because the phrase tells us more about the verb (it explains the distance of the hit). Don’t be confused — “over the fence” does not modify the noun “ball,” because — unless the ball was corked — going “over the fence” has nothing to do with the “ball.” It’s the “hit” that sends it out of the yard! I tried on every dress in the store. You can come to my house. Noun being modified Prepositional phrase Prepositional phrase Verb phrase Being modified *

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Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic Two words brought together as a compound may be written separately, as one word, or connected by hyphens. For example, three modern dictionaries all have the same listings for the following compounds: hair stylisthairsplitterhair-raiser Another modern dictionary, however, lists hairstylist, not hair stylist. Compounding is obviously in a state of flux, and authorities do not always agree in all cases, but the uses of the hyphen offered here are generally agreed upon. However, when compound modifiers come after a noun, they are not hyphenated: The peanuts were chocolate covered. The author was well known. a one-way street chocolate-covered peanuts well-known author forty-six sixty-threeOur much-loved teacher was sixty-three years old. re-sign a petition (vs. resign from a job) (and make the break only between syllables) pref-er-ence sell-ingin-di-vid-u-al-ist Slide 2For line breaks, divide already hyphenated words only at the hyphen: mass-produced ex-husband self-assured mid-September all-inclusive mayor-elect anti-American T-shirt pre-Civil War mid-1980s

Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic We use adverbs of manner to tell us how something happened. They describe the way or style of doing something: You can dance well.She sang that song badly. We usually put them at the end of the sentence, though sometimes they come before the main verb: That book was written badly.That book was badly written. Many of these adverbs end in -ly: awkwardly, badly, coldly, desperately... Common irregular adverbs of manner include: high, late, near, well Information adapted from: training.net/companion/gg/adverbs/advmanner.htmhttp:// training.net/companion/gg/adverbs/advmanner.htm Adverb, verbVerb, adverb,

Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic Novels Songs Scenes ArticlesAlbums Movies Periodicals Names of bands, people, and places. Titles of chapters. The title as it appears before one’s own work.

Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic CAPITALIZATION RULES 1) Capitalize the pronoun I. Example: Jennifer and I went to the movies yesterday. 2) Capitalize the first letter of the first word of each sentence. Example: Learning to capitalize correctly will improve your writing.Example: Learning to capitalize correctly will improve your writing. 3) Capitalize the first letter of names of people, organizations, and places. Example: Juan went on a trip to Tokyo, Japan for his company, General Motors Corporation.Example: Juan went on a trip to Tokyo, Japan for his company, General Motors Corporation. 4) Capitalize the first letter of adjectives that are made from the names of people and places. Example: I like Mexican food.Example: I like Mexican food. 5) Capitalize initials Example: My brother's favorite author is H.G. Wells. Example: My brother's favorite author is H.G. Wells. 6) Capitalize the first letter of directions only when they are used to designate actual places, not when they point in a direction. Example: When we visited the Southwest, we actually had to drive north. Example: When we visited the Southwest, we actually had to drive north. 7) Capitalize the first letter of the names of months and the days of the week. Example: My birthday will be on a Friday next June.Example: My birthday will be on a Friday next June. 10) Capitalize the first letter of important words in a title of a book, magazine, story, essay, etc. Example: I enjoyed Mark's essay, "The Truth About Being a Good Student."Example: I enjoyed Mark's essay, "The Truth About Being a Good Student." 11) Capitalize historical events and documents. Example: The Emancipation Proclamation was issued during the Civil War.Example: The Emancipation Proclamation was issued during the Civil War. 12) Capitalize the name of languages, races, nationalities, and religions. Example: I learned in Spanish class that several Hispanics are Catholic.Example: I learned in Spanish class that several Hispanics are Catholic. 13) Capitalize acronyms. (An acronym is a word formed by the first, or first few, letters of words in a long name of an organization.) Example: CARE is the Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere.Example: CARE is the Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere. 14) Capitalize initialisms. (An initialism is similar to acronym, but a word is not formed from the letters.) Example: The Central Intelligence Agency is simply known as the CIA.Example: The Central Intelligence Agency is simply known as the CIA.

Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic They’re — contraction for “they are” Think: “They R –E –eally” (say it like Jim Carrey) “must go!” There — indicator of location Think: “HERE or THERE?” Their — plural possessive Think: “Are all farmers in dells so possessive of their ‘E-I’s?” If they are going they R-E- eally are going, so If they’re there you know they’re not here, yo! It really doesn’t matter, just lettin’ ya know If they’re there with their, “E-I – E-I – Uh Oh!”

Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic Following these steps will help you to decide which form to use. a. Isolate the clause which contains who or whom. ex: The man (who, whom) she thought was perfect jilted her. (who, whom) was perfect b. Substitute the word he for who and him for whom. he was perfect or him was perfect c. Since he was perfect makes sense, you would use who. d. Sometimes you will have to rearrange the clause into normal word order.

Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic Run-on sentences contain multiple phrases that could each function on its own as a complete sentence. Run-ons often include more that one conjunction, such as multiple uses of “like,” “and," or “but.” To correct, change the word-order or punctuation. I work at Foulkeways and it is a pretty good place to work, because the people who work there are nice, all except for Lori she is mean I work at Foulkeways. It is a pretty good place to work because the people who work there are nice, except for Lori. She is mean! One solution:

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Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic Correct the mistakes in verb tense from the paragraphs at this website: Hey, you! Yeah, I’m talking to you. Don’t start writing in the past tense in the middle of a random paragraph when you’ve written the whole story in present tense up to that point! Look for unintentional shifts in tense when proofreading. Come on! Catch this when proof-reading!

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Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic Problematic and difficult Problematic, But aceessibile Self-evident Including quotes, facts, or information from another source into your own writing to help defend your thesis.

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Return to Table of Contents Go on to the next topic 1. John, the naughty boy, got a lump of coal in his stocking. 2. The painting Starry Night is by artist Vincent Van Gogh 3. Tom, my friend's brother, won the lottery. 4. The car, a Corvette, rumbled down the road. 5. Neil, the drummer for a successful rock band, performed at the stadium.

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Go on to the next topic Return to Table of Contents “They're are also homonyms; check there meaning their too.” — Look over all winnersAnd this is prize! Click here for a list of homonyms!

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Go on to the next topic Return to Table of Contents Something that represents sonething else, especially concrete representation of moral or intellectual quality. A manner of speaking or writing that shows a certain attitude on the part of the speaker or writer, consisting in choice of words, phrasing, etc. A mode of speech in which the meaning is the opposite of that actually expressed.

Go on to the next topic Return to Table of Contents If you want to write or speak about one person without giving away his or her gender… should never go to bed angry atspouse. (not “their spouse”) Everyone is entitled toopinion. can go too.If you have a boyfriend or girlfriend, ( not “their opinion”) (not “they can go too”)

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Go on to the next topic Return to Table of Contents Don’t take my word for it … to check out Purdue University’s OWL writing site for more on parallel structure, click here.click here Using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. I enjoy eat ice cream, tak baths, and when I go fishing. go fishing.

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