:GRAMMAR HANDBOOK : :Commas : :6.jan.99 :use a comma to separate items in a series : -a series is a list of three or more items : -the comma before the conjunction (and,but,or) is optional unless leaving it out would be confusing : -example: john bought new jeans, sneakers, and t-shirts at dillards : -incorrect: john bought new jeans, and sneakers at dillards : :7.jan.99 :use a comma to separate items in a date or an address : -john lives at 123 main street, apt.5, oklahoma city, ok 12345, with his family. : -no comman between state and zip : -comma separate zip from rest of sentence : -sally was born friday, august 17, 1962, in midwest city, ok. : -comma separates year from rest of sentence. : :11.jan.99 :use a comma to set off an introduc»tory word : -yes, we are going to have a test today. : -well, you should have heard what she said about you. : :12.jan.99 :use a comma to set off a noun in direct address : -john, come here right now! : -come here right now, john! : -come here, john, right now! : :13.jan.99 :use commas to set off words or phrases which interrupt the sentence : -he will, i think, do what he promised : -so far she is, without a doubt, a very hard worker : -of course he's great because he is, after all, my brother : :14.jan.99 :use commas to set off nouns in apposition (appositives) : -mr. rickerts, our principal, is here today. : -newsweek, a weekly magazine, is my favorite. : -explain: : -1 my brother, john, is in the army : -2 my brother john is in the army : number 1 assumes the speaker has only one brother named john : number 2 assumes the speaker has moe than one brother and he is speaking of the specific john. : -nouns in apposition equal the noun (or noun phrase) before them. : :15.jan.99 :a comma follows the salutation in a personal letter and the closing in a persnal or a business letter. : -dear john, : -yours truly, : -love and kisses, : -note: in a business letter, a colon follows the salutation : -dear mr. gates: : -dear sir or madam: : :21.jan.99 :put a comma before the conjunction (and,but,or) in a compound sentence. : -a compound sentence is 2 somplete sentences joined by a conjunction : -example: john bought a new stereo system, but he had trouble getting it setup : -example: john asked sally to the prom, and he also aksed susie : :22.jan.99 :use a comma to separate adjectives describing a noun. : -he wore a smelly, tattered, stained, blue sweatshirt because he loved the penn state logo on it. : -don't put a comma between the last adjective and the noun; use the comma toseparate adjectives from one another : -he also loved his ripped, faded blue jeans. : -the phrase "blue jeans" has become a single noun : :25.jan.99 :use a comma to set off the "tag" in a direct quotation : -mrs. mallory said, "you are required to watch all televised penn state football games." : -"you are required to watch all televised Penn State foorball games," mrs. mallory said. : -"you are required," mrs. mallory said, "to watch all televised penn state football games." : :26.jan.99 :use commas to set off non essential clauses and phrases : -nonessential means you can remove theclause or phrase without changing the meaning of the sentence. : -bananas that are green taste tar. : -bananas, which are grown in the tropics, do not need to be refirerated : -bananas which are grown in the tropics do not need to be refrigerated. : :27.jan.99 :use a comma after an introductory clause or phrase. : -note: introductory means it come vefoe the main sentence. : -when bob began to eat, rats ran across the toom : -not: when bob began to eat rats ran across the room. : -before leaving, bob began to sneeze. : or -bob began to sneeze before leaving. : : :PERIODS : :29.jan.99 :put a period after most abreviations : -mr. magoo : -sept. 12 : -wed, oct. 1 : -the rev. dr. martin luther king, jr. : -no periods after networks, acronyms, monograms, gov. organizations - NBC, NASA, JFK, FBI : :1.feb.99 :put a period inside quotation marks : -the sign said, "do not wald on the grass." : -according to benjamin franklin, "a fool and his money are soon parted." : :3.feb.99 :(put a period at the end of a complete sentence enclosed by parenthesis.) :put a period ouside parenthesis is whatis enclosed by parenthesis is not a coplete sentence (like this). : : :SEMICOLONS : :4.feb.99 :use a semicolon to link two closely related complete sentences. : -john practically lives at mazzio's; pizza is his favorite food. : -not: john practically lives at mazzios; i wish english class would last forever : -not: i love pizza; especially with pepperoni. : :5.feb.99 :use a semicolon to separate elements in a list if the elements are large or if the elements themselves have commas in them. : -to get ready for your party, you shoud clean your house; make sure your old, decrepit stereo works; prepare lots of delicious, tantalizing food; and acccept odd, antisocial, and silly behavior on the part of your guests. : :8.feb.99 :semicolons belong outside quatation mars : -one guy at the party sat in a corner reading "the adventures of bob"; he obviously couldn't hae cared less about the party. : : :COLONS : :9.feb.99 :-a colon means - as follows :-when i get home tonight, there are several things i must do: feed hobbes-the-wonder cat, make dinner, grade papers, and give all my wonderful students a's. : -when typing, 2 spaces after a colon : : :APOSTROPHES : :10.feb.99 :to show ownership by a singular noun not ending in s, add an apostrophe and an s. : -the boy's bike is new : -john's car is an old honda like mrs. mallory's. : -penn state's coach, joe paterno, is the idol of other football coaches. : :11.feb.99 :to show ownership by a singular, common noun which ends in s, add an apostrophe. : -the crises' conclusion came when the fever broke. : -the english class' average is very high. : -note: this is a convention to prevent the tendency of the reader to hiss his way through the word. : :12.feb.99 :if a proper noun ends in s, add 's to show ownership : -he laughed at Ross's riddles. : -i like to read Yeats's poems. : -i walked in during one of Chris's crises. : :15.feb.99 :if a plural noun ends in s, add only the apostrophe to show ownership : -we put clean diapers on all the babies' bottoms. : -i wonder how many politicians' promises are ever kept! : -the ladies' meeting was scheduled for 10 o'clock : :17.feb.99 :to show ownershp by a plural noun not ending in s, add s : -the people's choice was indicated at the ballot box. : -the children's sandbox was empty : -i think he went to the men's clothing department. : : :HYPHENS : :18.feb.99 :if a pair of words forms an adjective that comes before the noun, use a hyphen between them. : -harry is a well-known politician. : -suzy always does first-class work. : -he wears too-saggy jeans that look like he's wearing a full diaper. : -note: his work is first class. : :19.feb.99 :use a hyphen for fractions acting as adjectives : -he drank one and two-thirds cans of rootbeer. : -she is one and one-half times smarter than me : -it is a one-half price sale. : -note: no hyphen for fractions used as nouns. : -ex: two thirds of us are already finished with the test. : :22.feb.99 :use a hyphen to differentiate certain words that have similar spellings. :-he recollected his marvelous vacation last summer. :-he re-collected the money he lost :-she recovered from the flu. :-she re-covered the sofa in velvet. : : :QUESTION MARKS : :23.feb.99 :if the question is a quotation, put the question mark inside the quotation marks. :-he asked, "May i have this dance?" :-"How do I look?" she asked. :-when she said, "I was gone; did we do anything?" the teacher threw an eraser at her. : :25.feb.99 :if the question is not part of the quotation, put the question mark after the quotation marks. : -what do you think of the philosophy of "no pain, no gain"? : -do you believe in "an eye for an eye"? : -is he your "significant other"? : :26.feb.99 :dashes can be used to separate an aside from the rest of the sentence. : -at the boisterous party -- people hung from the rafters and the cops were called -- pinky and the brain planned revenge. : -don't overuse dashes; they add a "breathlessness" to your sentence that gets tiresome if overused : :1.mar.99 :dashes can substitute for parentheses to enclose extra information : -if you come to my house -- take a left after the bridge -- please bring turnips and an oboe. : -if you come to my house (take a left after the bridge) please bring turnips and an oboe. : :2.mar.99 :use parentheses to enclose extra material (explanation, asides, etc.) that would interrupt the flow of the sentence. : -coach paterno (who has more than 300 career wins) is college football's best coach : -if your planning : :3.mar.99 :don't put a comma after the parentheses unless the sentence would require it anyway. : -when you leave (which we hope is soon), don't forget to write. : -we weht to carol's house (she is my best friend), and then we all went to the mall. : :4.mar.99 :put quotation marks around direct quotations. : -ed mcmahon said, "here's johnny!" : -in the hiding place, the bookshelves that ran along the false wall were "old, sagging shelves" made of "blistered wood." : -a direct quotation can be either an exact retelling of someone's words or words taken directly from a text. : :22.mar.99 :if you have a quote within a quote, put single quotation marks around it. : -sam told me, "she said, 'i can't live without snickerdoodles.'" :-"stop : :23.mar.99 :using quotation marks to enclose tired, worn out cliches does not make cliches acceptable. : -although I was "sick as a dog," I "kept my nose to the grindstone" until I was done. : -since he won the lottery, he thinks he's "hot stuff" and that "the world is his oyster." : -create your own figurative language. : :24.mar.99 :usage / two, to, too : -two is a number : -i ordered two soft drinks : -to is a preposition : -i went to english class singing with joy : -too means also; is is also a modifier : -she loves english class, too. : -i was carrying too many books : :25.mar.99 :usage / your, you're : -you is a possessive pronoun : -is that your bike? : -you're is a contraction of you are : -you're going to have to bribe your mom big time to go to the party. : :19.apr.99 :usage / its, it's : -its is a possessive pronoun : -the cat chased its tail. : -it's is the contraction of it is. : -it's wonderful to be in english class; it's my favorite subject. : :20.apr.99 :usage / there, their, they're : -there is a demonstrative pronoun : -put your hat over there on the table : -their is a possessive personal pronoun. : -it is their house and their house and their car, not mine. : -they're is the contraction of they are. : -they're going to florida for break. : :21.apr.99 :bring/take : bring indicates movement toward the speaker. : -please bring the book here. : take indicates movement away from the speaker : -take your books with you when you leave. : :23.apr.99 :imply/infer : the speaker implies, the listener infers : to imply means the speaker hints at soething : :26.apr.99 :fewer/less : use fewer when referring to something you can count : use less when reerring to a quantity that you cannot count : -diet pepsi has fewer calories than regular pepsi. : -there is less flavor in the pie than on the floor. : :27.apr.99 :amount/number : use number when referring to things yo can count : use amount when referring to things you cannot count. : -there were a number of evil students who tried to sneak out at lunch : -there is no amount of begging that can get us to change my mind. : :28.apr.99 :accept/except : accept means to receive or to agree with : -i accept your apology : -i can accept that he is angry about it : except means to exclude someone or something : -i will except him from my guest list : except also is a preposition meaning "but", "other than". : -everyone can go except charlie. : :29.apr.99 :affect/effect : affect (verb) means to influence someone or something : -drinking can affect your judgement : effect (verb) means to bring something about, to cause something to happen : -the petition was meant to effect a charge in policy : effect (noun) means the result of something : -the effect of the storm was downed trees and power lines. : :30.apr.99 :allusion/illision : allusion is an indirect reference to someone or something. : -he was making an allusion to the bible when he called the rev. mr. hale a pontius pilate. : an illusion is a false perception or image : -his plan to get an A in english without reading or doing homework was merey an illusion than couldn't ever happen. : :3.may.99 :sneak/sneaked : never, ever use snuck! :-the past tense of sneak is sneaked. : -he sneaked into class when the teachr wasn't looking. :-snuck is like ain't; it's always grammatically unacceptable : :4.may.99 :all ready/already :all ready means everything is ready. : -i am all ready to go to the riviera as soon as the prize patrol drops off the check :already means by this time : -it is already too late to go to the early movie. : :6.may.99 :compliment/complement :compliment means to praise. : -mark twain said, "I can live three days on a good compliment." :complement means to complete or to strengthen. : -the scarf you're wearing really complements your outfit and helps pull all the colors together. :