| Grammar &
Punctuation
Welcome to the Grammar and Punctuation Information Resource
Center. This center will provide you with informational
handouts and guidelines for identifying and resolving grammar, punctuation,
and mechanics issues. It also provides several layers of self-check
exercises so that you can evaluate your own progress. The list below
provides a short description of each handout; you can view
a
list
without descriptions
here.
Grammar
Active
and Passive Sentences: Are you plagued by comments
on your papers about overusing the passive voice? Do you want to stop
seeing that comment? This handout defines what the passive and active
voices are and provides you with guidelines about when it is appropriate
or desirable to use each.
Comma Splices
and Fused Sentences: This handout provides you with
easy-to-understand definitions of the comma splice and the fused sentence.
It also gives you advice on, explanations about, and examples of the
easiest ways to correct these problems in your own writing.
Dangling Modifiers: If you get this comment on your papers, do you
know what it means? Can you spot a dangling modifier? This grammar
problem can cause serious misreading, but it’s notoriously difficult
to figure out. You can learn what this troublesome grammar issue is
and how to fix it in your writing by reading this handout.
Eliminating
Fragments: This handout illustrates the most common causes
of unintentional fragments in written communication. It also provides
you with advice
about how to spot them in your papers and how to fix them easily.
Faulty Predication: Faulty
predication occurs when a sentence’s subject and predicate do
not make sense together, and this problem can certainly create
headaches and confusion for readers.
Parallelism: Parallelism is sometimes a difficult concept to get
a handle on. This handout can help. Part 1 defines and illustrates
the concept and part 2 shows you how to correct the problem.
Parts
of Speech: Can’t remember what a preposition is or does?
This handout provides a basic review of the building blocks of sentences—the
parts of speech. It provides examples of the parts of speech at use
within sentences. We recommend it as a quick refresher before you
go on to the other handouts.
Prepositions: This handout provides definitions as well as examples
of prepositions in use. It also gives advice on dealing with the most
common problems in choosing the right preposition to say what you
mean.
Pronoun-Antecedent
Agreement: This grammar problem is arguably the
most prevalent in current use, and it’s one that is so common
it’s difficult to “hear.” This handout walks you
through the most common agreement errors and shows you how to get
rid of them.
Relative
Clauses: This handout will show you what a relative clause
is and how to use it effectively in your writing to make the structure
of your ideas more obvious to your readers. It will also give you
advice about punctuating it correctly.
Subject/Verb
Agreement (Part 1): This part of the subject/verb agreement
handout defines the problem that occurs when your subject and your
verb don’t agree in number (singular or plural). It provides
guidelines for deciding whether to use a singular or plural verb by
identifying the real subject of the sentence.
Subject/Verb
Agreement (Part 2): This handout is a continuation
of the Subject/Verb Agreement handout and goes into more specific
detail
about how to identify the real subject of the sentence and avoid
the problem.
Using Tense Shifts
Effectively: One of the most important skills
in writing is the ability to move your audience logically through
different time frames by using the correct verb tense. This handout
defines the tenses and illustrates through examples how to use them
appropriately.
A Personal
Editing Log: This easy-to-use handout provides you with
a one-page organizer for keeping track of the frequency of your own
most personal grammar problems and allows you to monitor your improvement.
Punctuation
Apostrophes: Tired of being undecided about where and when to use
an apostrophe? This handout will help you learn how to use apostrophes
by gathering together in one place the rules for the only two ways
to use apostrophes. It also offers explanation and lots of examples.
Capitalization: This handout provides rules and examples for correct
capitalization.
Using Colons
Correctly: One of the most common punctuation errors
is the misuse of the colon. This handout provides guidelines for determining
whether to use a colon within your sentence to set up a list or to
join two sentences. Believe it or not, the decision is easy when you
know the trick. This handout does not cover the conventional uses
of the colon (after the greeting in business letters, in expressions
of time, between title and subtitle, etc.).
Comma
Use: This handout contains the rules
and examples of the most common legitimate uses of the comma, such
as in compound sentences, after introductory elements, and in dates.
It also discusses some of the most common misuses of the comma.
Using Semicolons
Correctly: Are you sure you’re using that
semicolon correctly? You can use it in only two ways. Find out what
they are in this handout: it offers you rules, examples and advice
about how to use this punctuation mark correctly and effectively.
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