Thursday, May 6, 2010

Today, we discussed the problems you had with your essay. Read teh information below for Monday if you weren't here.

Use Key words in the title, not the name of the “work”.
Do not double-double
Never underline on a typed paper
Small works need to be in quotation marks
Big works need to be in italics
Centre and bold your title but don’t make it a bigger font or
Underline

That and who
The people who…
The girl who…

Possessives

Read the following example:

“If we all keep every minority happy in our country or even the world authors would have nothing left of their work.”

The Comma

The comma is the most frequently used and the most frequently misused punctuation mark. The omission of a necessary comma can distort the meaning of a sentence. Unnecessary commas can distract the reader and give the sentence a jerky quality (“Think Stevie in Malcolm in the Middle”). Perhaps nothing is so sure a sign of a competent writer as the correct use of commas, so it is very important that you master them.

First off, what is a COMPLETE sentence?

A COMPLETE SENTENCE is one that contains an independent clause. If it has ONE INDEPENTENT CLAUSE, then it is a SIMPLE SENTENCE. If a group of words does not contain an independent clause, then it is a SENTENCE FRAGMENT (or a dependent clause).
A CLAUSE is a group of related words containing a SUBJECT and a VERB.
A clause can be usefully distinguished from a phrase, which is a group of related words that does not contain a subject-verb relationship, such as "at the school" or "when I arrived" or "knowing that I would pass if I tried". By themselves, these are all sentence fragments. If attached to a COMPLETE SENTENCE (Simple) they can create a richer, more COMPLEX sentence and make your writing much better.

I will now present four rules that will give you a good indication of when you should use a comma. If the sentence you are writing is not covered by one of the four rules remember this:

WHEN IN DOUBT, LEAVE THE COMMA OUT!


There are four comma rules

Rule #1 : Use commas to separate items in a series
of three or more.

e.g.,

Required subjects are math, English, bookkeeping, and business law.


Walk up the hill, turn left, go two blocks and you’ll be there.


The comma before the and at the end of the list is optional; use it or leave it out, but be consistent.


Rule #2 : Use comma(s) to separate from the rest of the sentence any word or expression that is not essential to the sentence’s meaning or that means the same as something else in the sentence.


e.g., Writing business letters isn’t difficult, if
you’re careful.


The phrase “if you’re careful” is not essential to the meaning of the sentence, so it’s separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma.

Stephen Leacock, one of the world’s great humorists, was a professor of economics at McGill.

The phrase “one of the world’s great humorists” means the same as “Stephen Leacock.” The two expressions refer to the same person, so the second is set off by commas. When a nonessential word or phrase occurs in the middle of a sentence, rather than at the beginning or the end, be sure to put commas both before and after it.


If it were up to me, Judy, I’d hire you right now.

The word “Judy,” the name of the person spoken to, is unnecessary to the meaning of the sentence, so it’s set off by commas.


Rule #3 : Place a comma between independent clauses when they are joined by these transition words.:
and nor for
or but yet
so

e.g.,

It was a good party, but last year’s was better.
I’m not speaking to her, so you’ll have to tell her.
I can’t make it to class, yet I feel I should go.
Ross is a good student, for he studies hard.

Be sure that the sentence contains two independent clauses rather than a single subject and a multiple verb.
Rule # 4 : Put a comma after any word or group of words that comes before an independent clause.

e.g.,
Charlie, you aren’t paying any attention. (The second rule applies here, too.)
Though tattered and torn, the book was worth a fortune.
Wherever you go, remember me.
If that’s all there is, we’d better buy more.
Until he got his promotion, he was quite
friendly.

Final note: Never place a single comma between a subject and its verb: