Parts of Speech
A word that names a person, place, or thing. For example, "child," "school," and "pen."
What is a noun?
A group of words that does not contain a subject or a predicate. For example, "in the morning" or "after school."
What is a phrase?
A punctuation mark that indicates the end of a declarative sentence. It looks like a little dot.
What is a period? What is a full stop?
A group of words that pretends to be a sentence but does not meet the condition of complete meaning. For example, see the second sentence: "I tripped and twisted my ankle. Running for the bus."
What is a sentence fragment?
The stage in which writers jot down ideas about a topic.
What is brainstorming? What is the prewriting stage?
A word that shows action or a state of being. For example, "run" and "become."
What is a verb?
A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate. For example, "The moon orbits the earth" or "When the bell tolls,..."
What is a clause?
A punctuation mark that indicates a pause between parts of a sentence. It is also used to separate items in a list and to mark the place of thousands in a large numeral.
What is a comma?
Two independent clauses that have not been joined correctly. For example, "Air pollution poses risks to all humans it can be deadly for asthma sufferers."
What is a run-on sentence?
The stage in which writers organize their materials and begin to think about how they will proceed. This might include writing an outline.
What is the planning stage?
A word that replaces (or takes the place of) a noun. For example, "you," "that," and "someone."
What is a pronoun?
A group of words without subject or verb that begins with a preposition. For example, "in the morning" and "beside the book."
What is a prepositional phrase?
A punctuation mark that indicates an interrogative sentence.
What is a question mark?
An error in which verbs do not agree with their subjects in number or person. For example, "High levels of air pollution causes damage to the respiratory tract."
What is a Subject-Verb Agreement error?
The stage in which writers put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and develop the first product.
What is the drafting stage?
A word that modifies or describes nouns and pronouns. For example, "red," "small," and "interesting."
What is an adjective?
A type of clause that has a complete meaning and can stand alone. It is also known as a complete sentence. For example, "The boy sat on the chair."
What is an independent clause?
A punctuation mark used to precede a list of items, a quotation, or an expansion or explanation. It has two dots.
What is a colon?
An error in which pronouns do not agree with their antecedents in number or gender. For example, "The hospital interns finished his rounds."
The stage in which writers review and rethink their work. This is usually the longest stage in the writing process.
What is the revision stage?
A word that modifies or describes verbs, adjectives, or other words of its same type. For example, "slowly," "directly," and "often."
What is an adverb?
A type of clause that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence. For example, "Because the procedure is difficult" and "When the surgeon calls."
What is a dependent clause?
A punctuation mark used in English to omit letters in contractions, mark the possessive case of nouns, and sometimes to indicate quotations.
What is an apostrophe?
An error in which it is unclear what a pronoun refers to. For example, "Amir told Mohamed that he got an A on his test."
What is a pronoun reference error? What is pronoun reference ambiguity?
The stage in which writers read their draft with a critical eye to make their work easier to read and to spot errors.
What is the editing stage? What is the proofreading stage?