Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Writing Skills
Parts of a Speech
Nouns: Names of persons, places, things, ideas or qualities
Ex- India, River, Table, Happiness, etc
Pronoun: Usually a substitute for nouns and functions as noun
Ex- I, you, she, it, we, they, myself, this, that, who, etc
Verbs: Express actions, occurrences or states of being
Ex- run, burn, inflate, become, be, etc
Adjectives: Describe or modify nouns or pronouns
Ex- gentle, small, helpful, etc
Sentence Structure
A sentence can be broadly divided into two parts namely
Subject: It names things
Predicate: It makes an assertion(declaration) about or describes
an action involving the subject
Example 1 : The sun shines
Subject: The sun; Predicate: shines
Example 2: The fire destroyed the house
Subject: The fire; Predicate: destroyed the house
Complement
Complement is a word, phrase or clause that is necessary to
complete the meaning of a given expression
It is a noun and verb. It also has a matching adjective,
complementary
It completes the meaning of a predicate
It refers to something that completes or goes well with something
The whole town was shocked by the extent of the devastation.
Modifiers
A modifier is an optional element that changes the meaning of
another element in the structure on which it is dependent
A modifier functions as an adjective or an adverb to describe a
word to make its meaning more effective. The types are:
Misplaced Modifier
Limiting Modifier
Squinting Modifier
Dangling Modifier
Misplaced Modifiers
Misplaced modifiers are those that appear to modify the wrong
referent
According to the police records, many dogs are killed by
automobiles and trucks roaming unleashed(Incorrect)
According to the police records, many dogs roaming unleashed
are killed by automobiles and trucks
Limiting modifiers
Limiting modifiers are those modifiers, who, completely
change the meaning of the sentence, if their position is
changed
I only eat rice
I eat only rice
Only I eat rice
Limiting modifiers(Continued)
I only eat rice
I only eat rice and I dont play basketball with it
Squinting modifiers
A modifier that seems confusingly to refer to either of the two
words is known as squinting modifier
We decided immediately to buy the car
We immediately decided to buy the car
We decided to buy the car immediately
Squinting modifiers(Continued)
We decided immediately to buy the car (Incorrect)
(immediately squints)
We immediately decided to buy the car
( immediately is modifying decided)
We decided to buy the car immediately
(immediately is modifying the phrase to buy the car)
Dangling Modifiers
Certain sentences are burdened with modifiers that do not
sensibly modify anything in the sentences. Such modifiers are
called as dangling modifiers
Ex- Passing the building, the vandalism was clearly visible
(Incorrect- passing the building is modifying vandalism)
As we passed the building, the vandalism was clearly visible
Gerund
A Gerund is that form of the verb which ends in ing and has the
force of Noun and a Verb
It may be used as subject of a verb and hence may do the work of
a Noun
Reading is his favorite pastime
I heard of his having gained a prize
Punctuation
Punctuation are marks used in writing separate sentences and their
elements to clarify meaning i.e right use of putting in points or stops in
writing. They are:
Apostrophe
Parentheses
Comma
Colon
Semicolon
Period
Quotation Marks
Dash
Apostrophe
An apostrophe is used:
To form possessive singular: Birds eye, Lawyers file
To form possessive plural: Writers need, Girls group
To form the possessive of a proper noun in which the last letter is not
an s: Ashoks companion , Hemas School
To form the possessive singular when the last letter in a proper noun
having one syllable is an s: Dass house, Vyass Car
To form the possessive singular when the last letter in a proper noun
having more than one syllable is an s or an s sound: Haridas,
Gonzalvez
Indicate expression of ownership: Last years schemes
Present time or distance in a possessive manner: An hours wait, a
miles journey
When a noun precedes a gerund- Mr. Prasads receiving the promotion
caused
Indicate joint and separate ownership: Suresh and Ajays room
overlooked the sea; Sureshs and Ajays room overlooked the sea
Not to form possessive of a pronoun: Yours(Incorrect)
A Comma is used:
Between coordinate clauses joined by: and, but, for and other
coordinate conjunctions
Ex- She wanted to twist her little sisters arm, but was afraid her
mother would clobber her
After participial phrases or dependent clauses
Ex- Believing that his luck would continue to hold out, the trickster
sought to cheat more people
In sentences that begin with prepositions or such words as if, as and
when almost always need a comma
Ex- If you can come to the office, please plan to be here at 11 a.m
To separate words in a series
Ex- She wore earrings, a nose ring, a necklace and anklets
Between two separate adjectives that modify the same noun
Ex- We want a good looking, well educated and a cultured bride
To separate a clause that is not essential to the basic meaning of the
sentence, from the rest of the sentence
Ex-Mr. Amit Sharma, who is a successful businessman, is arriving
tomorrow
Comma (Continued)
To separate parenthetical expressions from the rest of the sentence
Ex- Asha, hiding her sense of dismay, greeted her mother-in-law
cordially
Before and after the year in the month-day- year format
Ex- On August 2, 1999, Mr. Patil made the last payment
After a direct address
Ex- Manohar, I want you to listen to me
After the words No and Yes when they introduce a statement
Ex- Yes, you can come with me to the conference
Before a question that seeks a confirmatory answer
Ex- Its a beautiful place, isnt it?
After an adverbial conjunction that modifies the second clause
Ex- The cheque was for the right amount; however, it was not signed
Quotation Marks
Quotation marks are used:
To enclose quoted material
Ex- The manager said, "You are a bunch of donkeys.
To define terms
Ex- As used in this report, syntax means "the branch of grammar
that has to do with sentence structure.
To enclose slang expressions
Ex- Theres only one word to describe the attacks against our
policies: hogwash.(non-sense)
Dash
A dash is used
To set off parenthetical elements that represent a break in the flow of
thought
Ex- The rapid spread of the disease- at least hundred new cases were
reported each day- had the doctors alarmed.
To set off parenthetical elements that require internal commas
Ex- The qualities Monet painted- sunlight, rich shadows, deep colorsabounded near the rivers and gardens he used as subjects
Before a summarizing appositive( i.e a relationship between two or
more words or phrases in which the units are grammatically parallel
and have the same referent)
Ex- Computer chips, integrated circuits, bits and bytes- these new
terms baffled yet intrigued.
Anita went out for a walk in the countryside. She had a maid
who was always breaking things. Her daughter needed a
haircut. Anita was very fond of her aunt
Paragraphs
A proper paragraph must have unity and coherence
It must be based on one central underlying idea that draws
together all the sentences in the paragraph
Topic Sentence: The topic sentence introduces the main idea
The topic sentence limits the topic of the paragraph
The topic sentence often suggests how the paragraph will be
developed
The paragraph must be developed in a logical order
Writers use logical connectors or transition words to indicate
relationship between the ideas
The concluding sentence of the paragraph usually restates the
main idea in the form of a summary