Grammatical Concepts
Every complete sentence in English, if it is to be grammatically correct, must have these two parts of speech.
What are subject and verb?
The school board debated the issue for three days but they were unable to reach an agreement.
Add a comma: The school board debated the issue for three days, but they were unable to reach an agreement.
When writing a paper in MLA format, the page at the end of your paper that includes the bibliographical information of all your sources is called this page.
What is a Works Cited page?
Like a miniature thesis statement, it’s the name for the sentence that expresses the main idea of a given paragraph.
What is a topic sentence?
It's the name of our course textbook.
What is They Say / I Say?
It’s what you call a sentence that merges two independent clauses without proper signalling.
What is a run-on sentence? (fused sentence also acceptable)
Even if we ignore what the betting markets tell us the odds of the Sabres making the playoffs this year is astronomically small.
Add a comma: Even if we ignore what the betting markets tell us, the odds of the Sabres making the playoffs this year is astronomically small.
For in-text citations, MLA requires you to include these two pieces of information (although for many online sources, the second piece may not be available).
What are the author's last name and the page number?
It's the name for the style of essay that tells a story. But not just any story—one that connects personal, unique experiences to broader ideas.
What is a narrative essay?
All good writing should take into account the relationship between the text, its author, and its audience—a relationship we call this.
What is the Rhetorical Situation?
One way to solve a run-on sentence is to add a comma along with one of these words.
What is a coordinating conjunction? (and, or, but, for, so, yet)
The event’s promoters, turned down John Lennon’s offer to play with his Plastic Ono Band.
Remove a comma: The event’s promoters turned down John Lennon’s offer to play with his Plastic Ono Band.
True or False: As long as you include a citation, you don’t need to put quotation marks around passages taken directly from a text.
False. All words taken directly from another text need to be put in quotation marks.
The difference between these two kinds of writing is that the first kind involves a short restatement of main points, while the second consists of a more detailed breakdown of a text.
What are summary and analysis?
In her book On the Clock, Emily Guendelsberger writes about her experiences working in a warehouse for this major online retailer.
What is Amazon?
Like two lines that never touch, it’s the name for ensuring that phrases joined by a conjunction or set in a series are of the same grammatical structure.Dependent and independent clauses
What is parallelism?
He loved to play Taylor guitars, which were always too expensive for me.
Fine as is.
The sentence below includes a quote from page 13 of an article by Muhammed Siddiq. Add an in-text citation in MLA format:
Some have argued that Kanafani’s second novel “presents an indirect but nonetheless poignantly ironic commentary on contemporary Arab history.”
Some have argued that Kanafani’s second novel “presents an indirect but nonetheless poignantly ironic commentary on contemporary Arab history" (Siddiq 13).
Every written argument needs to have these two components, along with a rationale or reasoning to tie them together.
What are claim and evidence?
“Hidden Intellectualism,” an essay by Gerald Graff, explores the value of street smarts as he recounts his childhood growing up in this American city.
What is Chicago?
Attaching a subordinating word, like “Since” or “Although,” to a sentence makes it this kind of clause.
What is a dependent clause?
Spanish, which is a Romance language is one of six official languages at the United Nations.
Add a comma: Spanish, which is a Romance language, is one of six official languages at the United Nations.
Is the following citation correctly formatted to MLA guidelines?
Carr, Nicholas. Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Atlantic, July 2008. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/
Not correct:
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic, July 2008. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/
Good evaluative essays have clear sets of these upon which their evaluations are based.
What are criteria?
It's the name of the movie referenced at the beginning of Nicholas Carr’s essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
What is 2001: A Space Odyssey?