BASIC WRITING SKILLS

1. BASIC WRITING SKILLS Introduction to Grammar

2. Why is Grammar Important?

3. 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

4. Consequences of Mis-punctuation A woman, without her man, is nothing. A woman: without her, man is nothing.

5. Grammar Errors in Everyday Life

6. http://blogs.newsobserver.com/media/grammar-hair.jpg

7. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesbessant/533148959/

8. Perhaps a good set of encyclopedias would prevent such embarrassments in the future .... http://kaszas.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/enciclopedias.jpg

9. 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?/photos/uncategorized/googlevalentine.jpg

10. 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

11. Grammar rules exist for a reason!

12. Parts of Speech

13. 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

14. There are eight parts of speech: • Noun • Verb • Pronoun • Adjective • Adverb • Preposition • Conjunction • Interjection

15. Noun • Names a person, place, thing, idea, or quality • Noun Mind Map Handout

16. NOUN Name people, place, things, ideas, or qualities • Proper Noun: • Names a specific person, place, or thing • Begin with a capital letter * • Ex: Calgary, (your name), October • Collective Noun: • Name a group or collection of people or things • Ex: committee, herd • Common Noun: • 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 • 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

17. 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

18. 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.

19. Verb • Express action or being

20. Pronoun • Takes the place of nouns

21. Adjective • Describe or modify nouns or pronouns

22. Adverb • Describe or modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs

23. Preposition • Relate nouns or pronouns to other words in a sentences

24. 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!

25. Interjection • Express emotion or feeling