1. General Grammar Definitions The goal withgrammar is to puttogether anorganized sentence,which leads to aparagraph and thena paper... This slide set willdiscuss generalgrammar definitionsto make sure youare caught up towhat you need toknow in ENG101and beyond.

2. Sentences Sentences havesubjects andpredicates. Subjects are nouns,pronouns, and/ornoun groups aboutwhich something issaid. Predicates make astatement about thatsubject and willcontain a verb. 3. The Grammar We Will Study This semester, wewill be doing sixsections of grammar. This will lead up to anexam aroundmidterm worth 10percent of yourgrade. We will study thefollowing: Pronouns and Nouns Commas Semicolons/Colons Subject/VerbAgreement Possession Clauses 4. Pronouns & Nouns Nouns are words that name. Erika teaches the seminar on Virginia Woolf. Jonathan teaches a course about poetry written during the Holocaust. Tom and I walked by the oak tree that had been mysteriously chopped down. Pronouns will take the place of nouns. They can also take the place ofan unnamed noun. She teaches the seminar on Virginia Woolf. He teaches a course about poetry written during the Holocaust. We walked by the oak tree that had been mysteriously chopped down. 5. Commas Commas are a primary divider. Commas will link two independentclauses. Coordinating conjunctions will link theclauses. Commas will also be used with lists ofelements. 6. Semicolons & Colons Semicolons are asecondary divider. Semicolons willcombine two items ofequal grammaticalrank not alreadyjoined with acoordinatingconjunction. Semicolons will also be usedbetween related independentclauses with contrasting orparallel information. If you have commas already,use a semicolon. Test your usage by placing aperiod between them. 7. Subject/Verb Agreement Verbs describe or showactions or states of being In a sentence, the subjectand verb must be inagreement. Singular subjects getsingular verbs; pluralsubjects get plural verbs. Check your verb tense. Is it past,present, or future? (has/have/had) Is your noun singular or plural? Addan S if singular. Watch out for modifying phrases.No matter what is between asubject and verb, they still need tobe in agreement. 8. Possession Subject and object case oftenimpact pronoun usage, butpossessive case will impact howyou use apostrophes insentences. Possession indicates ownership. In English, you can do this in twoways. An of phrase. An Apostrophe. Beware of awkward phrasing. Watch out for instances wherethere can individual or jointownership. Avoid using contractions incollege level writing. It's is not a possessive. Its is apossessive. 9. Clauses A clause is a group of wordscontaining a subject andpredicate. They can be independent ordependent. Independent clauses standalone and form a completesentence. Dependent clauses are notcomplete and thus need to beattached to an independentclause. Independent clauses can bejoined together usingcoordinating conjunctions (And,But, Nor, Yet, So), semicolons,etc. To make a dependent clausegrammatically correct, attach itto an independent clause. 10. Professor Wend's Pet Peeves Do not use vague language (Some people,big thing). Be clear and narrow! Avoid generalizations Do not give commands Contractions Capitalize I