The Ultra Spooky Grammar Graveyard

1
The Ultra Spooky Grammar Graveyard!

• k

2
Goals of the Grammar Graveyard

• help students write to the best of their ability
• Offer a reference guide for the next 5 years of
  education dos/donts
• Enable students to pass EPT and avoid remediation
• Get good grades on essays and in class

3
Kicking off the Essay

• Read and highlight the requirements for the
  writing assignment
• This will help the writer differentiate types of
  writing literature based essay, expository
  writing, creative writing (stories), narrative
• Create a basic outline

4
Outline

• Introduction topic, person, text or quote,
  argument, purpose-in the interview paper it was
  who you interviewed, how you know them and your
  relationship to them, why you admire them, the
  quote I gave you, their response, a transitional
  sentence leading into the story that connects
  them to their advice.
• Body of the paper-in the case of the interview-
  it is the story told creatively-I saw almost no
  creativity.
• Conclusion-in the case of the interview, it ties
  the advice to the story

5
Rules, and Rules, and Rules to Live By or Die by
Not Trying

• Title your work
• Print your first, and last name, period and Monte
  in the upper right hand corner
• Spell and grammar check, print, re-read, make
  changes to syntax, read again, print, and read
  again OUTLOUD!
• Always type, double space, 12 font, do not skip
  extra space between paragraphs

6
More Rules

• Never start a sentence with the words so, and,
  but, anyway, give me a minute I will think of
  more
• Never again as long as you live, use the words
  like, very, important, shows
• Avoid words such as YOU unless it is in quotes as
  in, someone else said it for you!
• Avoid using I, even if it is part of the
  requirement of the paper. Do not over do it!

7

• Know, and understand the use of proper nouns,
  nouns, commas, periods, indentation of new
  paragraphs especially the first one, run ons,
  fragments, tense shifts, repetition of the same
  words, use a thesaurus!
• Know your homonyms, do not abbreviate etc. w/,
• Do not text your papers. I must be in caps

8
Energizer BunnyStill Going

• The contraction youre is from the words you and
  are put together. Your is not correct!
• Know how to use apostrophes Lisas house, Wes
  house, students papers (more than one student)
  students papers (one student)

9
Prepositions-Where You At?

• Never ever end a sentence with a preposition, it
  makes you sound uneducated-God forbid!
• Where he was at
• Where he was from
• Learn from what you mess up on.
• Alsonever leave a preposition out (of) a
  prepositional phrase

10
More of the Same Prepositions

• Met a wonderful guy with whom she fell in
  love-correct
• Met a wonderful guy who she fell in love
  with-incorrect, with is a preposition

11
Parallel Structure

• Parallel structure when listing 3 things
• Running, laughing, dreaming. Notice that the
  words all end the same. This is parallel.
  Sentence that dont do this sound awkward and
  will sometimes not even make sense. One must
  struggle to read it.

12
Syntax

• Syntax is the structure of the sentence. Awk
  syntax means it doesnt sound right, re-do it!
  Read it, and you can tell that it makes no sense,
  or sounds weird.

13
WC Not WC Fields, Not Water Closet Rather it
Means Word Choice

• Simply put, you done chose the wrong word!
• This could mean that you dont know what the word
  means when you use it
• It could mean that you are trying to be fancy,
  and you use the wrong form of the word (ed/ing)
• This could mean you and I both have absolutely no
  idea what you are talking about! It just sounds
  bad!

14
Passive Voice

• The best way to explain PV is that you are
  speaking backwards, indirectly , not directly, or
  in a round about manner.
• Here is the bathroom. Correct
• The bathroom is here. Passive voice
• To the bathroom we go. Passive voice
• Lets go to the bathroom. Correct
• Many people who speak different languages speak
  in passive voice because that is the way the
  language is spoken
• Some people do it when they want to sound
  sophisticated but it actually weakens the
  sentence

15
The Reality of the Situation

• Passive voice weakens the essay
• Passive voice uses words such as be, being" as
  well as other to be verbs.

16
Subject Agreement/Subject Verb Agreement

• When you speak of a singular thing, your sentence
  must remain singular
• EXMy mother is understanding to the public
  (singular/one public) as a whole and their
  opinions. (Plural/their)
• This is incorrect because they do not agree.
• My mother is understanding to men and women in
  the work place and is open to their opinions.
  Side barpeople (singular)
• http//owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/599/01/

17
Homonyms and Homophones

• These are words that sound the same but have
  different meanings, and different spellings.
• their- it belongs to them
• There-it is over there
• Theyre is a contraction for they are

18
More for Your Learning Pleasure

• Two- the number
• To- going to the store
• Too- there are too many to count
• Or, I want to go too!

19
And Then We Have Witches in the Graveyard

• Witch-rides a broom on Halloween
• Which- way did he go?
• Whether- or not you like me, you have to do your
  work.
• Weather- rain, snow, sleet, or hail

20
Pour Your Heart Out

• Pour- the juice, your heart out
• Poor- I have no money
• Pore-Big on the face, might sport a zit!
• A long list to follow as soon as I type it!

21
A Proper Noun is a Terrible Thing to Waste, not
Waist

• Valhalla High School-proper
• high school-regular
• The United States-proper
• States-regular
• The Haircut Store-proper
• a store to get my hair cut-regular
• Dad is my best friend-proper/his name
• My dad is my best friend-regular

22
Fluff
23

• Bs, yet you keep talking. Some time you say the
  same thing over and over. You really have nothing
  else to say, but you feel like the essay should
  be longer STOP IT!

24
Check Your Format

• Indent
• Double space
• Make it look neat on the page
• Use proper margins
• Follow directions PLEASE!

25
(No Transcript)