Grammar Information for Dr. Halbert's Students

COMMAS:

• Commas and introductory elements/clauses
• Commas and prepositional phrases (in____, on _____, Throughout ____, etc.)
• Commas, Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS), and connecting two complete sentences
  • When to use a comma before For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So (FANBOYS)
  • Practice with comma+coordinator conjunction to connect two complete sentences
  • Using NOR correctly.
• Commas and restrictive/non-restrictive clauses
• Commas and conditional clauses (If, unless)
• Commas and Conjunctive Adverbs (However, nevertheless, accordingly, etc.)
• Subordinating conjunctions (Because, although, once, etc.) and commas and embedded subordinate clauses
• Commas and a list of adjectives
• Commas and participial phrases (-ing or -ed words)
• Commas and nouns of direct address (names, formal titles, etc.)
• Commas and Interrupters
• Avoid Commas between a subject and verb
• Commas in a series of noun or verb phrases (Oxford Comma)
• Commas and apositive noun phrases
• Commas and adverb clauses
• Items in a series
• Commas and Dates
• No comma before AND in compound verbs

STATUS MARKING ERRORS

COMMA SPLICE ERRORS, FUSED RUN-ONS, AND SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

• Rules for Finding and Fixing Comma Splices and Fused Sentences
• Sentence Fragments

OTHER PUNCTUATION and PHRASAL CONSTRUCTS

• Semicolons:
  • The Oatmeal's Guide to Semicolons
• Colons
• The Ellipsis (three or four dots?)
• Apostrophes
  • Apostrophes (Overview)
  • How to Use an Apostrophe
• Prepositional Phrases

HYPHENS AND DASHES

• General rules for hyphen use
• Hyphens in multi-word phrases acting as a single adjectives
• Hyphens vs Dashes (Em and En)
• How to make a dash in MS Word

COMMON ERRORS

• Using "have/had" + verb (Perfect Tenses)
• Dangling Modifiers
• Pronoun shifts
• Parallel Construction
• Verb tense shifts
• Subject/Verb Agreement
• Subject/Object Pronouns

PARTS OF SPEECH

• Proper Nouns
• Participles (-ing vs. -ed)

QUOTATIONS AND PARAPHRASING

• Direct and Indirect [aka Reported] Speech
• Use of present tense to discuss literature

WORD CHOICE

• Transitions
• Gerunds (-ing nouns) vs. infinitives (to+verb)
• That vs. Which
• Parallel Construction
• Numbers
• "A/An" vs. "The" (articles with countable nouns)
• "A" vs. "An"
• Active and Passive Voice
• Literally

MLA ISSUES

• Names of centuries
• Sample MLA Paper
• Sample MLA Works Cite Page