Transcript Common Grammar Errors

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* Use italics for books, journals, newspapers,
albums, movies, TV series, etc.
* COMPLETE, WHOLE works
* Use “quotation marks” for chapter titles,
article titles, songs, tv episode titles, etc.
* PARTS of a larger work
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* My favorite episode of How I Met your Mother is
Slapsgiving.
* When I was in 3rd grade I had a choreographed
dance to I Want You Back by NSYNC.
* I stopped watching Planet of the Apes half way
through because it made me too sad—almost as
sad as the sad dog commercial with In the Arms
of the Angels playing in the background
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* We use apostrophes primarily to denote
possession.
* We do this by adding an ‘s
EX: Peter’s dog
* If the word ends in s, just add the ‘
EX: Chris’ dog
EX: The parents’ baby
* We also use apostrophes to indicate
contractions
EX: Don’t
EX: it’s
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* One of Lois sons is not very bright, but its ok
because the other is a genius.
* Ive heard that Brians book isnt well-written,
but that makes sense since the author is a dog.
* I hate the scenes where Peter fights the
chicken because it goes on for so long. Plus its
humor is in the slap-stick realm, which isnt my
favorite.
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* A compound sentence is one in which two full
thoughts are combined using a , conjunction
* Conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so”
EX: The tie has ducks on it, and it is embarrassing.
* However, a sentence where what comes after
the conjunction isn’t a full thought DOES NOT
need the comma.
EX: The tie has ducks on it and is embarrassing.
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* Ted is an architect who designs a massive
skyscraper downtown New York yet he thinks
that red cowboy boots are a viable fashion
statement, which makes no sense.
* The thing that frustrates me the most about
Lily is that she is constantly calling off work
but never has to write sub plans. Where does
she teach and why doesn’t she get fired?
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* Fragments are sentences that are missing part of them,
usually a subject of a verb. Or it may start be missing the
independent clause.
EX: Cooking as fast as I could.
EX: The judge with the shiny bald head.
EX: But I was wrong.
* Run-ons are sentences that contain two full thoughts,
without using a semicolon, conjunction, or other
connector
EX: I hope Mai wins because she’s been consistently strong
the others have varied a lot in their quality.
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* Introductory phrases should be followed by a
comma
* Transitional phrases
EX: On the other hand, Howard may go to space
again.
* Prepositional phrases
EX: In the first season, Penny’s character is far
less of a caricature.
* Participal phrases (start with –ing verbs)
EX: Conquering his fear, Sheldon ended up loving
the blue jay he’d once dreaded.
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* Adverb clauses start with subordinating
conjunctions (before, after, while, since, until,
because, although, even though, if, when, so
that, etc.)
* If an adverb clause is at the beginning of the
sentence, it should be followed by a comma.
EX: When Rick was bored, he began
spying on his neighbors.
* If an adverb clause is in the middle of the
sentence, no comma is needed.
EX: Kate decided not to ask what her
husband thought because what he
thought was usually a long, rambling
conspiracy theory.
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* When we use THAT no comma is needed
EX: I like the episode that features Jake and Terry
trying to keep Terry’s wife’s pregnancy a secret.
* When we use WHICH a comma is needed
EX: Geena’s character used to annoy me, which is
weird since now she cracks me up.
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* Ever since the first season I kind of miss the
weird romance between Boyle and Diaz, which
they’ve now dropped completely.
* Several weeks ago, my husband made me
rewatch the scene with the Captain not
wearing any pants at his desk five times,
because he thought it was so hysterical.
* The Pontiac Bandit was an exceptionally good
villain while being oh-so-likeable.
* I hate episodes, that feature the Captains’
husband because I think he’s just plain mean.
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