Grammar

Grammar is one of the most important skills that you must learn. In order to write and speak effectively, it is very important for you to master this skill. When studying grammar, you must look at the different parts of grammar. The parts of grammar are the parts of speech, the mechanics, and sentence structure.

First you must understand all of the parts of speech in order to put your sentences together.

• A conjunction is a word that joins words or phrases together. Examples of conjunctions are: and, or, but, nor, for, so, and yet.
• Interjections are words that express emotion. Examples of interjections are: Oh! Wow! Ouch! etc.
• Modifiers are words that describe other words.
• An adverb describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb.
• An adjective describes a noun or pronoun.
• Sometimes nouns and pronouns can act as modifiers.
• A noun is a person, place, thing, idea, or state of being.
• A pronoun is a word that replaces one or more nouns. Examples of pronouns are: I, we, you, they, he, she, it, us, them, mine, ours, etc.
• A proper noun is a particular person, place, or thing. Examples of proper nouns are: John Adams; Indianapolis, Indiana; or honda.
• A preposition relates one known or pronoun to another word. Examples of prepositions are: during, of, through, above, to, etc.
• Verbs are words that state action. Verbs are sometimes referred to as predicates.

Next, you must understand the mechanics of writing in order to be an effective writer. The mechanics are the technical characteristics of writing.

• Abbreviations are shorter versions of words that end with periods.
• Acronyms are formed from the first letters of several words to make a word instead of a series of letters. An example of an acronym is THEA (Texas Higher Education Assessment).
• Capitals designate the beginning of a sentence, a proper noun or pronoun.
• Hyphen is used to divide a word, between the numbers in a compound number, with the prefixes ex-, self-, all-, and with a compound adjective.
• Italics may be used in a literary work for many different reasons. Italics may denote a title of a book, magazine, pamphlet, television show, etc. Italics may indicate foreign words. Italics may identify names of legal cases, names of ships, submarines, aircraft, submarines, aircraft, spacecraft, and satellites. Italics may also be used to stress a word.
• Numbers should almost always be written out in a composition. The exceptions to this are dates, addresses, identification numbers, pages and divisions of books and plays, decimals and percentages, and large fractional numbers.
• Punctuation is the pauses, inflection points, and stops in a literary work.
• Apostrophes are used to form possessives of nouns, to show the ommissions of letters, and to make contractions.
• Colons are used to present a list, or to separate hours, minutes, and seconds.
• Commas are used to separate words in a list, or to separate phrases and clauses with the use of a conjunction.
• Exclamation points are used to end exclamatory sentences or to emphasize interjections.
• Periods are used to end declarative or imperative sentences.
• Question marks are used to end interrogative sentences.
• Quotations enclose a person’s precise words. Quotations can also be used to indicate the title of a short literary work. Quotations can be used to indicate ironically used words (slang, jargon, etc.). There are always two quotation marks (a set of quotation marks) used.
• Semicolons are used to separate independent clauses in a sentence without the use of a conjunction.
• Spelling is how words are written. Most words are written according to pronunciation; however, some words are not. There are many different rules to spelling. One of these rules is i before e except after c.

 Last, but not least, you must have good sentence structure. Sentence structure is how your sentences are put together. In order to have proper sentence structure, you should be aware of the following terms:

• Clauses are groups of words that have both a subject and a predicate.
• Independent clauses are clauses that can stand alone.
• Example – Good English students receive good grades.
• Dependent clauses are clauses that cannot stand alone.
• Example – They won the soccer game because they have practiced day and night.
• Comma Splices, or comma faults, refer to the incorrect use of a comma to separate two independent clauses.
• Example – We went to the park, we rode our rollerblades.
• Revision – When we went to the park, we rode our rollerblades. -OR- We went to the park; we rode our rollerblades. (Always remember that revision not only corrects the mistakes in your  composition, but revision also makes your composition sound better and gives it a smooth flow. Therefore, out of the two revised sentences, the first choice sounds better; so, it is the better choice of the two.)
• Essentials – Each sentence written or spoken has a particular purpose. You must decide what that purpose is.

• Declarative Sentences state facts or report information.

The dog is black and furry.

• Imperative Sentences instruct the reader/listener.

Walk the dog.

• Interrogative Sentences ask questions.

Are you going out tonight?

• Exclamatory Sentences stress emotion.

You hurt me!

• Fragments are only a piece of a sentence. Whereas a complete sentence consists of a complete subject and complete predicate, a fragment may be missing either or both of these parts. A fragment cannot stand on its own.
• Example – I don’t think I will go out with you tonight. Although you are my best friend.
• Revision – Although you are my best friend, I don’t think I will go out with you tonight.
• Fused Sentences, or run-on sentences, are of two independent clauses jammed together with no punctuation in between them.
• Example – We went to the store we got milk.
• Revision - We went to the store, and we bought milk. -OR- We went to the store; we bought milk. (Always remember that revision not only corrects the mistakes in your  composition, but revision also makes your composition sound better and gives it a smooth flow. Therefore, out of the two revised sentences, the first choice sounds better; so, it is the better choice of the two.)
• Phrases are sequences of grammatically related words that function as a unit in a sentence but lack a subject, a predicate, or both. There are different types of phrases.
• Noun Phrases are groups of words that form the subject.

the big yellow car

• Verb Phrases are groups of words that show action.

has rained

• Prepositional Phrases answer the questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

on the roof

• Adjectival phrases modify nouns or noun phrases. They most often make up part of the noun phrase. Adjectival phrases can also be prepostional phrases.
  

• Adverbial phrases modify verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. They can be part of the verb, adjectival, or other adverbial phrases. Sometimes adverbial phrases are prepositional phrases or just one adverb.