UNIT 2- Basic Writing Skills
❖ Grammar and Punctuation
The definition of grammar is “a set of actual or presumed prescriptive notions
about correct use of a language.” People whose native language is English may
make grammatical errors all the time. Often, conventions of speech do not adhere
to grammar rules. As long as everyone else around them makes the same mistake,
it does not sound wrong, and there is no problem until they encounter people who
have learned otherwise. From region to region, and even from workplace to
workplace, there may be small but perceptible differences in how people use
grammar, as the English language continues to evolve. Generally speaking, the
rules of grammar serve to help us
Similarly, punctuation is defined as “the marks, such as period, comma, and
parentheses, used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify
meaning.” In simple terms, punctuation marks are a symbol to create and support
meaning within a sentence or to break it up. Examples of different punctuation
marks include: full stops (.), commas (,), question marks (?), exclamation marks
(!), colons (:), semi-colons (;), apostrophes (') and speech marks (","). Punctuation
is sometimes taken for granted or used incorrectly, particularly in digital
communication like text messaging and social media. As a writer and
communicator who intend to be clear and accurate, you may find a refresher on
grammar and punctuation to be helpful, which is what this section will give you.
Grammar
Grammatical errors can disrupt an audience’s ability to understand your message
clearly, or can simply distract from your message. Further, grammatical missteps
can often weaken the writer’s credibility, potentially causing your audience to not
take your message seriously.
In this section we will give an overview of the parts of speech, types of sentences,
and modifier errors. As a refresher, here are some basics about grammar:
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Parts of Speech
“Parts of speech” are the basic types of words in the English language. Most
grammar books say that there are eight parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections. We will add one
more type: articles.
Noun- A noun is a naming word. It names a person, place, thing, idea, living
creature, quality, or action. Examples: cowboy, theatre, box, thought, tree,
kindness, arrival
Verb- A verb is a word that describes an action (doing something) or a state
(being something).Examples: walk, talk, think, believe, live, like, want
Adjective- An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It tells you something
about the noun. Examples: big, yellow, thin, amazing, beautiful, quick, important.
Adverb- An adverb is a word that usually describes a verb or adjective. It tells you
how something is done or further modifies (specifies/describes) an adjective. It
may also tell you when or where or how something happened. Examples:
slowly, happily, intelligently, well, yesterday, tomorrow, here, everywhere
Pronoun- A pronoun is used instead of a noun, to avoid repeating the noun.
Examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, they
Conjunction- A conjunction joins two words, phrases, or sentences together.
Examples: but, so, and, because, or
Preposition- A preposition usually comes before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase.
preposition express the relationship between noun and pronoun. It joins the noun
to some other part of the sentence. Examples: on, in, by, with, under, though, at
Interjection- An interjection is an unusual kind of word, because it often stands
alone. Interjections are words that express emotion or surprise, and they are usually
followed by exclamation marks. Examples: Ouch!, Hello!, Hurray!, Oh no!, Ha!
Article- An article is used to introduce a noun. Examples: the, a, an
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It is important to be able to recognize and identify the different types of words in
English so that you can understand grammar explanations and use the right word
form in the right place. Here is a brief explanation of the parts of speech.
Determiners are one of the nine parts of speech. They are words like the, an, this,
some, either, my or whose. All determiners share some grammatical similarities:
Determiners come at the beginning of a noun phrase, before adjectives
Here are some examples of sentences made with different English parts of speech:
ver
b
Sto
p!
nou verb
n
Joh work
n s.
nou ver verb
n b
Joh is worki
n ng.
prono ver noun
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un b
She lov anima
es ls.
nou verb noun adve
n rb
Tar spea Engli well.
a ks sh
nou verb adjecti noun
n ve
Tar spea good Englis
a ks h.
prono ver prepositi Artic nou adver
un b on le n b
She ran to the stati quickl
on y.
pro ver ad nou conjunct pro ver pro
n. b j. n ion n. b n.
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She like big snak but I hat the
s es e m.
Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech:
interject pro con Prono adj. nou ver pre nou adve
ion n. j. un n b p. n rb
Well, she and my you Joh wal to scho slowl
ng n k ol y.
Sentences
A sentence is the basic unit of language which expresses a complete thought.
It does this by following the grammatical basic rules of syntax. For
example:"Ali is walking". A complete sentence has at least a subject and a
main verb to state (declare) a complete thought. Short example: She walks.
Elements of a Sentence
A sentence is made up of five elements which are subject, verb, object,
complement and adverbial. An understanding of these elements is necessary
if we are going to construct correct sentences. we will discuss this below
1. SUBJECT. The subject is usually the first thing that appears in the
sentence, except the sentence is a question. The subject of a sentence is the
performer of the action specified in the sentence or the focus of sentence
(the word around which every other word in the sentence revolves). Below
are examples (the subjects are underlined)
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James loves writing
The wicked man left his children in the road
Reading in the night is not a good habit
He is a very interesting character
2. VERB: The verb follows the subject, except the sentence is a question.
But here it will be enough to say that a verb shows the action performed by
the subject or the condition or state of being of the subject. It is that
element in the sentence that gives the sentence meaning and makes it a
complete though. A group of words without the verb cannot express a
complete thought. The underlined part of the following sentences illustrate
the verb
James loves writing
The wicked man left his children in the rood
3. OBJECT: The object of a sentence is the one that receives the action of
the verb performed by the subject. That means that the subject performs
the action, the action is the verb, but the one on whom the action is
performed, the one that receives the action is the verb. The object comes
after the verb. Again the underlined parts of each of the following sentences
illustrates the object:
Alison bought a car this morning
The thief broke into the room on the opposite street
The man loves his wife dearly
4. COMPLEMENT. The complement is an attribute or quality of the
subject or object. If a verb or any other copula verbs (like seem, become,
appear) comes after the subject, what comes after that verb is not an object,
but a complement in that it will refer back to the subject (or object) and tell
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us more about it. The grammatical classes that function as complement are
adjective and noun phrases. Below are examples
The man is a real hero
They elected Johnson president
The day seems beautiful
5. ADVERBIAL- The adverbial is the most flexible element of the sentence.
That means it can come anywhere in the sentence (beginning, middle or
ending)- unlike the subject, verb, object and complement, which have fixed
positions. Adverbials tell us about the place, time, manner, etc of an
action. The underlined part of each of the following sentences are adverbials:
Alison bought a car this morning
The thief broke into the room on the opposite street
Last night I saw you at a party.
Of these five elements, only two- the subject and the verb- are compulsory,
the rest are optional
TYPES OF SENTENSE STRUCTURE
When we refer to grammar, we are generally speaking about how language is
formed at the sentence level. Words are the foundation of sentences, and in the
previous section we learned about what types of words make up the main part of
speech. Here we focus on how we put those words together to try to create
meaning
The first part of this review will focus on the three main types of sentences: simple,
compound, and complex sentences.
1. Simple Sentences
Simple sentences contain one subject–verb pair and express a complete
thought. They may contain more than one subject, as in the following example:
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My wife and I got married in Japan.
Simple sentences may also contain more than one verb, as in the next example:
He cut the grass and put away the lawnmower.
Here are some other examples of simple sentences and their subject–verb patterns:
● The movie wasn’t very interesting. (subject, verb)
● My friends and I disliked the movie. (subject, subject, verb)
● My friends and I cooked and ate the meal together. (subject, subject, verb,
verb)
● I might watch TV or read a book after dinner. (subject, verb, verb)
2. Compound Sentences
The second type of sentence, the compound sentence, consists of two simple
sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction.
There are seven coordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. A
comma precedes a coordinating conjunction, which joins two simple sentences.
Study the following examples carefully.
My friend plays the guitar and writes music. - Simple sentence
This is a simple sentence containing a subject (friend) and a compound verb (plays/
writes).
My friend plays the guitar, and he writes music. - compound sentence
This is a compound sentence—two simple sentences joined by a comma and a
coordinating conjunction. The subject of the first simple sentence is friend, and the
verb is plays. The subject of the second simple sentence is he, and the verb is
writes.
Complex Sentences
Clauses are groups of words that contain subjects and verbs. There are two types:
independent (main) clauses and dependent (subordinate) clauses. An independent
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clause, in addition to containing a subject and verb, expresses a complete thought
and can stand alone as a simple sentence. A dependent clause on its own is just part
of a sentence or fragment. It must be joined to an independent clause for it to make
sense and present a complete thought to the reader.
There are three types of dependent clauses: adjective clauses, adverb clauses, and
noun clauses. When you join dependent and independent clauses together, you
create complex sentences. Study the examples below
Complex sentence using a dependent adjective clause:
Example Explanation
Vancouver has many interesting places to shop- Independent clause or simple sentence
which is the largest city in British Columbia- Dependent adjective clause
Vancouver, which is the largest city in British
Columbia, has many interesting places to shop.- Complex sentence
Complex sentence using a dependent adverb clause of time:
Example Explanation
I will tell her the news. Independent clause or simple sentence
as soon as I see her Dependent adverb clause of time
As soon as I see her, I will tell her the news. Complex sentence
Complex sentence using a dependent adverb clause of reason:
Example Explanation
I went to bed early. Independent clause or simple
sentence
because I was tired Dependent adverb clause of reason
I went to bed early because I was tired. Complex sentence
Complex sentence using a dependent noun clause:
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Example Explanation
I already know. Independent clause or simple sentence
what you said Dependent noun clause
I already know what you said. Complex sentence
The Four Different Types of Sentences
There are four different kinds of sentences in English grammar and they are as
follows:
A. Declarative or Assertive Sentence – A declarative or assertive sentence is a
sentence that is informative and ends with a period or a full stop.
Examples:
● I like fantasy novels.
● There is a white house around the corner.
B. Imperative Sentence – An imperative sentence is a sentence that expresses a
command, an order, or a request.
Examples:
● Please pick up the notes when you come.
● Close the door.
C. Interrogative Sentence – An interrogative sentence is one that is used to
question something and it ends with a question mark.
Examples:
● What is the name of the movie you were watching?
● Can I come with you to the book fair?
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D. Exclamatory Sentence – An exclamatory sentence is one which is used to
express sudden and strong emotions, and it ends with an exclamation mark.
You can also use interjections to form exclamatory sentences.
Examples:
● Wow, how good this is!
● That was a great match!
TENSE- DIFFERENT PDF SHARED
RULES OF TENSE:
Voice
Voice refers to if a verb is active or passive. It is important to be able to recognize
this as it can help you determine which noun in the sentence is performing the
action. Let’s look at an example of each. Look at the following sentences. In each
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sentence, identify the noun that is performing the action and the noun which is
receiving the action.
Active voice: The scientists conducted a number of experiments.
Passive voice: A number of experiments were conducted by the scientists.
In the active sentence, the noun which performs the action (also known as agent) is
the scientists and it is at the beginning of the sentence, before the verb.
In the passive sentence, the noun which performs the action is the scientist and it is
at the end of the sentence after the verb and introduced by the preposition by.
[Link]
Voice rules – handwritten pdf
NARRATION- PDF SHARED
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