1. THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY Common writing snafus that will cause your writing to end in disaster. By Mrs. Spear

2. NEVER USE THE FOLLOWING: Any form of “you” – you/your/you’re – Unless it is in a quote. – Only used in directions, letters Contractions in formal writing – don’t - do not – Cannot is one word. It at the beginning of a sentence Percent signs (%) at the beginning of sent. There are…/There is… - they are extra and unnecessary

3. Phrases to avoid at all costs I think…, I feel…, I believe… - do not start sentences with these three phrases. “I plan on telling you in this essay about what I’m going to tell you about.” – 5 th grade mentality “I’m going to write about …..” – 5 th grade again “ I hope you enjoyed my essay” – once again 5 th grade

4. WORDS are POWERFUL or not Unique - Interesting Nice Lots/lot A lot of Very Like

5. Techniques in typing Do not repeat words – “quiet quiet” do you mean extremely quiet or is it a typo? Proper nouns are always capitalized (hold down the shift key and then hit the appropriate letter) – British, German, I, – Spelling – proofread – spell check is not always reliable – Hyphens – know when to use them. – Numbers – spell them out – 50 fifty (less than 100)

6. Sentence Structure Don’t use fragments, run-ons, or comma splices. Don’t end a sentence with a preposition “a” precedes consonant – a dog “an” precedes a vowel – an elephant “This +verb” – this is a demonstrative pronoun and must be followed by an object.

7. My markings MM – misplaced modifier X or / – take it out WC – word choice RO – run-on SS – sentence structure Sp? – spelling VA – verb agreement SV – subject/verb agreement VP – vague pronoun