Grammar
This is a word often confused with two other similar words. It means it belongs to them.
What is their.
It is a group of words that also contains a subject and a verb, but it is not a complete thought.
What is a dependent clause?
Because it is not a complete thought, a dependent clause cannot stand on its own as a sentence; it is dependent on being attached to an independent clause to form a sentence.
They are used to connect paragraphs and turn disconnected writing into a unified whole.
Though most possessive words usually require an apostrophe "s", this word does not and is often confused for the contraction form.
What is its and it's?
It's any paragraph that follows the introduction and comes before the conclusion.
What is a body paragraph?
The two best things about the party was the food and the music.
The two best things about the party were the food and the music.
What are incorrect and correct examples of subject verb agreement?
Incomplete sentences that don’t have one independent clause. It may lack a subject, a complete verb, or both. Sometimes they depend on the proceeding sentence to give it meaning.
What is a sentence fragment?
It is one of the most important elements of any successful essay.
What is a thesis statement?
Sam knew immediately, what was going to happen next.
What does a misplaced comma look like?
Fourteen.
What week are we in for the semester?
It modifies or clarifies a noun.
What does an adjective do?
This occurs when you connect two main clauses with no punctuation.
What is a run-on sentence?
It sets the stage for an interesting and well-written essay.
Something that occurs when two separate sentences are joined with a comma rather than a period or semicolon. They are often created when using transitional words, such as however, therefore, moreover, nevertheless, or furthermore.
What is a comma splice?
It goes before the pronoun. It is the noun that the pronoun replaces. A pronoun must match, or agree, with it.
What is an antecedent?
They must agree in number. This means both need to be singular or both need to be plural.
What is subject verb agreement?
This is a word, phrase, or clause that is improperly separated from the word it modifies or describes. Sentences with this error can sound awkward, ridiculous, or confusing. And this is a word or phrase that modifies a word not clearly stated in the sentence.
What are descriptions of a misplaced modifier and a dangling modifier?
It generally appears early in a body paragraph and controls the paragraph. It is like a mini thesis for each paragraph and serves to unify the contents of the paragraph.
What are topic sentences?
Since body paragraphs for an essay should be centered around one main idea that relates the thesis, creating a clear topic sentence is helpful for both the writer and the reader. For the writer, a topic sentence makes it easier to stay on topic and develop the main idea without getting off track. For the reader, topic sentences announce what the paragraph will be about and demonstrate how different paragraphs and ideas are connected to each other.
This is used after a complete sentence to introduce a word, phrase, clause, list, or quotation. It signals that what follows proves or explains the sentence preceding the colon.
What is a colon?
Incorrect: People move to Florida for: the warmer weather, the beach, and the theme parks.
Correct: People move to Florida for three reasons: the warmer weather, the beach, and the theme parks.
This is a verbal that is used as an adjective and most often ends in -ing or -ed. The term verbal indicates that it is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a state of being. However, since they function as adjectives, these modify nouns or pronouns.
What is a participle?
There are two types of participles: present participles and past participles. Present participles end in -ing. Past participles end in -ed, -en, -d, -t, -n, or -ne as in the words asked, eaten, saved, dealt, seen, and gone.
They modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. (You can recognize them easily because many of them are formed by adding -ly, though that is not always the case.)
What are adverbs?
It is a group of related words that contains both a subject and a verb.
What is a clause?
On the other hand, if a group of related words does not contain a subject with an attached verb, it is simply a phrase.
It provides a map of where to go with the essay.
What is an outline?
A well-developed outline will show what the thesis of the essay is, what the main idea of each body paragraph is, and the evidence/support that will be offered in each paragraph to substantiate the main points.
They are used when separating two independent clauses.
What are semi-colons?
Since semicolons serve the same role as periods, why use one over the other? Generally, a semicolon should be used anytime a conjunctive adverb is used (however, therefore, nevertheless, moreover, consequently, etc.); the use of these conjunctive adverbs shows an inherent connection between the two independent clauses.
Examples:
It is the group of people you want to educate or persuade.
What is your target audience?
Knowing the audience for a particular essay is important because it determines the content that will appear in the writing. The content of an essay that has a specific topic will vary depending on the intended audience. In other words, having a focused topic is important, but having a specific audience is equally important.