grammar graphic novel handout final

8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout FINAL

1/13

Noun Company Employees;

Implementation of the new HR system

will be depleated January 7th. DO NOT

USE PRIOR SYSTEM AFTER JAN. 6th

Be sure to take online training prior to

accessing the new system into our

learning management system. The Red

Word system will increase efficiency,

taking processes further, and

communication. You're pleasant

cooperation is grately.

Michael Manager, VP

Atthewatercooler...

Pete the Programmer and Eddy the Editor often

chit-chat at the water cooler in the afternoon to

see if anything new and exciting has happened.

Eddy the Editor was about to ask Pete the

Programmer what happened to his friend Anna

the Assistant. She recently applied for an

Administrative Assistant position at the Noun

Company where they both work. Pete beat Eddy

to the punch and started complaining about the

new system memo.

Hey, man.what's up?

EddyPete

If the

vicepresident

doesn't takethe time tolook at hismemo, whyshould i?


2/13

Thinkabouthowyouraudiencewillperceiveyourmessage.Emphasizewordswithstyling,suchasitalicandbold,andavoid

usingallcapitalletters.

usedincorrectpreposition(MichaelManagershouldhavewrittenviaourlearningmanagementsysteminsteadof"into")

failedtouseparallelstructure,whichcausesconfusion.

usedthewordYourinsteadof"You're,"whichisacontractionofyouare

misspelleddepletedandgreatly

Emphasis

Eddy'sNotes

he shouldn't haveused all caps in

that one sentencethat tells us not to

use the old systemafter january 6th. itmakes me feel like

he is yelling atme!

as an editor, iknow how you feel,

pete. plus, He shouldnot have used a semicolon(;) in the greeting of thememo. You always use a

colon (:) at thebeginning of a

business letter.

iwonder if

the VP knewhow people

would react this poorly

writtenmemo.


3/13

it goes without saying thatyou should always use spellcheck in your email or word

processing software...

...but you haveto be extrasmart when

using grammarcheck!!In the example below, grammar

check has marked an error with asquiggle underline. grammar

check says the phrase is asentence fragment although it isactually a complete sentence.

So, why did grammar check get itwrong?


4/13

Sentences that tell youto do

something, such as "Press Enter on

your keyboard," are commands.

Command sentences are also known

as imperative sentences. Theygive

instructions or requests. Whenyou

are telling someone to press the

Enter key, you do not have to say

"Youpress Enter on your keyboard"

because the listener or readeralready understands thatyouare

speaking to him or her. This is also

known as the Universal Youbecause

it couldrefer to anyone who is

currentlyreading the sentence. With

YouUnderstood or Universal You,

there is no third person involved in

the conversation or writing.

You Understood/Universal You

thesubject is

the personor thing that

the sentenceis about.

thepredicate isthe rest of

the sentencethat describes

what thesubject does

or is.

grammarcheck thinks

the subject ismissing!

{Eddy} {likes to wear ties.}

SUBEJCTPREDICATE


5/13

Contractionsaretw

owordspushed

together.It'slikew

henanathleteflex

esor

contractshismusc

lestobringaheavy

weightclosertohi

m.Withcontractio

ns,we

canbringwordsto

getherandmaketh

em

shorter.Wepushtw

owordstogethera

nd

thenshowthatsom

elettersaremissin

gby

insertinganapostr

ophe.Inhismemo,

the

VPwroteYou're,whic

hmeansyouarein

thesentenceYou'repleasantcooper

ationis

grately.Hedidn'tm

eantousea

contraction.Hem

eanttowriteYour

,which

isapossessivepron

ounshowingthat

somethingbelongs

tosomeone.

TheVicePresidentalsohadamajorparallel

structure issue.Itisdifficulttounderstand

whatthefollowingsentencemeans:The Red

Wordsystemwillincreaseefficiency,taking

processesfurther, andcommunication.Itis

besttousethesameverbformswhenlisting

actions. Forexample,Juanlikesswimming,

running,andskiing.Thesentencehasparallel

structure.Thissentencedoesnot:Juanlikes

toswim, running,andtoski.Thissentenceis

awkwardbecauseitdoes nothave parallel

structure.WecouldalsorewriteitasJuan

likesto swim,run,andski.IfwewerecorrectingtheVP'smemo,wecouldwriteThe

RedWordsystemwillincreaseefficiency,

extendprocesses, andfacilitate

communication.

ParallelStructure

Contractions

whatelse could

we fix?

keep allitems in alist in the

same form tavoid

awkwardnesand

confusion.

somedayi'll have

muscles.

can + not =can't.

rememberthe

apostrophe!

WOULD + HAVE =WOULD'VE


6/13

In the VP's memo, he couldhave

chosen abetter preposition forhissentence about taking online training.Which prepositionwouldyou useinsteadofinto? Be sure to take online

training priorto accessing the new

systemintoourlearning managementsystem. Would through, by, in, orsince be the best preposition?

Be sure to take online training prior

to accessing the new systemthrough

ourlearning management system.

Picking the correct preposition is

not always easy, and sometimes

more than one choice is

appropriate. Here is a definition of

preposition from dictionary.com:

any member of aclass of words

found inmany languages that areused before nouns, pronouns, or

other substantives to form

phrases functioning as modifiers of

verbs, nouns, or adjectives, and that

typicallyexpressa spatial,

temporal, or other relationship, as

in, on, by, to, since.

Water flows under bridges.

Prepositions Whatwould we do

withoutprepositions? We

wouldn't knowwhether to go

through or aroundor to or

beneath!

they don't call meeddy the editor

for nothing!


7/13

AnnatheAssistantappliedforagreat

jobattheNounCompanywhereEddy

andPetework.Shewouldhavebeena

goodcandidateifshehadbeenmore

carefulaboutthegrammar,usage,and

punctuationinherresumeandcover

letter.Ifthehiringmanagerhadn'tbeen

distractedbyerrors,hewouldhave

interviewedher.

pete, are youfeeling any better

now? I don't think thevp meant to make you

feel like he wasyelling.

AnnatheAssistant

i'll beokay.

when annaapplied for the

job, herwritten

communicationwas so riddled

with errorsthat the ceosaid he didn't

want to talk to

her!

so what everhappened to

anna?

AnnatheAssistantappliedfora

greatjobattheNounCompany

whereEddyandPetework.She

wouldhavebeenagoodcandidateif

shehadbeenmorecarefulaboutthe

grammar,usage,andpunctuationin

herresumeandcoverletter.Ifthe

hiringmanagerhadn'tbeendistractedbyerrors,hewouldhave

interviewedher.


8/13

that'sterrible!

i know. i feelbad. i guess itmade a badimpression.

what can we do to help?

write tips onyour eddy the

editor blog, andI will point ann

to it.

greatidea!


9/13

i'll tell her aboutsubject verbagreement...

...andmisplacedmodifiers.

youmisplaced

what?

if you are writingabout a single

object, you must usea singular verb.

for example,the red tulipgrows. growsis the singular

form of the

verb.

misplaced modifiers

cause confusion. theydescribe the wrongthing when they are not

in the right spot in asentence.

let's getinto more

detail aboutsubject verbagreement

and misplaced

modifiers.


10/13

if you are talkingabout multiple

objects, you needthe plural form of

the verb.

for example,the white tulipsgrow. grow is

the plural formof the verb.

when you use theconjunctionor

ornor, singularsubjects remain

singular. forexample, neither

the red tulip northe pink grow.

it also helps to know whichpronouns are singular. each,

everyone, somebody, anyone, andanybody are a few examples of

singular pronouns. don't befooled by what comes after the

pronoun.For example, each of the girls

picks flowers.the singular form of the verb isneeded because it belongs to thepronoun each, which is singular.


11/13

now, what dowe do when

the modifiersget lost?

we mustplace them

properly sotheir meaning

is clear. Whenanadjectiveormodifieris

inthewrongspot,itcanmakea

sentencesoundveryfunny!Here

isanexample:Mariafoundapinkdog'scolla

r.Thissentencemakesitsoundlikethereisapinkdogrunningaroundwithout

itscollar.Ifwerepositionthemodifier/adjective,thenwecan

tellthatthecollarispink,not

thedog.Mariafoundadog'spinkcollar.

how cute!

MisplacedModifier


12/13

Adangling modifier is a phrase orclause that is not clearly andlogicallyrelated to the wordor

words it modifies (i.e. is placednext to). Unlike amisplaced

modifier, a dangling modifier cannotbe correctedbysimplymoving it toa different place in a sentence.Usuallythe dangling modifierappears at the beginning ofthesentence, although it can also comeat the end. Here is an examplesentence: Yawning from exhaustion,the grapes dangled from her hand. Itseems like the grapes are very tired,but we know that grapes don't yawn,

so who is yawning?

Yawning fromexhaustion, Lauralet the grapes dangle from herhand.

DanglingModifier

it's difficultto tell whois doing what

with adangling

modifier.


13/13

great! i thinkthis will

really helpanna.

AWESOME. DO

YOU THINK ISHOULD TELL THE

VP TOO?

SURE, ASLONG AS I'M

NOT THERE!

LOOKS LIKEWE DRANK ALLTHE WATER!!!

BACK TOWORK!

grammar graphic novel handout final

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