Verb TenseDefinition:

Regular Types:

Rules:

Example:

Advanced Types:

Summary:

•A verb form that shows the time of action or condition.

•Past•Present•Future

•Verb tense must match the context of the sentence:•Bobby played with Joey yesterday.•Bobby plays with Joey every day.•Bobby will play with Joey tomorrow.

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Misplaced ModifierDefinition:

Example:

How to Fix:

Summary

•A description is placed too far away from the thing it is describing.

Flying near the ceiling of the cave, our class watched the bats.

-this makes it sound like the class is flying near the ceiling.

Put the description next to the thing it is describing.•Our class watched the bats flying near the ceiling of the cave.

ParallelismDefinition:

Bad Examples:

Fix:

Summary:

•Items in a list or compound sentences that have the same structure.

•Martin wants to become a doctor, lawyer, or teach history.•Lola spends every summer fishing, swimming, and to sail.

•Martin wants to become a doctor, lawyer, or history teacher.•Lola spends every summer fishing, swimming, and sailing.

Dialogue Rules

Regular Rules:

Advanced Rules:

Summary:

•Put double quotation marks around a person’s spoken words.

•“Hello,” Margie drawled.•Place punctuation inside the quotation marks.

• “What do you want?” Melissa asked.•Start a new paragraph every time a new person speaks.

• “I’ve come to pick up my belongings,” Margie responded.

“Well, I’ve already thrown them out,” Melissa laughed.

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Sentence Variety

Definition:

Why use it?

How do you use it?

•Using sentences of different lengths, patterns, and types

•It makes writing more interesting to read and helps the writing to flow.

•Add sentence openers•Adverbs: Suddenly, the tiger attacked.•Prepositional Phrase: Within minutes, the zebra was down. •‘ing verb: Hurrying, the tiger’s mate joined her.•To verb: To protect her kill, the tiger stayed awake.

•Mix sentence types•Statement•Question•Command•Exclamation

Sentence Variety

summary

•Vary sentence length•Short•Medium (combine 1-2 short sentences)•Long (combine several short sentences)

•Vary sentence patterns•Compound sentence: two sentences linked with FANBOYS.•Complex sentence: two ideas linked together with a subordinating conjunction

•Although•Because•If•When •During•While•Etc.