Transcript Slide 1

An understanding of these 8 skill sets will help you
ace the COMPASS:
Punctuation
Spelling
Capitalization
Usage
Verb formation and agreement
Relationships of clauses
Shifts in Construction
Organization
 What
is a sentence? A sentence is a group of
words that 1. has a subject, 2. has a verb, 3.
expresses a complete thought.
 If a sentence is missing more than one of
these elements, it is incomplete.
 You are not allowed to write incomplete
sentences.
 The completeness or incompleteness of a
sentence has nothing to do with how long or
short the group of words is.
 Sentences
don’t have to be long to be
complete. The following are examples of
complete sentences:
• John runs.
• I am a biker.
• You threw the ball.
The blue words are the subjects (the actors). The
green words are the verbs (the actions).
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
Understanding the rules of punctuation is like understanding the
rules of the road. Traffic lights are effective at conducting traffic
because everyone agrees on what they mean. Everyone agrees
that red means stop and green means go, so (almost) everyone
stops at a red light. Punctuation has the same function on the road
of writing. A semicolon means there’s more information coming; a
period means the sentence is over.
Remember that the purpose of punctuation is to clarify your
meaning or message so that your readers understand exactly
what you intend for them to understand.
There are many different punctuation marks and many uses for
each one. This packet will look at the pieces of punctuation that
are most commonly used and that will be most helpful for you.

There are specific uses for each different kind of
punctuation. If you feel like you want to use a comma in
a particular sentence but you don’t know why you want
to use a comma, then don’t use one. Sometimes you will
think you need a comma when you really only need to
take a breath. Commas are not used to mark when a
person should take a breath while reading a sentence;
they are used to clarify for the reader the relationships
among words in a sentence. Only use a comma if you
know that you need one.
Along with the period, the comma is the most
frequently used punctuation mark. However,
while a period is used to end a sentence, a
comma is used to add a short pause within a
sentence. We will go over several specific
types of pauses that a comma can add to a
sentence in the next slides.
Comma Use One: Listing
Jay had a hamburger, fries, and a Dr. Pepper for lunch.
Tanya’s favorite animals are llamas, elephants, tigers,
pterodactyls, dogs, cats, and parakeets.
Comma Use Two: Joining two sentences
Use a comma and a conjunction (and or but) to join two independent
clauses together.
Darrell wanted to buy six tickets to the game, but he could
only afford to buy three.
Brittany knew the car was ready to pick up, and she couldn’t
wait to see the new paint color.
Note: It is widely considered acceptable to leave the comma out in this
situation if both of the independent clauses are short (the COMPASS
writing test makes use of this exception frequently).
Comma Use Three: Inserting nonessential words or
phrases at the beginning or end of a sentence
Certainly, someone will adopt Fido.
Todd gives money to most local charities, but not all of them.
Comma Use Four: Inserting nonessential words or
phrases in the middle of a sentence
Donna Shalala, President of the University of Miami, was among our
country’s first Peace Corp volunteers.
Peanuts, which cause some people to break out in hives, are often
served boiled in Georgia.
Apostrophe Use One: Forming contractions
Do not = Don’t
Cannot = Can’t
You are = You’re
We are = We’re
They are = They’re
We will = We’ll
He is = He’s
It is = It’s
Apostrophe Use Two: Forming possessives
The apple that belongs to Jim = Jim’s apple
The budget of the US = The nation’s budget
The password that belongs to all the tellers who work for CB&T
= The tellers’ password
Note: As in the third example above, if you need to make a word both plural and
possessive, always make the word plural first (notice that the apostrophe comes
after the s in the plural tellers—teller’s is the possessive of the singular word
teller).
Colons and semi-colons have similar purposes.
The main difference is that a sentence using a
colon does not have to have two independent
clauses, but a sentence using a semi-colon does.
This video explains the difference:
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-usecolons-and-semi-colons
If you feel your punctuation skills are rusty or
you just want a little more practice, try some of
these punctuation and sentence construction
games:
http://www.gamequarium.com/punctuation.html
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Spelling is an important life skill. If you have
consistently good spelling skills, your readers will
know your work is more credible than that of a writer
who cannot spell well.
The best way to improve your spelling skills is to read a
lot. Another effective way is to play games that involve
spelling, such as Boggle and Scrabble.
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Here are some websites to help make you aware of
commonly misspelled words and to help you improve
your spelling skills:
http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/spelling-andword-lists/misspelled.html

http://www.spelling.hemscott.net/#games

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/4/
Here’s a list of the things you should always capitalize:
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The first words of a sentence
The pronoun "I"
Proper nouns (the names of specific people, places, organizations, and sometimes things)
Family relationships (when used as proper names)
The names of God, specific deities, religious figures, and holy books
•
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Titles preceding names, but not titles that follow names
Directions that are names (North, South, East, and West when used as sections of the country,
but not as compass directions)
The days of the week, the months of the year, and holidays (but not the seasons used generally)
•
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Exception: Do not capitalize the nonspecific use of the word "god."
Exception: Seasons are capitalized when used in a title.
The names of countries, nationalities, and specific languages
The first word in a sentence that is a direct quote
The major words in the titles of books, articles, and songs (but not short prepositions or the
articles "the," "a," or "an," if they are not the first word of the title)
Members of national, political, racial, social, civic, and athletic groups
Periods and events (but not century numbers)
Trademarks
The only articles used in the English language are: a, an, and the.
The is used to refer to specific or particular nouns; a or an is used to
modify non-specific or non-particular nouns. For example:
The Johnsons’ cat, Ozzy, probably killed the opossum (This sentence
refers to a specific cat).
A cat probably killed the opossum (This sentence refers to a
hypothetical [non-specified] cat).
An works just like a, except an is used before words that begin with
vowel sounds. For example, you would write “an apple” instead of “a
apple,” or “a Snickers bar” instead of “an Snickers bar.”

Adjectives modify (describe/go
with) nouns.

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives,
and other adverbs.
Examples of adjectives are blue (the
word being modified is red):
Examples of adverbs are green (the
word being modified is red):
The new horse is beautiful.
The new horse jumped beautifully.
Our puppy is playful.
Our puppy is very playful.
Some fish have shiny scales.
Some fish have blindingly shiny
scales and swim swiftly.
*Tip: Adverbs typically end in –ly.

Adjectives modify (describe/go
with) nouns.

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives,
and other adverbs.
Examples of adjectives are blue (the
word being modified is red):
Examples of adverbs are green (the
word being modified is red):
The new horse is beautiful.
The new horse jumped beautifully.
Our puppy is playful.
Our puppy is very playful.
Some fish have shiny scales.
Some fish have blindingly shiny
scales and swim swiftly.
*Tip: Adverbs typically end in –ly.
 Sentences
are composed of clauses and
phrases.
 A clause has both a subject and a verb.
 A phrase has either a subject or a verb, but not
both.
 There are two types of clauses: independent
and dependent.
 If there is an independent clause present in a
group of words, that group is a sentence.
 A dependent clause on its own is not a
sentence.
 An
independent clause has a subject, has a
verb, and expresses a complete thought.
 A dependent clause has a subject and has a
verb but does not express a complete thought.
I drank a cup of coffee. = independent clause (I = subject, drank = verb/it
expresses a complete thought)
After I drank a cup of coffee = dependent clause
(Wait, it has all the same elements as the independent clause; what is the
difference)? Notice that it has an additional word in the second example. After is a
dependent clause marker, also known as a subordinating conjunction. It is a word
that makes the thought incomplete. You can find more words like that under the
heading Dependent Clause Marker on this page (hold Ctrl and click the link
below):
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/598/01/
 Note: If
you have an independent clause,
you have a sentence, and you must treat it
as a sentence. Any time you have more
than one independent clause in a
sentence (if you do not join the two or
more properly) you have a run-on
sentence. If you join two independent
clauses together using only a comma, you
have a comma-splice. These are both
major errors.
 Tip: If
you think you have a run-on, look for
subject verb pairs (as simple as “John jumps,”
“Sally runs,” and so on). If you have more than
one, and the extras are not part of a dependent
clause or clauses, you have a run-on.
 Tip: If you think you might have a comma
splice, put a finger on the comma. Read what is
to the left of it; read what is to the right of it. If
what is to the left could be a sentence on its
own, and what is to the right could be a
sentence on its own, you have a comma splice.
A
very small, wet, furry dog = a noun phrase—
it has descriptive words (adjectives and an
adverb) and a noun, but it never gets around to
a complete subject-verb relationship.
 ran all across the neighborhood = a verb
phrase—it does not include a subject.
 Neither one can function as a sentence by itself.
You can add a phrase to an independent clause,
though.
• A very small, wet, furry dog, Rex was loved by all the
people in the neighborhood (Rex was loved =
independent clause). Take a look here:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/03/
 Misplaced
modifiers: check below
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/mispla
ced-modifiers.aspx
 Dangling modifiers: check here
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/5
97/1/
Take a look here, also:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/mo
difiers.htm
 Mixed
construction often happens when
a writer begins a sentence one way and
ends it another way. We cannot really
explain it better than the following
module:
http://www.srjcwritingcenter.com/clears
entcs/mixedcnst/mixedcnst.html
 This
is a fancy way to say who is talking or
being talked to in a sentence.
 There are three grammatical persons: 1st
Person, 2nd Person, and 3rd Person.
 1st Person = “I” and “we” statements
(statements in which you are talking about
yourself)
 2nd Person = “You” statements (statements in
which you are talking to someone else)
 3rd Person = “He, she, it” statements and “they”
statements (statements in which you are talking
about someone else).
 Each
grammatical person has a singular and a
plural. Singular means we are talking about or
to one person; plural means we are talking
about or to two or more people.
 1st Person Singular = I/1st Person Plural = We
 In English, we have the same word for 2nd
Person Singular and 2nd Person Plural. We use
you for both.
 3rd Person = “He, she, it” and all singular nouns
except for I and you are 3rd Person Singular.
They and all plural nouns other than we and you
are 3rd Person Plural.
 When
we think of verbs, we often think of
action words. While it is true that action
words are verbs, there are actually three
kinds of verbs: action verbs, linking verbs,
and helping verbs.
 Action
verbs show the action that the
subject is doing. The subject is the actor
or the doer, and the action verb is the
action or what the doer is doing.
 Action verbs are not hard to pinpoint; just
ask “does the verb show someone doing
something?”
 Jump, run, think, eat, etc.
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Linking verbs do just that—they link the subject to
something.
Specifically, they link the subject to the subject complement.
The subject complement describes or renames the subject.
Example #1: “Johnny is a chef.” Johnny is not doing anything
in the sentence. The linking verb is connects Johnny to chef
(chef, the subject complement, renames him).
Example #2: “Sally looks sad.” Sally is not doing anything.
Looks connects Sally to the descriptive word sad. (NOTE:
Words can mean multiple things. In the previous example, it
means, roughly, appears to be or seems. Look can also be an
action verb, as in “Tyrone looked at the magazine.” For that
matter, appears can be an action verb, as in “The magician
appeared out of nowhere.”
Helping
verbs help change
the tense a verb. We will go
over helping verbs in the
section on tense.

When dealing with verbs, we must be aware that subjects and verbs must
always agree. When we say they must agree, we mean that the form of that
subject and the form of the verb must match. Note the following example:
I jump.
You jump.
We jump.
They jump.
He jumps. Wait, how come in the last example we add an s to the end of
jump? We add an s to the end of a regular verb when the subject is third
person singular. We would also add the s if instead of he, the subject were
she, it, or any other singular noun other than I or you. The rules are
different if we want to change the tense of the verb, but we will get to that
in the tense section.
 Other regular verbs (verbs that follow the normal pattern/rules) will
follow the same pattern that jump follows.
 We are dealing only with present tense verbs at the moment. Hold on and
we will get to the other tenses soon.
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
Sadly, in English, we also have irregular verbs (not all languages have them). Irregular verbs do not follow the
typical verb form patterns. For example:
 I am.
 You are.
 He (or any other singular noun besides I and you) is.
 We are.
 You are.
 They (or any other plural noun besides we and you) are.
All of these verbs are different forms/versions of be (the verb to be). Be does
not follow the same pattern as jump. When we use be as a linking verb, it
always follows the pattern above (it is am if paired with I, and so on). That
is because jump is a regular verb, and be/to be is an irregular verb.
Irregular verbs simply do not follow the normal patterns, so you just have
to be familiar with each one.
Tip: be, have, and do are some of the most frequently used verbs, and all
three are irregular. A lot of subject-verb agreement errors come from
people not knowing all the forms of those three words. The first chart on
the following page contains the forms of those verbs:
http://www.speak-read-write.com/irregularverbs4.html
We are STILL dealing only with present tense verbs at the moment. Hold on
and we will get to the other tenses soon.
 Tense
is a fancy way of saying when
something happens. Verbs express tense,
and the tense of the verb tells you the
time in which the sentence or the stuff
referred to in the sentence happened.
 So far the verb forms we have been
dealing with have been in singular and
plural present tense. Present tense means
that something occurs in the present—
that is, right now.

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
In addition to present tense forms, verbs have past tense forms and
perfect or participle tense forms (there are some additional tenses,
such as future, future perfect, progressive, and perfect progressive,
but let’s keep things simple for now).
Past tense means that the stuff of the sentence occurred in the past.
Typically, we add ed to a verb to get its past tense form, as in
“Today Johnny jumps. Yesterday he jumped.” The ed that we added
to jump tells us that the action happened in the past
Note also that we drop the s from jumps when we form the past
tense version of the word—all of the other grammatical persons
should also be paired with the past tense form jumped as in “you
jump,” “they jump,” and so on.
Of course, not all verbs follow the regular pattern/form. An irregular verb may form
its past tense version in another way. Check the following website for more details
and plenty of examples:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/605/01/

 The
perfect tenses show things continuing
through time, or happening in sequence.
Perfect tense uses helping verbs. For example
“I jumped” is past tense. “I have jumped”
shows that I have continued to jump through a
period in the past (and into the present).
Adding have to jumped accomplishes that. In
this case, have is a helping verb because it
helps jumped to do that (to show the action
continuing through time). “have jumped” is
present perfect tense.
 Another
perfect tense is past perfect. In this
case, we will say “I had worked at GMC.” Note
that we use had instead of have. Had changes
the it to past perfect tense, which indicates that
an action continued for a time in the past, but at
some point ended. “I had worked at GMC”
means that at some point, something caused
me to cease working at GMC (“I have worked
at GMC” does not necessarily imply that I no
longer work there).
 It
is important to remember that even when
forming tenses, we must make sure that our
subject and our verbs agree. The helping verb
must also agree with the subject. You have
already seen the following link, but it explains
which forms of have (for example) go with the
different grammatical persons (have with I—we
say “I have” rather than “I has,” and so on).
 Check below for information on subject verb
agreement.

http://www.speak-read-write.com/irregularverbs4.html
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

Remember that, when forming perfect tenses, some verbs
(those pesky irregular verbs) have a different form for
pairing with helping verbs in the perfect tenses.
The past tense of be is usually was. But remember, verbs like
work and jump are regular verbs, so we say “I have worked”
or “I had jumped,” but when we use perfect tenses, irregular
verbs sometimes have a special form for perfect tenses.
When using be in the perfect tense, be becomes been
(“have been,” “had been,” and so on).
Check below again for more info (and note that the past
participle form of the verbs listed on that page also applies
to present and future perfect tenses):
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/605/01/
 Check
below for more information on tense:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resour
ce/601/01/


It is important that we use the correct tense, and that we
do not change tenses improperly or unnecessarily.
Unnecessary tense shifting will irritate your teachers.
For example “I had worked at GMC, and I work there
now.” is weird. Why would I use had instead of have if I
still work here? At the very least, some information is
missing from the sentence (it is possible that I quit for a
time and came back, but that explanation should come
between “I had worked at GMC” and the rest of the
sentence.
 Check
below for some more information on
tense shifting, including some exercises:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/2/22

If you would like to explore some additional tenses, or
would like more info on the tenses we have covered,
look below (but do not overload yourself!):
 http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/te
nses/simple_present.htm
 Use the menu links on the left of that website to
access info on different tenses, and also note
that there is also a menu on the left of the OWL
at Purdue page which we have linked to here—
explore the OWL (Online Writing Lab) menu
for even more tense info.
In any kind of writing, organization is very important. Even if
your essay has a lot of good ideas and insightful points, your reader
won’t get the most out of the essay unless it is organized clearly.
For most essays and papers you’ll write at the college level, you can
use a simple 3-part structure: an introduction paragraph, multiple
body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph.
Within this structure, the best way to achieve good organization is to
include in each paragraph only what is relevant to that paragraph; in
other words, always stay on topic!
GOOD PARAGRAPH
One reason to drive a
hybrid car is that it is less
expensive than driving a gas-only
car. A hybrid car uses gasoline
and electricity, so about half as
much gas is needed to power it.
The less gas it requires to power
the car, the less gas the driver
has to pay for. There are many
benefits to driving a hybrid, but
in this economy, cost is a critical
consideration.
BAD PARAGRAPH
One reason to drive a
hybrid car is that it is less
expensive than driving a gas-only
car. Some people like hybrid
cars because they look cooler
than old gas cars, but I like them
because they are more fun to
drive. They’re eco-friendly too,
and lots of hybrids have seats that
fold down so you can sleep in the
back if you need to.
In addition to organizing each paragraph on its own, it is
important to provide transitions between paragraphs so that your
readers know where your essay is going.
Instead of treating paragraphs as separate ideas, transitions
can help readers understand how paragraphs work together,
reference one another, and build to a larger point. The key to
producing good transitions is highlighting connections between
corresponding paragraphs.
Take a look at the next slide to see a list of transition words
and when to use them.
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
To add information:
again, besides, equally important, finally, further, furthermore, too, next,
lastly, moreover, in addition, first (second, etc.)
To compare information:
whereas, but, yet, on the other hand, however, nevertheless, on the contrary,
by comparison, compared to, although, conversely, meanwhile, in contrast,
although this may be true
To support your proof:
because, for, since, for the same reason, evidently, furthermore, moreover,
besides, indeed, in fact

To show exception or contrast:
yet, still, however, nevertheless, in spite of, despite, sometimes

To show progression:
thereafter, finally, next, then, previously, formerly, first (second, etc.)

To emphasize:
definitely, in fact, indeed, absolutely, positively, naturally, surprisingly,
emphatically, without a doubt, certainly, without reservation
Practice exercises
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/
Punctuation
http://lilt.ilstu.edu/golson/punctuation/intro.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/577/01/
http://www.gamequarium.com/punctuation.html
Spelling
http://www.spelling.hemscott.net/#games
http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/spelling-and-wordlists/misspelled.html
Capitalization
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/592/1/
Usage
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/730/1/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/english/games
Verb formation/agreement
http://www.bhsu.edu/Academics/ProgramsMajors/ArtsHumanities/Englis
h/WritingResources/VerbFormation/tabid/951/Default.aspx
Relationships of clauses
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/598/1/
Shifts in construction
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/2/1/
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/2/22/49
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/write/we/ch5/17c.htm
Organization
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/03/