REVIEW OF GRAMMAR Wrighting guud meens u gott 2 follo oll uf za ruls; lake korrect spelin, propper punctuashun end coreckt gramer. LuVLeH nut , aint’t !?!

Your Brain at work! Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

WHY THE FUSS? CREDIBILITY: How can a person’s work be considered believable if that person is so weak grammatically & linguistically as to be unable to write correctly?

WHY THE FUSS? ACCURACY: A misspelled word, a misplaced comma, or a missing verb can change, hide, or confuse the meaning of a sentence.

WHY THE FUSS? EFFICIENCY: A document that requires much effort to decipher simply will not be read. Likewise, the message of a speaker who is difficult to hear or follow will simply be ignored. In both cases, the effort is a waste.

WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA? Spelling Punctuation Use a spell checker or a dictionary Use a proof reader Punctuation Use a ___________

MORE CRITERIA Grammar and structure Use a ___________ Format

PAGE FORMATTING Use a cover sheet and NO PLASTIC COVERS! Staple pages at upper left hand corner Use FLUSH LEFT justification (ragged right)

MORE PAGE FORMATTING Double CHARACTER space between sentences Double LINE space within paragraph TRIPLE line space between paragraphs Margins: L=1.5”; R, T, & B=1.0”

STILL MORE FORMATTING: Page Numbers “Front Matter” (title page, table of contents, abstract, acknowledgements, and preface) – the pages preceding the text- are numbered using lower case Roman numerals.

STILL MORE FORMATTING: Page Numbers The first page of text is page 1, but the page number is not printed. Others are printed, centered at the bottom of the page preceded by your name, a comma, a space, Page, and the page number.

SPELLING Poor spelling reveals the writer’s lack of proper communication skills (ignorance harshly-stated) for all the world (or the person[s] the writer is trying to convince/impress/educate) to see. USE A SPELL CHECKER & PROOF-READ YOUR OWN WORK --- or have someone qualified to do so!!

SPELL CHECKERS Can’t find properly spelled- but misused- words (homonyms). For example, using the word “there” when you mean “their” is both a spelling error and an inappropriate word selection – a grammatical error!

PUNCTUATION Period Ends sentence and most abbreviations Decimal point URL* & E-Mail delimiters * Uniform/Universal Resource Locator

PUNCTUATION (CONT.) Question mark Direct, but not indirect (rhetorical) questions In parentheses to indicate uncertainty (?)

PUNCTUATION (CONT.) Exclamation point Comma Semicolon As conjunctions with adverbs. Separates independent clauses. Separates items in a series that contain internal commas.

PUNCTUATION (CONT.) Colon Following the salutation in a letter. Following the date, to, from, and subject headers in a memorandum. To separate a statement from its following amplifier.

PUNCTUATION (CONT.) Quotation marks Periods & commas stay within. Colons & semicolons stay outside. Exclamation and question marks may be either in or out, depending whether it is a part of a quotation.

PUNCTUATION (CONT.) Quotation marks- cont. Enclose titles of articles, book chapters, poems, and unpublished reports.

PUNCTUATION (CONT.) Use quotation marks to enclose verbatim phrases of less than fifty words. Verbatim phrases of fifty or more words should be set off by indenting as an entire paragraph five spaces and using single line spacing.

PUNCTUATION (CONT.) Apostrophe Ellipses 3 dots (…), each separated by a character space. Purpose?

PUNCTUATION (CONT.) Italics (for emphasis / used to get attention) Parentheses/Brackets: (…) […] {…} <…> Dashes: --- Underscore: _ _ _* (*Note: be extra careful with their usage in emails, to protect proprietary information.)

PUNCTUATION (CONT.) Hyphen (like dashes -, between words) Slash (slash or forward /) (backslash \) Capital versus lower-case letters Numbers (English uses Arabic numerals)

“Happily dancing on the table.” GRAMMATICAL ERRORS Fragmented sentence: pieces of sentences, or incomplete sentences. They do not have a subject + finite verb + any other necessary parts, actual or implied. Example: “Happily dancing on the table.” Comma splice: is the attempt to join two independent clauses with a comma, but without a coordinator. Example: Wrong:  - I got up late this morning, I didn't have time for breakfast. Correct: -  I got up late this morning. I didn't have time for breakfast.

Grammatical Errors – continued Fused sentence: also called a run-on, occurs when a writer has connected two main clauses with no punctuation. Example: “Driving home from school, Brett vowed to protect the fragile ecosystem all the while the tires of his Cadillac Escalade flattened the toads hopping on the wet streets.” Corrected as follows: “Driving home from school, Brett vowed to protect the fragile ecosystem. All the while, the tires of his Cadillac Escalade flattened the toads hopping on the wet streets.”

Grammatical Errors – continued Choppy sentences: too many short simple sentences can make your writing appear unsophisticated and your ideas seem disconnected. Examples: Choppy: Bears emerge from hibernation in the spring. They wander through wetlands. They feed mainly on grasses. Revised: When bears emerge from hibernation in the spring, they wander through wetlands and feed mainly on grasses.

Grammatical Errors – continued Faulty coordination: occurs when two ideas are not of equal value; one of the ideas should be subordinated.  Examples: Wrong: We keep our rat poison, insecticides, and paint thinner locked in a cupboard and we are conscientious about our children’s safety. Corrected: We keep our rat poison, insecticides, and paint thinner locked in a cupboard because we are conscientious about our children’s safety.

MORE GRAMMATICAL ERRORS Faulty subordination Faulty agreement — with subject & verb singular/plural Dangling modifiers Faulty parallelism

Faulty Subordination Faulty subordination occurs when the more important clause is placed in a subordinate position in the sentence or when the expected relation between clauses is reversed. Example:  Japanese-made cars are popular with American consumers although their import poses at least a short-term threat to the livelihood of some American workers (In an essay or composition about he problems of the American worker this sentence would take attention away from the worker and incorrectly emphasize Japanese-made cars.) Correct faulty subordination by changing the position of the subordinating word or phrase; Example:  Although Japanese-made cars are popular with American consumers, their import poses at least a short-term threat to the livelihood of some American workers.

Faulty Agreement Be sure that your subject agrees with the verb, even when there are intervening components of the sentence. In the sentence: “The group of bizarrely dressed youths are taking over the cafeteria.” The writer has used a plural verb because of the proximity of "youths," but the subject of the sentence is "group." The sentence should read: “The group of bizarrely dressed youths is taking over the cafeteria.”

Dangling Modifiers A dangling modifier is a word or phrase that modifies a word not clearly stated in the sentence. A modifier describes, clarifies, or gives more detail about a concept. The following sentence has an incorrect usage: “Having finished the assignment, the TV was turned on.” The statement is better structured as such: “Having finished the assignment, Jill turned on the TV.”

Faulty Parallelism Faulty parallelism occurs when the elements put into pairs and series "go in different directions" because they do not have the same form. In other words, nouns should be coordinated with nouns, verbs with verbs, adjectives with adjectives, adverbs with adverbs, phrases with phrases, and clauses with clauses. WRONG:  ~He liked to play basketball and riding horses. CORRECT: ~He liked playing basketball and riding horses. ~He liked to play basketball and to ride horses ~He liked to play basketball and ride horses.

MORE GRAMMATICAL ERRORS Inappropriate word choices: - Words that sound similar (almost like homonyms), but have quite different meanings. - Idea (a thought) vs. Ideal (a standard of perfection).

DOCUMENTING SOURCES (CITATIONS) The APA* Manual is the standard for documentation formatting. Language Skills Handbook (2nd edition), covers most of the bases. * American Psychological Association

MORE YET ON SOURCE DOCUMENTATION The primary factor in formatting citations and referencing is to be honest and consistent. Nonetheless, the appropriate format should be used.

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