Ccontents:
1. Capitalization 2.Subject-Verb Agreement 3.Sentence
Parts and Types
4. Fragments 5. Run-ons 6. Commas
7.Apostrophes 8 Quotation Marks
9. Misplaced Modifiers. 10. Dangling 11.
Parallel Structure
12. Conciseness
Run-ons:
A run-on is two or more sentences that have been run
together without the proper punctuation. They are major
English errors. Run-on is incorrectly joined sentences, not
merely sentences that is too long and run on.
Two Types of Ron-on:
1.Fused Sentence Run-on
s v
s v
My grades are very good this semester my social life rates
only a C.
Fused Sentence Run-on = Sentence + Sentence.
Correcting: Use a
period and a capital letter to break the two complete
thoughts into separate sentences.
My grades are very good this semester.
My social life rates only a C.
2. Comma Splice
My grades are very good this
semester, my social life rates only a C.
Comma Splice Run-on = Sentence + Sentence.
Use a comma plus a
joining word to connect the two complete thoughts.
My grades are very good this semester,
but my social life rates only a C.
Use a semicolon to
mark the break between two thoughts.
My grades are very good this semester;
my social life rates only a C.
Semicolon with a
Transitional Word.
We were short of money; therefore, we
decided not to eat out that weekend.
Use Subordination
Although my grades are very good this
semester, my social life rates only a C.
Commas:
Commas are used mainly as follows:
1. To separate items in a series:
Frank's interests are Maria, television, and sports.
My mother put her feet up, sipped some iced tea, and opened the
newspaper.
2. To set off introductory material:
Although the Lone Ranger used lots of silver bullets, he never ran
out of ammunition.
To remove the cap of the aspirin bottle, you must first press down
on it.
3.Before and after words that interrupt the
flow of thought (insert) in a sentence
Kitty litter and Dredge Rivers, Hollywood's leading romantic starts, have
made several movies together.
Sarah, who is my next-door neighbor, just entered the hospital with an
intestinal infection.
An insert is a phrase or clause that
is not essential to the meaning of the word or words it
modifies. If it were removed, the sentence would still have
the same meaning.
Example: My neighbor, who is bald,
has lived in the same house for 25 years.
"who is bald" is an insert information, not needed to
identify the subject of the sentence. If you leave "who is
bald" out of sentence, the main idea is the same:
My neighbor has lived in the same house for 25 years.
People who are afraid of heights should not go rock
climbing.
"who are afraid of heights" supply essential
information-information needed for us to identify people
being spoken of. If the words were removed form from the
sentence, we would no longer know who should not go rock
climbing.
4.Before two complete thoughts connected by
and, but, for, or, so, yet
The wedding was scheduled for four o'clock, but the bride changed
her mind at two.
Verna took three coffee breaks before lunch, and then she went on a
two-hour lunch break.
5.To set off a direct quotation from the
rest of a sentence
Lola's mother asked her,
“What time do you expect to get home?”
"Don't bend over to pat the dog," I warned, "or
he'll bite you."
6. For certain everyday material
Roy ate seventeen hamburgers on July 29, 1992,
and lived to tell about it.
Roy lives at 817 Cresson Street, Detroit,
Michigan.
Apostrophes:
1.Possessives: To from the
possessive of a noun, and an apostrophe and an "s".
My family's cabin is near Yellowstone Park.
If the noun ends in "s", put an
apostrophe after the "s".
The boys' report cards are coming soon.
Janis' coat is on the chair.
Quotation:
Titles of short works are usually set off by
quotation marks. While titles of long works are underlined.
Use quotation marks to set off the titles of such short
works as articles in books, newspapers, or magazines;
chapters in a book; short stories; poems; and songs.
On the other hand, you should underline the titles of books,
newspapers, magazines, plays, movies, record albums, and
television shows.
Quotation Marks
Underlines
the article "The Mystique of Lawyers"
in the book Verdicts on Lawyers
the article "Getting a Fix on Repairs"
in the newspaper the New York Times
the article "Animal Facts and
Fallacies" in the magazine
Reader's Digest
the chapter " Why Do Men Marry?"
in the book Passages
the story "The night the Bed Fell"
in the book A Thurber Carnival
the poem "A Prayer for My Daughter"
in the book Poems of W.B.Yeats
The song "Beat It"
in the album Thriller
the television show Dateline NBC
the movie Gone with the Wind
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