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A Memo to Writers | |
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Accuracy and Logic | |
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Reliable sources | |
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Accurate information | |
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Sweeping generalizations | |
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Exaggeration | |
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Circular reasoning | |
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False comparisons | |
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Sticking to the point | |
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Appeals to prejudice | |
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Cause and effect | |
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The either...or fallacy | |
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Writing and Revising | |
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Finding a worthy subject | |
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Developing your ideas and planning your paper | |
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Organizing systematically | |
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Adapting to your audience | |
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Using an appropriate tone | |
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Choosing appropriate tense and number | |
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Stating your thesis | |
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Writing an appropriate length paper | |
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Writing a first draft | |
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REvising your draft | |
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Model paper | |
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Composing and revising on a computer | |
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Writing Paragraphs | |
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Writing a topic sentence | |
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Unifying paragraphs | |
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Developing paragraphs | |
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Trimming, tightening, or dividing paragraphs | |
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Using appropriate development methods | |
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Using transitional devices Grammar | |
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Grammar The Parts of Speech | |
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Nouns | |
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Pronouns | |
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Verbs | |
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Adjectives | |
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Adverbs | |
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Conjunctions | |
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Prepositions | |
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Interjections | |
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The Parts of Sentences | |
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Simple subjects, complete subjects, compound subjects | |
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Simple predicates, complete predicates, compound predicates | |
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Complements | |
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Phrases | |
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Clauses | |
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Kinds of sentences Sentence Errors | |
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Sentence Fragments | |
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Comma Splices and Fused Sentences | |
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Verb Forms | |
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Tense and Sequence of Tenses | |
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Present tense | |
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Past tense | |
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Future tense | |
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Progressive tenses | |
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Perfect tenses | |
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Present infinitive | |
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Consistency | |
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Voice | |
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Subjunctive Mood | |
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Subject and Verb: Agreement | |
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Singular verb with a singular subject | |
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Plural verb with a plural subject | |
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Compound subject | |
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Compound subject with or, nor, etc. | |
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Phrases and clauses between a subject and a verb | |
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Collective nouns | |
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Nouns plural in form, singular in meaning | |
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Indefinite pronouns | |
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All, some, part, etc. | |
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There, here | |
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Agreement with subject, not predicate nominative | |
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After a relative pronoun | |
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With titles or words used as words | |
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Expressions of time, money, measurement, etc. | |
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Pronouns and Antecedents: Agreement, Reference, and Usage | |
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Singular pronoun with a singular antecedent | |
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Plural pronoun with a plural antecedent | |
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Compound antecedent with and | |
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Compound antecedent with or, nor, etc. | |
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Collective noun as antecedent | |
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Each, either, etc. | |
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Vague and ambiguous antecedents | |
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Which, who, that | |
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Pronouns ending in -self, -selves | |
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Case | |
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Subjects and subjective complements | |
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Direct objects, indirect objects, objects of prepositions | |
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Subjects and objects of infinitives | |
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Appositives | |
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After than or as | |
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Who, Whom | |
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Apostrophe or of phrase for possession | |
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Words preceding a gerund | |
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Adjectives and Adverbs | |
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Adverbs modifying verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs | |
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After linking verbs be, become, seem, etc. | |
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After a verb and its object | |
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Comparative and superlative degrees | |
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Avoiding double comparatives and superlatives | |
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Absolute concepts and absolute modifiers | |
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Avoiding double negatives Sentence Structure | |
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Choppy Sentences and Excessive Coordination | |
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Subordination | |
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Subordination of less important ideas | |
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Avoiding overlapping subordination | |
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Completeness | |
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Omission of verbs and prepositions | |
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Omission of that | |
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Comparisons | |
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Illogical comparisons | |
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Using the word other | |
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Awkward and incomplete comparisons | |
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Consistency | |
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Avoiding shifts in grammatical forms | |
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Avoiding faulty predication | |
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Avoid constructions is when, is where, or the reason is because | |
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Position of Modifiers | |
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Dangling | |
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Misplaced | |
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Limiting | |
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Squinting | |
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Separation of Elements | |
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Subject and verb, parts of a verb phrase, or verb and object | |
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A sentence containing a quotation | |
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Split infinitives | |
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Parallelism | |
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With coordinating conjunctions | |
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With correlative conjunctions | |
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With and who, and which, or and that | |
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Variety Punctuation | |
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Commas | |
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Between two independent clauses | |
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In a series | |
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Between coordinate adjectives | |
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After introductory phrases and clauses | |
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With nonessential elements | |
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With sentence modifiers, conjunctive adverbs, and elements out of order | |
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With degrees, titles, dates, places, addresses | |
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For contrast or emphasis | |
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With mild interjections and yes or no | |
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With direct address and salutations | |
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With expressions like he said, she remarked | |
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With absolute phrases | |
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To prevent misreading or to mark an omission | |
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Unnecessary Commas | |
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Between subject and verb, verb and object, adjective and word it modifies | |
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Before coordinating conjunctions | |
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Not with essential clauses, phrases, or appositives | |
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After coordinating conjunctions | |
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Before subordinating conjunctions | |
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After the opening phrase of an inverted sentence | |
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Before the first or after the last item in a series | |
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Before than | |
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After like or such as | |
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With period, question mark, dash, exclamation point | |
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Before parentheses | |
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Semicolons | |
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Between independent clauses not connected by a coordinating conjunction | |
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To separate independent clauses | |
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In a series between items that have internal punctuation | |
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Not between elements that are not grammatically equal | |
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Colons | |
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After formal introduction of a quotation | |
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After formal introduction of a series of items | |
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After a formal introduction of an appositive | |
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Between two independent clauses | |
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In salutations, times, bibliographical entries | |
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Not after linking verbs or prepositions | |
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Dashes | |
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Parentheses | |
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Brackets | |
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Quotation Marks | |
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Direct quotations and dialogue | |
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Quotation within a quotation | |
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Titles of short works | |
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Not with titles of your own papers | |
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Not for emphasis, slang, irony, humor | |
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Not with block quotations | |
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With other punctuation | |
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End Punctuation | |
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Period at end of a sentence | |
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Period after abbreviations | |
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Ellipsis points for omission | |
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Punctuation of titles | |
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Question mark after direct question | |
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No question mark within parentheses or exclamation point for humor | |
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Exclamation point Mechanics | |
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Manuscript Forms, Business Letters, and Reacute;sumeacute;s | |
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Manuscripts | |
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Business letters and applications | |
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Reacute;sumeacute;s | |
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Italics | |
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Titles | |
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Names of ships and trains | |
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Foreign words | |
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Words, letters, figures | |
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Rarely use for emphasis | |
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Not for titles of your own papers | |
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Spelling | |
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Spell-checking | |
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Proofreading | |
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Distinguishing homonyms | |
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Spelling strategies | |
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Hyphenation and Syllabication | |
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Compound words | |
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Compound adjectives | |
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Compound numbers | |
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Dividing a word at the end of line | |
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Apostrophes | |
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For possessive nouns not ending in s | |
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For possessive of singular nouns ending in s | |
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Without s for possessive of plural nouns ending in s | |
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For possessive of indefinite pronouns | |
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For joint possession | |
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For omissions and contractions | |
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For a | |