Definitions
This is the cause of action.
What is a subject?
I, me, mine, you, yours, those, these.
What are personal pronouns?
First, agreement; second, distance.
What are the two checks when dealing with antecedents?
This expresses a complete thought with a subject and a predicate.
What is a simple sentence?
These are used to format titles of books, movies, plays, CDs, and series (cover titles).
What are italics?
This is a recipient of action.
What is an object?
These are magic words – form clauses – that, which, who.
What are relative pronouns?
This is when the pronoun is singular and so the antecedent must be singular; also if the pronoun is plural, the antecedent must be plural.
What is “agreement?”
This is two complete sentences joined with a comma and a coordinating conjunction.
What is a compound sentence?
These words aren’t capitalized in titles.
What are articles and short prepositions (in, of, by, etc.)?
SVO (subject/verb/object)
What is the active pattern?
Somebody, anybody, everybody, it.
What are indefinite pronouns?
This is when there are more than eight to ten words between pronouns and their antecedents.
What is “distance?”
These are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
What are the coordinating conjunctions?
Present participle, past participle, and infinitive.
What are the three verb conjugations?
OVS (object/verb/subject in a prepositional phrase)
What is the passive pattern?
This is the noun that the pronoun refers to and replaces.
What is an antecedent?
This when there is a distracting noun between the pronoun and its antecedent.
What is leapfrogging in dealing with antecedents?
This is a clause masquerading as a complete sentence.
What is a sentence fragment?
This is when the subject of the core doesn’t match logically with the subject whether stated or implied in the clause. (Driving down the street this morning, a deer jumped out at me.)
What is a dangling modifier?
This sentence pattern creates shorter sentences that are less complex.
What is the active pattern?
This is “look left.”
What is the “good habit” that will help you to make your pronouns agree with their antecedents?
This is when you don’t require your reader to leap over a distracting noun to get back to the antecedent. (Repeat the noun rather than use the pronoun.)
What is the solution to leapfrogging?
Use subordinators, verb conjugations, and relative pronouns.
What are the three ways to form clauses?
This is a principle of organization where there are two or more related parts in the sentence.
What is parallelism?