Confusing Words

Who vs. Whom Who –Substitutes for the subject –Example: Who let the dogs out? Whom –Substitutes for objective pronouns (him, her) –Example: Whom did he question? –And serves as the object of a preposition –Example: Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

That vs. Which That –Use with essential phrases –Example: Go to the door that reads, “ Clinic 1. ” Which –Use with non-essential phrases –Example: The test, which was given Thursday, was difficult.

Among vs. Between Between –Use with two. –Example: He split the Calzone between Tim and Susan, because it was bigger than Tim ’ s head. Among –Use with three or more. –Example: We divided the money among the five children.

Affect vs. effect Affect –A verb that means influence –Example: The drought will affect the color of the fall foliage. Effect –A noun that means result –Example: The medicine has unpleasant side effects.

Compose vs. comprise Compose –Means to make up –Example: The class is composed of 25 students. Comprise –Means to include –Example: Our class comprises five women and six men.

Making sense of sentences Avoid –Fragments –Run-on sentences –Faulty parallelism –Modifier misplacement

Fragments He waited but. The man in the plaid suit said. A march for justice.

Run-ons We visited the hospital, and we saw the doctor, and he said to come back tomorrow, and we did, and then he said to come back the next day, and we did, and then he said we were too late, so we went home.

Faulty parallelism: Some more examples J He planned his story, wrote the article and turned in his paper on time. L He enjoys reading and to go skiing. L Our trip includes stops in: –London, England –A stop in Paris, France –Washington, D.C.

Misplaced modifiers L The tourists saw a herd of sheep on their way to their hotel. J On their way to their hotel, the tourists saw a herd of sheep. L Needing oil, the mechanic drove the car into the garage. J The car needed oil, so the mechanic drove it into the garage.

Confusing Words To; Two; Too

What Each One Means: ‘To’ : Shows movement towards: e.g. He is going to school. ‘To’ also indicates the infinitive of a verb. E.g. She hopes to win a prize. ‘Two’ : Is a number. E.g. The two boys are with two lovely girls. ‘Too’ : Means ‘also’, ‘enough’ ‘more than enough’, ‘likewise’ Example: The inspector asked too many difficult questions.

Why not try writing the correct form of ‘to,too two’ in the following sentences.

1.David is ……….ill ……… go…………… the pop concert. 2.The last…….. days were………..wet……… play games. 3.The teacher told me…….. leave for home at….. o’clock. 4.My……… sisters travel………school by bus. 5.I am…….. young ………be admitted……the dance. 6.It is ……early ………retire …….bed. 7.The question was………… hard ………… answer. 8.If you are going…..the pop concert may I come…..? 9.It is ………soon after dinner……go swimming. 10.He showed us…….ways……..solve the problem.

Now Check Your Answers! 1. Too, to, to. 2. Two, too, to. 3. To, two. 4. Two, to. 5. Too, to, to. 6. Too, to, to. 7. Too, to. 8. To, too. 9. Too. To 10. Two, to.

The Writing Process References © 2001 by Ruth Luman Steps in Writing an Essay Pre-Writing Planning and Organizing Drafting Revising and Editing Final Draft!

Introduction What is the writing process ? Writing an essay takes time. That’s why writing is often referred to as a process. In other words, there are several steps to go through before you have a complete essay ready to turn in for a grade. In this lesson we will talk about those steps. They are: Pre-Writing Pre-Writing Organizing Organizing Drafting Drafting Revising and Editing Revising and Editing Handing in a Final Copy Handing in a Final Copy

Pre-Writing Step One Pre-writing literally means, “before writing.” Before you actually begin writing your essay, you will need to do the following things:  brainstorm or generate ideas for your topic  choose a topic to write on  focus in on central ideas

Organizing Step Two Making an outline can help you organize what you want to write. This is a rough plan for your essay and can help make the process of writing much easier. Essay Outline I.IntroductionThesis: _____________________ II.Body1. Topic Sentence: _____________ - supporting idea - supporting idea 2. Topic Sentence: ____________ - supporting idea 3. Topic Sentence: ____________ - supporting idea III.Conclusion

Drafting Step Three After getting ideas and making an outline of your essay, it is time to start writing the essay. When you begin writing your rough draft, try to remember the following guidelines. Don’t worry about writing the ‘perfect’ paper the first time. Your goal in writing a rough draft is to develop and support the ideas listed in your outline. Don’t focus on spelling and grammar as you write your rough draft. You can check this later in the writing process.

Revising and Editing Step Four After you write your first draft, go back over it and look for ways to improve your essay in content and organization. This step is called revision. After you revise for content and organization, begin editing your draft for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure errors. Content and Organization Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, etc. RevisionEditing

The Final Copy Step Five The last step is turning in your essay to be graded. Look at the guidelines below for turning in the final draft of your essay.  word-processed  all new paragraphs indented five spaces  8 ½ by 11 inch white paper  double spaced, size 12 font  one inch margins on all sides

Evaluation Now, you are ready to review what you’ve learned. Click on the button below to return to Unit A. Do the interactive exercise. Then click on the essay rubric link to see how your essay will be evaluated.

References PowerPoint Presentation by Ruth Luman: Modesto Junior College. Reid, J. (1993). Teaching ESL Writing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents. This project incorporates portions of copyrighted works. These items are included under the fair use exemption of the U.S. Copyright Law and have been prepared according to the educational fair use guidelines. They are restricted from further use.