Modern Art Skills and Principles

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Modern Art Skills and Principles Day 1
Adjective Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns
Superlative Adjectives Superlative forms of
adjectives are used to compare more than two
things. They are formed by adding -est to an
adjective or by adding most before an adjective.
Superlative sentences usually use the article the
because there is only one superlative.
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Coordinate Adjectives Coordinate adjectives are
more than one adjective used to modify the same
noun or pronoun. When they come one after the
other, put commas between them.
Use of a Dash for Explanatory Information When
you add information that explains something in
your sentence, you can set it off from the rest
of the sentence with a dash (if at the end) or
dashes (if in the middle--one on either side of
the information).
Absolute Adjectives Unique Absolute adjectives
are adjectives are already in the superlative
form and cannot take most or est.A commonly
misused absolute superlative is unique. Unique
means "the only one." Something cannot be more
or the most only one therefore, more unique and
most unique are incorrect.
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Day 2
Apostrophe with Joint Possession When two or more
nouns own the same thing, one uses an apostrophe
after the final noun. Leon and Rodolphe's car
would mean that they both own the same car.When
two or more nouns own different things, one uses
apostrophes after each noun.Leon's and Rodolphe's
cars would mean that they both own different cars.
Use of a Colon A colon never comes after a verb
or a preposition. One solution is to add the
words the following after the verb or preposition
and then use a colon. Frank and Sally went to
the store, to the restaurant and to the
penitentiary. Incorrect Frank and Sally went to
the following places the store, the restaurant
and the penitentiary. Correct
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Day 3
Commonly Confused Words Accept versus
Except Accept means to receive
something. Except means other than __________.
Compound Adjective A compound adjective is an
adjective composed of two words. Use hyphens in a
compound adjective only when it comes before the
word it modifies. However, some compound
adjectives are always hyphenated, such as
well-balanced. a well-liked author/an author
who is well liked a world-renowned composer/a
composer who is world renowned
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Capitalization of Proper Nouns Proper nouns name
specific people, places and things and are
capitalized. If a noun is general, it is not a
proper noun and is not capitalized.
Sentence fragment A sentence fragment is a group
of words punctuated like a sentence that is not a
complete thought. Sentences should express
complete thoughts, and sentence fragments are
incomplete thoughts. A sentence fragment can
also be a sentence missing a subject or
predicate.
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Day 4
Streamlining Sentences with the Use of the
Possessive Since writing is meant to communicate,
sentences should do so in a clear way. Adding
unnecessary words can confuse the audience. At
times, we use the phrase the __________ of
__________ (as in, the daughter of Phaedrus).
This can be simplified as ___________'s
______________ (as in, Phaedrus's daughter).
Commonly Misspelled Words A lot A lot is two
words, not alot.
Double-negatives Scarcely and hardly are already
negative adverbs. To add another negative term is
redundant, because in English only one negative
is ever used at a time.They found scarcely any
animals on the island. (not scarcely no...)
Hardly anyone came to the party. (not hardly no
one...)
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Exclamation Point with an Interjection The
exclamation point is used after an interjection
to show strong emotion. An interjection shows
surprise, excitement or dismay. Wow! Gosh!
Golly gee! Heck!
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Day 5
Capitalization of Brand Names Brand names are a
type of proper noun and are, thus, capitalized.
Appositive An appositive is a word or phrase
following a noun that gives the noun another
name. Commas go around appositives that do not
add necessary information to the sentence if the
appositive appears in the middle of a sentence.
A comma goes after an appositive without
necessary information if it introduces a
sentence, and a comma goes before an appositive
without necessary information that ends a
sentence. These appositives without necessary
information are called non-restrictive
appositives. Appositives that give information
that is essential to the meaning of the sentence
are called restrictive and are not set off from
the rest of the sentence with commas or a
comma. Dr. Benway, my personal physician, was
arrested for performing illegal operations on
swamp creatures.
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Combining Sentences In order not to seem
repetitious, it is a good idea to combine
sentences when possible, unless you have a good
reason not to do so.
Compound Modifiers Adverb Adjective When an
adverb modifies an adjective, do not hypenate
them. I like carefully-chosen pets such as
poisonous snakes or killer dogs. Incorrect I
like carefully chosen pets such as poisonous
snakes or killer dogs. Correct