Grammar Guidebook

Created by, Anna Pool

People who write in “techspeak”, such as “gr8” or “lol” tend to have bad language

skills that are important for language development and grammar skills. That is why I created this book, so I can improve all my

grammar and language skills!

(Swayne, 2012)

TABLE OF CONTENTSCommon Errors

CapitalizationPunctuation

Confused WordsSyntax

PronounsHelpful References

Works CitedComm

Writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter (upper-case letter) and the remaining letters in lower caseRules :

Capitalization

Punctuation

Confused Words

Syntax

CAPITALI

Pronouns

First letter of the first word at the beginning of a new sentence S tart a sentence with an upper case letter

Proper Nouns o The names of relatives used when used with name

Uncle Jimmyo Using relatives as a proper name

Let’s go ask Father but not her mothero Titles preceding a name

Senator Tomo But not when the title is after the name

Tom is a senatoro Or when the title is used as a general word

The senator is a nice persono Direct address using the title

Nice to meet you Senatoro Tips to remember!

Capitalize very high ranking government officials’ titles (President of the United States)

Unless the specific individual is not referred to (You must be 35 years old to be a president)

Prefixes and Suffixes should not be capitalized when added to titles (ex-Governor)

Capitalization Rules. (n.d.). Retrieved January 25, 2016, from http://www.libraryonline.com/default.asp?pID=48 and CAPITALIZATION RULES. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2016, from https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/capitalization_rules.htm

The use of standards marks and signs in writing a printing to separate words in sentences, clauses and phrases in order to clarify meaning

Periods. . . o At the end of a sentence

My name is Anna.o Initials

A.M.P.o Abbreviations

P,u.n?c!t;u:a”t”I’o(n)

Inc. Exclamation points!

o At the end of a sentence or phrase to show strong emotion Woah! That was a great concert!

o Never use more than one! Question Mark?

o At the end of a question What is the weather like?

o When you don’t believe a statement We are moving?

o To indicate an unsure spelling when used with parenthesis “(?)” Onomatopia (?) is hard to spell.

Comma,o After each item in a serious of at least three items

I still need to work-out, read my history book, and write my history essays.

o After street address and city 704 Hibbard-Dearing, Coffeyville, Kansas 67337

o After the day and year in a date (except when in MLA) Emma’s birthday is August 12, 2002.

o An interruption in the main thought of a sentence

Hank, of course, jumped on Anna when she got home.o To separate two or more adjectives used towards the same noun

Anna was having trouble with the slow, bumpy greens.o After a dependent clause starting a sentence

If Anna wins, we will throw a huge party.o Before the conjunction in a conjunction sentence, unless the clauses

are very short Golfing is fun, so I think I’ll play lots of it.

o Left of the quotation mark when quoting, Anna said, “I am so ready to graduate.”

o After a mild interjection (oh or well) Oh, that cheesecake was a disaster.

o After a noun of direct address Anna, can you go get me a sonic drink?

o After the greeting in a personal letter Dear grandma,

o After the closing of a letter Love,

o After an appositive Emma, my sister, is taller than me.

Semicolono Join two independent clauses

Anna read her history book; then wrote two essays. o To separate items in a serious

Anna played golf in Hays, Kansas; Palm Beach, Florida; and Waco, Texas.

Colono Between numerals indicating hours and minutes

2:50 p.m.o To introduce a list that appears after an independent clause

You need the following ingredients for this recipe: bananas, milk, flour and brown sugar.

Mentioning a volume number and page number Grolier Encyclopedia 17:245

After the greeting of a business letter Dear Mr. Jobs:

Between the title and subtitle of a book Reading Strategies That Work: Teaching Your Students to

Become Better Readers Between the chapter and verse numbers for parts of the bible

Proverbs 31:2o Apostrophe

In a contraction to show where letters have been left out Don’t

When you leave out the first two numbers of a year

‘16 A singular noun that does not end in –s

Lady’s A syllable singular noun that ends in possessive

That is my dad’s birthday A singular noun has more than one syllable and ends in –s, it is

acceptable to put the apostrophe after the –s also. The Hays’ girls’ golf team is pretty good.

To make a singular proper noun possessive ending in –s just add ‘s or just apostrophe

Mr. Kills’ class was very difficult. If a plural noun does not end with an s make the possessive by

adding an apostrophe before the –s The moose’s antlers are so huge!

Use the possessive at the end of a compound noun Brother-in-law’s

To show the possession of the same object with more than one noun, just use the last noun for the series possessive.

I need to clean Kate, Dollie, and Hank’s pen. When forming the plural of a number, letter, sign or word

6’s A’s

o Quotation Marks

Before and after a direct quote “I can’t wait for summer,” Emma said.

Around titles of short works “Who I am” “Lost stars”

Around words, letters or symbols that are slang “miscellaneous”

Just use a single quotation mark for quotation marks with quotations

“Have you heard the song, ‘Humble and Kind,’ by Tim McGraw?” I asked Jamie.

o Ellipsis Indicate a pause

She … uh … snuck out. Indicating omitted words in a quotation

“Then you’d blast off … on screen, as if you were looking out … of a spaceship.”

If it is at the end of a sentence you still have to add the ending punctuation

Once upon a time ….o Hyphen

Compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine. Anna shot sixty-nine at her home tournament.

Between the numbers in a fraction Seven-eighths

Forming compound words Five-minutes

To join a capital letter to a word X-ray

Showing family relationship (except for “grand” and “half”) Sister-in-law

o Dash Sudden interruptions in a sentence

There is one thing—actually many things—that she needs to tell you.

Attach an afterthought to complete sentence Emma brought home a new animal—a snake.

After a series of introductory elements Murder, armed robbery, assault—he has a long list of felonies

on his record.o Parenthesis

Around a word or phrase in a sentence that adds information or makes the idea more clear.

Your essay (all nine pages of it) was plagiarized. Never use parentheses within parentheses, use brackets instead.

(Act IV, scene I [page 76])

o Brackets Around words of your own that you add to the words of someone

you are quoting The news anchor announced, “It is my sad duty to inform our

audience that we are now at war [with Iraq].”o Underlining (or Italics)

Titles of books, magazines, albums, movies. Etc. The Notebook, The Notebook

Foreign words that we don’t use in everyday English Let’s all go to El Publitos for dinner.

Words, numbers or letters being used in a special way Cross your t’s and dot your i’s.

Steele, K. (2007, November 14). Punctuation Rules. Retrieved January 28, 2016, from http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/writing/sixtrait/conventions/punctuation

Mifflin, H. (2011). Punctuation. Retrieved January 28, 2016, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/punctuation

Confusions arising from similar sounds, spellings and meanings

ACCEPT and EXCEPTo Accept- to receiveo Except- to take

AFFECT and EFFECTo Affect- to influenceo Effect- result

ALL READY and ALREADYo All ready- preparedo Already- by this time

ALTOGETHER and ALL TOGETHERo Altogether- entirelyo All together- gathered, everything in one place

Confused

Words

CAPITAL and CAPITOLo Capital- government seato Capitol- an actual building

CITE, SITE, and SIGHTo Cite- to quote, documento Site- position or placeo Sight- vision

COUNCIL and COUNSELo Council- a groupo Counsel- to advise

ITS and IT’So Its- belonging too It’s- contraction for it is

PASSED AND PASTo Passed- past tense of passo Past- belongs to a former time or place

Writer's Web: Commonly Confused Words. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2016, from http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/conford.html

This Weeks Commonly Confused Words. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2016, from http://dictionary.reference.com/wordlist/commonlyconfused

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language

Sentence Structure: Simple

o A sentence that contains only one independent clause. I – drink – coffee

Compound Sentenceo A sentence that contains at least two independent clauses that

are joined by a coordination conjunction or a semicolon. She played golf and he cooked.

Complex Sentenceo A sentence that contains a subordinate clause and an

independent clause. I washed the dishes after I ate breakfast.

Compound-Complex Sentenceso A sentence that contains at least two independent clause and

at least one subordinate clause.

Syntax

I would have bought that new car, but I am broke. O' Brien, E. (n.d.). Sentence Structure: Learn about the four types of sentences! Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/sentence-structure.html

any of a small set of words in a language that are used as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and whose referents are

named or understood in the context Subject Pronouns

oUsed as the subject of a sentence SHE did a great job.

Renaming a subjectoThey follow the “to be” verbs

It is she that played golf. When who refers to a personal pronoun

oTakes the verb to agree with the pronoun It is I who is ready to graduate

Object pronouns

Pronouns

oDirect object, indirect object and object of a preposition Emma saw her.

Possessive pronouns never need apostrophesoDo not use- Her’s or Your’s

Exception for “it’s” and “who’s” Reflexive pronouns

oPronouns that end in –self or –selves Myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves,

yourselves, and them selves When a pronoun is linked with a noun by “and”, remove the and noun

phrase to avoid troubleoIncorrect- Her and her friend came over.

She and her friend came over.

Straus, Jane. "Pronouns." Pronouns. Web. 11 Feb. 2016. <http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/pronoun.asp>.

"Pronoun." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 11 Feb. 2016. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pronoun>.

Helpful References WritingForward-

o Offers tons of help for creative writing, grammar, and more GrammarBook-

o Free grammar rules, quizzes and blog with lots of tips on all writing things Grammarly-

o Acts as a proofreader and grammar coach PurdueOnlineWritingLab-

o Learn about various writing styles and improve your grammar GrammarBlog-

o Shows what not to do when you are writing LousyWriter-

o Podcasts and video tutorials with sections on grammar, writing styles, parts of speech, misused words, punctuation, capitalization, and more

DailyGrammar- o Simplified lessons and quizzes that make it easy to improve your grammar skills

ChicagoManualOfStyle- o Several proofreading and polishing tools, features a forum where writers can help

one another GrammarGirl-

o Easy website that helps with grammar, word usage, punctuation, and more

10 websites to help improve your grammar. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2016, from http://prowritingaid.com/art/111/10-websites-to-help-improve-your-grammar.aspx

Works Cited

Capitalization Rules. (n.d.). Retrieved January 25, 2016, from http://www.libraryonline.com/default.asp?pID=48

CAPITALIZATION RULES. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2016, from https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/capitalization_rules.htm

Mifflin, H. (2011). Punctuation. Retrieved January 28, 2016, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/punctuation

O' Brien, E. (n.d.). Sentence Structure: Learn about the four types of sentences! Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/sentence-structure.html

"Pronoun." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 11 Feb. 2016. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pronoun>.

Steele, K. (2007, November 14). Punctuation Rules. Retrieved January 28, 2016, from http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/writing/sixtrait/conventions/punctuation

Swayne, M., & Messer, A. E. (2012, July 25). No LOL matter: Tween texting may lead to poor grammar skills | Penn State University. Retrieved January 26, 2016, from http://news.psu.edu/story/147778/2012/07/25/no-lol-matter-tween-texting-may-lead-poor-grammar-skills

Straus, Jane. "Pronouns." Pronouns. Web. 11 Feb. 2016. <http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/pronoun.asp>.

This Weeks Commonly Confused Words. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2016, from http://dictionary.reference.com/wordlist/commonlyconfused

Writer's Web: Commonly Confused Words. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2016, from http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/conford.html

10 websites to help improve your grammar. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2016, from http://prowritingaid.com/art/111/10-websites-to-help-improve-your-grammar.aspx