1. Warm-Up: Setting Up Your Clocking Cover Sheet 1) Number every line in your essay. Ignore double-spaced gaps. 2) Set up a clean sheet like this: Your name Date Title of your essay CLOCKING CRITERIA Reader’s Name Errors w/Line #s

2. Clocking for “I Believe” Essay Mr. Johnson AP English Language and Composition Austin High School

3. Commas: As introductory dependent clauses Sentence Pattern: loose Construction: DC (or Non- essential modifier) at the start, IC

4. Commas: In compound sentences A comma and coordinating conjunction are used to join two independent clauses. Sentence pattern: balanced (each part of equal importance) Construction: IC, For And Nor But Or Yet So

5. Other uses of commas; semicolons You can also join two independent clauses with a semicolon: IC ;

6. Complex Sentences No comma between clauses ICDC DC Marker: because, before, since, while, although, if, until, when, after, as, as if, etc.

7. Mid-Sentence Modifiers IC,, Non- essential clause/ phrase Information inserted into a sentence but which is not grammatically necessary should be set off by commas on each side. This includes appositives and participial phrases. “Many doctors, including both pediatricians and family practice physicians, are concerned about the rising death rate from asthma.”

8. Parallelism In sentences containing closes arranged in parallel, make sure that each part of the list or pair is constructed the same way as the other part(s) “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” --Winston Churchill The (adj.)(noun) of (subject 1) is the (adj.) (verb) (noun) ; the (adj.) (noun) of (subject 2) is the (adj.) (verb) (noun).

9. Faulty Parallelism Nickelback Examples The French, the Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese It was both a long ceremony and very tedious. A time not for words, but action Correct Examples The French, the Italians, the Spanish, and the Portuguese The ceremony was both long and tedious. A time not for words, but for action

10. Subject-Verb Agreement: agreement in number Plural nouns (nouns ending in –s) must have plural verbs (verbs not ending in –s): If the noun indicates multiple groups or individual entities (“parts”) treat it as plural. – “Many AHS teachers take their coffee with cream and sugar.” – “Fort Bend ISD schools hope to improve their AP scores.” Singular nouns (nouns not ending in –s) must have singular verbs (verbs ending in –s): – “Mr. Johnson takes his coffee with cream and sugar.” If the noun is a singular organization (schools, sports teams, business groups, etc.), treat it as a singular noun: – “AHS hopes to improve its AP scores,” (also note the singular pronoun).

11. Subject-Verb Agreement: Tense Number Subject Verb Point of View Present Past (add-ed) Singular (one)I voice (1 st )I walk. I walked. You voice (2 nd )You walk. You walked. He/she/it voice (3 rd )He walks. She walked. (-s or –es) Plural We voice (1 st) We walk. We walked. (more than one)You voice (2 nd )You walk. You walked. They voice (3 rd )They walk. They walked.

12. Pronouns and Antecedents Make sure antecedent (the noun that is replaced by the pronoun) is clear. Generally, the farther away the pronoun is, the less clear. – Make note of any places where the antecedent of a pronoun is unclear to the reader. A pronoun must agree in number with the noun that it replaces. Pronouns must agree with the nouns that they replace. The same rules apply as with subject-verb agreement: – Singular nouns (including groups that function as a whole) take singular verbs. – Plural nouns (including parts of groups that act as separate individuals) take plural pronouns.

13. Misused Question Words/Missing Pronouns “How” and “why” are not pronouns: “This shows how the narrator cannot establish his own identity…” “This shows why the narrator cannot establish his own identity…” The above statements do not make grammatical sense—here, we are left with words that function as interrogatives (questions), but which remain unanswered because of the grammatical structure. “That” can function as a pronoun—in this case, “that” refers to, and “stands in” for, the information that follows: “The example shows the reader that the narrator cannot establish his own identity, implying that the society in which he lives dominates the individual and stifles the individual’s ability to develop an independent, self-defined indentity.”

14. Spelling Simply look over the work backwards; this eliminates the temptation to read everything.

15. MLA Check: Basic Format Griffin 1 Peter Griffin Mr. Johnson AP English III 22 September 2010 Correct MLA Format It is vital that you correctly format your essay according to MLA conventions. Make sure to double-space all lines, including the title and header. Include your last name and page number at the top right of the header. Use 1” margins. Make sure your title is formatted in the same fashion as the body of the essay—do not use bold, italicized, or underlined text in the title.

16. MLA Check: Works Cited See Trimmer’s A Guide to MLA Documentation: Sample Entries: Books in Print3 Sample Entries: Articles in Print Periodicals 7 Sample Entries: Miscellaneous Print and Nonprint Sources9 Sample Entries: Web Publications10 Placing and Punctuating Parenthetical Reference (and examples) 14-15