TABLE OF CONTENTS
PARTS OF SPEECH ........................................................................................ 1-15
Nouns ....................................................................................................................................................................... 1-3
Types............................................................................................................................................................. 1
General Rules for Forming Plurals ......................................................................................................... 2
Rules for Forming Possessives ............................................................................................................... 3
Pronouns................................................................................................................................................................. 4-6
Personal, Demonstrative, Interrogative ................................................................................................4
Indefinite, Reflexive and Intensive .......................................................................................................5
Relative..........................................................................................................................................................6
Verbs..................................................................................................................................................................... 6-11
Action, Linking, Helping (Auxiliary).........................................................................................................6
Voice...............................................................................................................................................................7
Singular and Plural Verbs ..........................................................................................................................7
Principal Parts ............................................................................................................................................ 8
Tense and Form ..................................................................................................................................... 8-9
Shifts in Tense and Form....................................................................................................................... 10
Three “Problem” Verbs ........................................................................................................................... 10
Commonly Confused Verbs (Lay/Lie, Rise/Raise, Sit/Set)............................................................. 11
Adjectives and Adverbs .................................................................................................................................. 12-13
Adjectives ................................................................................................................................................. 12
Adverbs ...................................................................................................................................................... 13
Adjectives and Adverbs: Common Problems (Good/Well, Bad/Badly, Most/Almost) ............. 13
Conjunctions .............................................................................................................................................................14
Coordinating, Correlative, Subordinating, Conjunctive Adverbs
Prepositions ..............................................................................................................................................................15
Interjections............................................................................................................................................................15
THE SENTENCE AND ITS PARTS ......................................................................16-19
What Is a Sentence? ............................................................................................................................................ 16
Types of Sentences ............................................................................................................................................... 16
Subject ............................................................................................................................................................... 16-17
Predicate .................................................................................................................................................................. 17
Complements...................................................................................................................................................... 18-19
Direct Object, Indirect Object, Object Complement .................................................................... 18
Predicate Nominative, Predicate Adjective....................................................................................... 19
Order of Subject and Predicate ........................................................................................................................ 19
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PHRASES ..................................................................................................20-22
Verb, Noun, Prepositional, Appositive............................................................................................................... 20
Verbals and Verbal Phrases .......................................................................................................................... 21-22
Participial and Gerund ............................................................................................................................. 21
Infinitive................................................................................................................................................... 22
CLAUSES ...................................................................................................... 23
Independent and Subordinate (Adjective, Adverb, Noun).......................................................................... 23
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTIONS .............................................................................. 24
SENTENCE FRAGMENTS AND RUN-ON SENTENCES .................................................... 25
USING MODIFIERS CORRECTLY .......................................................................26-30
Degrees of Comparison and “Irregulars” ................................................................................................. 26-27
Double and Incomplete Comparisons................................................................................................................. 28
Double Negatives................................................................................................................................................... 29
Placement of Modifiers........................................................................................................................................ 30
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ...........................................................................31-34
Subjects Joined by or or nor ...............................................................................................................................31
Subjects Joined by and ........................................................................................................................................ 32
Collectives ................................................................................................................................................................ 32
Titles ......................................................................................................................................................................... 32
Units of Measure.................................................................................................................................................... 33
Confusing Forms ..................................................................................................................................................... 33
Indefinite Pronouns ............................................................................................................................................... 34
CLEAR AND CORRECT PRONOUN REFERENCE ........................................................35-36
USING THE CORRECT PRONOUN.......................................................................37-38
CONNECTIONS AND PARALLEL STRUCTURE .........................................................39-40
USING CAPITAL LETTERS CORRECTLY ................................................................41-43
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PUNCTUATION ...........................................................................................44-49
Colons, Semicolons ................................................................................................................................................ 44
Parentheses and Brackets, Ellipsis Points, Apostrophes.............................................................................. 45
Hyphens, Dashes.................................................................................................................................................... 46
Quotation Marks ................................................................................................................................................... 47
Commas ............................................................................................................................................................. 48-49
ITALICS (UNDERLINING) ................................................................................... 50
USING NUMBERS AND NUMERALS ........................................................................ 51
USAGE PROBLEMS/WORDS COMMONLY CONFUSED.................................................52-58
their/there/they’re, its/it’s, your/you’re, whose/who’s, alot/a lot, amount/number ........................... 52
fewer/less, many/much, affect/effect, accept/except, among/amongst/between ............................. 53
can/may, than/then, snuck/brung, advice/advise, cloths/clothes/close, quite/quiet ........................... 54
role/roll, sale/sell, borrow/lend/loan, stationary/stationery ..................................................................... 55
capital/capitol, irregardless/regardless, loose/lose, allusion/illusion, weather/whether ................... 56
precede/proceed, principal/principle, breath/breathe, conscience/conscious,
threw/through/thorough, farther/further .................................................................................................... 57
hanged/hung, where at, could of/must of/might of/should of/would of................................................. 58
WAYS OF ORGANIZING IDEAS AND INFORMATION .................................................. 59
TRANSITIONAL WORDS AND PHRASES .................................................................. 60
SOME WRITING GUIDELINES AND STRATEGIES ....................................................... 61
PARTS OF A PARAGRAPH.................................................................................... 62
PARTS OF AN ESSAY ........................................................................................ 62
WRITING A NARRATIVE.................................................................................... 63
FIVE-PARAGRAPH EXPOSITORY ESSAY ................................................................... 64
PARTS OF SPEECH QUICK REFERENCE ................................................................65-66
GUIDE TO FINDING OBJECTS AND COMPLEMENTS .................................................... 67
BLANK PAGES FOR NOTES............................................................................. 68-70
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