GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION REVIEW: PART 2

A workshop provided by the TTU Grad School

Top Grammar Mistakes in Dissertations/Theses covered last week(see handout):

Punctuation errors Commas, semi-colons, colons and hyphens

Today: Homonym errors Apostrophe Errors Capitalization Errors Strange word choices Misspelling and inconsistency of spelling Missing parts of speech Incomplete and run-on sentences

The “parts of speech” or parts of a sentence

Terms you need to know: Noun

Word that names a person, place or thing Can be “proper” or general

Sarah, Seattle vs. woman, city

Pronoun Stands in for a noun

He, she, it

Verb “action word,” what is being done

Is, was, were, be are also verbs

Subject A noun or pronoun that is what or whom the sentence is about

Direct object A noun or pronoun that is the recipient of the action

Answers the question “what is being done?”

Indirect object The noun or pronoun that answers the question “to whom” or “for whom” or “to what” the action is directed Usually, the indirect object is the recipient of the direct object

Subject

A noun or pronoun that tells you what, or who, the sentence is about

Examples: The baby drinks. The book rests on the shelf. The State of the Union address will be on T.V. tonight.

Direct Object

A noun or pronoun that tells you what is being done. What is acted upon, what is the action directed toward The direct object is where the action will end up

Adds more specificity to a sentence Examples:

The baby drinks. The baby drinks formula. The baby drinks breast milk. The book rests on the shelf.

Indirect Object

This is a noun or pronoun that tells you to whom, to what or for whom the action is performed/directed. The indirect object receives, or is acted upon, by the

direct object.

Adds even more specificity to your sentences Examples:

The judge granted asylum to the prisoners. The judge granted asylum to the refugees. The baby drinks formula from a bottle.

Conjunctions and Prepositions

You will need to know the difference between these in three main situations: When using commas To determine if you have an incomplete sentence To determine if you have a run-on sentence

Conjunction

A conjunction is a word or group of words that joins or connects similar sentence elements or structures Word to word Phrase to phrase Clause to clause Sentence to sentence

The conjunction “sews together” or “stitches together” separate, but equivalent, structures into a single sentence.

Examples

And, but, for, nor, or, so, yet These type of conjunctions join similar sentence structures Usually, a sentence joined by this type of conjunction

could be separated into two complete or separate sentences.

A strong but warm breeze blew through my hair A strong breeze blew through my hair A warm breeze blew through my hair

Johnny ate peanut butter and Sue ate ice cream. Johnny ate peanut butter. Sue ate ice cream.

Conjunctions, continued.

Both…and, either…or, just as…so, neither…no, not only…but also, whether…or These type of conjunctions always come in pairs Generally, they join one to many (the many are of the same kind of element)

One subject to many actions One action to many subjects

Both Joe and Sarah went to the theatre. Many subjects: Joe, Sarah Single action: went to the theatre. Could be two sentences: Joe went to the theatre. Sarah went to the theatre.

Kim not only gave me chocolate but also sent me flowers for Valentines’ day. Single subject: Kim Multiple actions: gave me chocolate, sent me flowers Could be two sentences: Kim gave me chocolate for valentine’s day. Kim sent

me flowers for valentine’s day.

Conjunctions, continued.

After, although, because, before, even though, if, while These kind of conjunctions not only join together two elements of a

sentence, or two sentence structures, they subordinate one to the other Usually indicates some kind of relationship

Time Exceptions

She went to the restroom while he found a table. “he found a table” is subordinate to (dependent upon) “she went to the

restroom” (and vice versa) because they happen at the same time. They could be written as two sentences, but we would lose the time

relationship She went to the restroom. He found a table.

I will teach this workshop unless I fall ill. Here, “I will teach this workshop” is subordinate to falling ill, because if I

fall ill, I will not be able to teach. So, teaching the workshop depends on me not being ill.

Prepositions

These are words that indicate a relationship between the noun (or pronoun) of a sentence and another part of the sentence This is usually a time or space relationship Different from conjunctions because they do not join

similar elements or structures Prepositional phrases cannot stand alone as a sentence These start with a preposition and end with its object Because of this, they imply movement to the end of the

phrase

Prepositions continued.

About, through, with, upon, until, etc. Examples: Johnny ate peanut butter from the jar.

Johnny ate peanut butter. From the jar. From the top of the bridge, where I was standing, I

could see the lights of the city. From the top of the bridge, where I was standing. I

could see the lights of the city These cannot be broken into two complete sentences. To

do so creates sentence fragments.

Big picture: conjunctions and prepositions Remember that one of the ways we use commas is

when we have two independent clauses joined by a conjunction.

Examples: Johnny ate peanut butter, and Sue ate ice cream. I went to the store to pick up my prescription, and I

grabbed a smoothie while I was there. Johnny ate peanut butter from the jar. Johnny ate peanut butter, from the jar.

Incomplete sentences

This is quite common in the dissertations and theses we see

A sentence fragment or incomplete sentence does not “express a complete thought.”

Can be caused by: Missing subject or verb Incorrect punctuation A prepositional phrase that isn’t joined to an

independent clause

Incomplete Sentences, continued.

Missing subject or verb Example: “A story with deep thoughts and emotions.”

To fix, simply add a verb: “A story with deep thoughts and emotions was told.” “That is a story with deep thoughts and emotions.”

Better yet, add an explicit (rather than implied) subject doing the action “She told a story with deep thoughts and emotions.”

Incomplete Sentences, continued.

Incorrect punctuation Example: Purdue offers many majors in engineering. Such as electrical,

chemical, and industrial engineering.

Since we are listing something, we need a comma, not a period! Purdue offers many majors in engineering, such as electrical,

chemical, and industrial engineering.

Incomplete Sentences, continued.

A prepositional phrase that isn’t joined to an independent clause Example: With the ultimate effect of all advertising is to sell the product.

This happens with conjunctions too And the ultimate effect of all advertising is to sell the product

To fix, you need to either Get rid of the conjunction/preposition Or, you can join the sentence fragment with an independent

clause

Cont.

With the ultimate effect of all advertising is to sell the product.

The ultimate effect of all advertising is the sell the product.

The seminar emphasized marketability with the ultimate effect of all advertising to sell the product.

I learned that marketing is really important, and the ultimate effect of all advertising is to sell the product.

Other errors

Homonyms Use the dictionary! It will help you, I promise! http://dictionary.reference.com/ Check it out: pore, pour, poor

Capitalization We capitalize “proper nouns.” How do you know if

something is a proper noun? Look it up in the dictionary. http://dictionary.reference.com/ Check it out: middle ages, blue collar

Determiners

These are words that identify/quantify a noun A, an, the this, these, that, those My, our, your, his, her, its, their Whose, which, what All, both, each, every, some, any, either, no, neither,

many, much, a few, a little, several, enouth

continued

Use with singular nouns: A, an, this, that, one, each

Use with plural nouns: These, those, all, both, many, several

Can be used with either singular or plural (in certain situations): My, the, which

Determiners, examples.

When to use articles (a, an) Single noun “a” goes before a consonant sound

A car A book

“an” goes before a vowel sound (a, e, i, o, u and y) An explanation An uncle

A or an helps the reader to identify whether or not the noun in the sentence is real/concrete or hypothetical, a specific or particular noun, or is being used in a general sense I need a car to get to the retreat

Here “a car” lets the reader know that a specific car is not needed, just any car would work. In this case, “ a car” could be so general that any vehicle could do. If someone had “a truck” then the person could use that, instead.

I saw a car at the dealership I want to buy. Here, “a car” is a specific car, not a general one. It is not hypothetical, it is concrete

When to use?

Taken from “The St. Martin’s Handbook” 6th edition, by Andrea A. Lunsford

These determiners Can precede these noun types

Examples

A, an, every, each Singular count nouns Some proper nouns

A book, an American, each word, every Buddhist

This, that Singular count nouns Noncount nouns

This book, that milk

(a)little, much Noncount nouns A little milk, much affection

Some, enough Noncount nouns Plural count nouns

Some milk, enough trouble, some books, enough problems

The Singular count nouns Plural count nouns Noncount nouns

The doctor, the doctors, the information

These, those, (a)few, many, both, several

Plural count nouns These book, those plans, a few ideas, many students, both hands, several trees

Any Questions?

Resources

Turabian, Kate. L. A Manual for Writers LB2369 .T8 2007

Lunsford, Andrea. A. The Everyday Writer PE1408 .L86 2001

The Purdue OWL http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

TTU’s University Writing Center http://uwc.ttu.edu/

On sentence fragments: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/620/1/

On run-on sentences: http://learners.ncu.edu/writingprogram/writing_center.aspx?menu_id=

156 http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/Run-on-Sentences.html

Thank you!

During the next workshop we will review: annotations and abstracts.

Hope to see you February 15th. (tomorrow!) Register at

https://www.depts.ttu.edu/gradschool/private/eventreg.aspx

For more info on events, see http://www.depts.ttu.edu/gradschool/grdschInfo/news.php