Transcript A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws

BASIC WRITING SKILLS
Introduction to Grammar
Why is
Grammar
Important?
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then
draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.
“Why?” asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage,
as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a
badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his
shoulder.
“Well, I'm a panda,” he says at the door. “Look it up.”
The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure
enough, finds an explanation. “Panda. Large black-and-white
bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation,
Lynne Truss
Consequences of Mis-punctuation
A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
Grammar Errors in
Everyday Life
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/media/grammar-hair.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesbessant/533148959/
Perhaps a good
set of
encyclopedias
would prevent
such
embarrassments
in the future ....
http://kaszas.typepad.com/.shared/image.
html?/photos/uncategorized/enciclopedia
s.jpg
For special occasions, Google often
changes the logo on its web page to
reflect the theme of the holiday. This
Google logo is from February 14:
http://kaszas.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photo
s/uncategorized/googlevalentine.jpg
Colgate really means business! Its
"Total" product claims to fight 12 teeth
in addition to gum problems. I wonder if
the formulation is smart enough to know
exactly which 12 teeth need to be fought
in any given mouth....
http://kaszas.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/colgate.jpg
Grammar rules exist for a reason!
Parts of Speech
Parts of Speech?
• Explains NOT what a word is, BUT how is
it used
• A word’s part of speech can change from
one sentence to the next
– The same word can be a noun in one sentence
and verb or adjective in another sentence
– We are going to learn how to identify and use
parts of speech
There are eight parts of speech:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Noun
Verb
Pronoun
Adjective
Adverb
Preposition
Conjunction
Interjection
Noun
• Names a person, place, thing, idea, or quality
• Noun Mind Map Handout
Collective Noun:
Proper Noun:
•Name a group or
collection of people
or things
•Names a specific
person, place, or
thing
•Ex: committee, herd
NOUN
Name people,
place, things,
ideas, or qualities
•Begin with a capital
letter *
•Ex: Calgary, (your
name), October
Common Noun:
Abstract Noun:
•Name something
that cannot be seen
by your senses
•Ex: happiness,
beauty, joy
Concrete Noun:
•Something physical that
can be felt by your senses
•Ex: chocolate, music, house
•Names any person,
place, or thing in a
general way
•Only capitalized if
they are at the
beginning of a
sentence *
•Ex: city, girl, game
Forms of Nouns
• Singular Noun
– Name only one person, place, or thing
– Example: bat, apple
• Plural Noun
– Name more than one person, place, or thing
– Example: bats, apples
Forms of Nouns, continued…
• Exact Nouns
– Add life to your work and give the reader a vivid
picture of what you are describing
– Too many general nouns can make your writing dull
and boring
– Example:
• The man gave us a container of fruit.
• The farmer gave us a bagful of mangoes, papayas,
and pineapples.
– The second sentence is much more interesting because
it uses exact nouns. It helps the reader to visualize
what the writer is describing.
Verb
• Express action or being
Pronoun
• Takes the place of nouns
Adjective
• Describe or modify nouns or pronouns
Adverb
• Describe or modify verbs, adjectives, or
other adverbs
Preposition
• Relate nouns or pronouns to other words in
a sentences
Conjunction
• Join words or groups of words
• For example: couldn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t
• In formal pieces of writing (assignments,
essays, etc.), do not use conjunctions!
Interjection
• Express emotion or feeling