Day 1 The Great Depression Skills and Explanations Introductory Prepositional Phrase When you have a prepositional phrase that begins a sentence and it is more than three words, you must use a comma after the phrase. Prepositional phrases of less than four words do not have to have a comma after them; however, it is correct to use one in these cases if you wish. Adverbs Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. They often end in –ly. Adjectives never describe other adjectives; they only describe nouns or pronouns.

Commonly Misused Words: Doubt with But When one uses the word doubt, do not follow it with the word but.

Day 2 Unnecessary Capitalization When a word is not a proper noun, proper adjective or a title before a name, do not capitalize it unless it is the first word of a sentence. Adjectives that modify proper nouns are not capitalized. And or But at the Beginning of a Sentence In formal writing, eliminate the conjunctions and or but at the beginning of sentences. This helps to make sure that you do not write a sentence fragment.

Pronoun Cases There are three cases (forms): Subjective case is for pronouns used as the subject. (I, you, he, she, it, we, they, who) The objective case is for pronouns used as objects of verbs or prepositions.(me, you, him, her, it, us, them, whom) Possessive case is for pronouns that express ownership. (my/mine, your/yours, his, her/hers, it/its, our/ours, their/theirs, whose)

Day 3 Run-on Sentence: Corrected with a Coordinating Conjunction and a Comma One way to correct a run-on sentence is to place a comma and then a coordinating conjunction between the two independent clauses. The doctors knew that Myron was different, they weren't ready to discover that he had three hearts, though. Incorrect The doctors knew that Myron was different, but they weren't ready to discover that he had three hearts, though. Correct Coordinating Conjunctions A coordinating conjunction is a word which joins together two independent clauses (has both a subject and predicate) that are equally important. A comma comes before the conjunction.

Unclear Antecedent An antecedent is the noun to which a pronoun refers. If the antecedent is unclear- difficult to decide the noun to which the pronoun refers-correct the pronoun by using a specific noun in its place. If the pronouns you and they are used, make sure that there is actually an antecedent identifiable in the passage. Be careful not to use the same propsition twice to refer to two different antecedents. At times, a sentence can be rewritten to bring the pronoun closer to its antecedent and thus make the antecedent clear. Subject and Verb Agreement The verb of a sentence should argree in number with the subject. The dog eat out of that bowl so I wouldn't use it for cereal. Incorrect The dog eats out of that bowl so I wouldn't use it for cereal. Correct Do not let words that come between the subject and the verb influence the number of the verb.

Day 4 Capitalization of the Name of a Geographic Area When you refer to a geographic area, such as "in the South," the area is to be capitalized. Names of directions (north, south, east, west) are not capitalized if they refer to the direction itself. Commonly Confused Words: There versus Their versus They're The word there indicates a place. There is my favorite broken spatula. The word their indicates that they own whatever the pronoun is modifying. Their spatula is made of gold and rubber. The word they're is the contraction for they are. They're not happy with the spatula's performance.

Sequence of Verb Tenses In a sentence with two clauses, the verbs must show simultaneous occurance or sequence of occurance. If one verb is in the past tense and another verb occured before it, the verb that occured first needs to be in the pluperfect or past perfect tense (using the helping verbs had, has etcetera). If one verb is in the past tense and another verb that occured at the same time is in the present, you must change the second verb so that both verbs are in the same tense. Because she murdered him, Myron did not come to Sally's party. Incorrect Because she had murdered him, Myron did not come to Sally's party. Correct We went to the party and play many games. Incorrect We went to the party and played many games. Correct

Day 5 Use of Colon: Clarifying Idea Colons are used to separate a rule, an explanation, an illustration, an idea that clarifies what comes before it, or an example from a preceding independent clause. Subject and Verb Agreement: There plus a Verb The verb of a sentence should agree in number with the subject. In the case of sentences that begin with the word there, the verb agrees with the noun or pronoun to which there refers. There are a dog on my forehead. Incorrect There is dogs on my forehead. Incorrect There is a dog on my forehead. Correct There are dogs on my forehead. Correct

Correlative Conjunctions Conjunctions are words used to link things together. Correlative conjunctions are two conjunctions that always appear together in a sentence. The most common correlative conjunctions are either...or, neither...nor, not only...but also, and whether...or.