GRAMMAR BASICS:

SENTENCE STRUCTURE
AND PARTS OF SPEECH
PARTS OF SPEECH
1. Verb: action (examine, illustrate, argue)
Example: The author evaluates interview
techniques.

2. Noun: person, place or thing

(theory, child, agency, author)
Example: The author evaluates interview
techniques.

3. Pronoun: replaces a noun (he, she, you, I some)

Example: He evaluates the interview techniques.
PARTS OF SPEECH
4. Adjective: describes a noun (useful, good,
interesting)
Example: The study is interesting. This
interesting study helped me write my paper.

5. Adverb: describes a verb (well, badly, very

really, slowly)
Example: The interesting study was badly cited.
PARTS OF SPEECH
6. Conjunction: joins clauses or sentences (and,
but, for, nor, or, so, yet)
Example: I wanted to eat dessert, but I was too full.

7. Preposition: links a noun to another word

(in, on, to, by, etc.)
Example: I waited for her, but she never came to the
party.
USING SEMI-COLONS IN LISTS
Use semi-colons to separate lists that are together but
separate. Semi-colons are used to join items in a list that
already contains one or more commas.

Example 1: The sandwich choices include tomato, bacon and

lettuce; cheese, ham and lettuce; peanut butter and jelly.

Example 2: John Taylor is survived by his son, Jack, of

California; his daughter, June, of Oregon; his grandchild,
Jill, also of Oregon.

Semicolons: Punctuating joined clauses. Retrieved from http://www.grammar-

quizzes.com/punc-semicolons.html
COMPARISONS BETWEEN SEMI-COLONS
AND COMMAS

Semi-colons: The sandwich choices include tomato, bacon and

lettuce; cheese, ham and lettuce; peanut butter and jelly.

Commas: The sandwich choices were ham, cheese, lettuce and

tomato.

Semi-colons: The shirts were red, white and blue; aqua, yellow

and white; purple, yellow, black.

Commas: The flags were blue, aquaand purple.

Semi-colons: John Taylor is survived by his son, Jack, of

California; his daughter, June, of Oregon; his grandchild, Jill,

also of Oregon.
USING SEMI-COLONS TO CONNECT
CLAUSES
Use semicolons when the independent clauses are
somehow related and need no coordinating
conjunctions.

Example 1: He couldn't go home; he was too angry at his

roommate.

Alternative Approach: You can also use a comma and a

coordinating conjunction.
Example 2: We are going to eat at the Italian place, and

Jenny will meet us there.

Semicolons: Punctuating joined clauses. Retrieved from http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/punc-semicolons.html

SEMI-COLONS VERSUS COLONS
Use colons to connect sentences that have a direct
relationship.

Example 1: After a sleepless night, the senator made her

decision: she would not seek re-election.

Example 2: Our mother had one rule: whenever you eat in

her kitchen, wash your dish and put it away.

Helpful hint: Notice that the first clause really only makes sense
with the additional clause. Therefore, use semi-colons when the
sentence only makes sense with the second clause. Use semi-
colons when there is a relationship, but both sentences make
sense on their own.
USAGE GUIDELINES: YOUR
AND YOURE
Your is a possessive pronoun, your book or
your car.
Youre is a contraction for you are.

Example: Your book is at my house, and youre

going to have to come pick it up.
Example: Youre not following your own rule
about cleaning up after yourself.
USAGE GUIDELINES: ITS OR
ITS
Its is a possessive pronoun, its use or its
problem.
Its is a contraction for it is or it has.

Example: Its use can be measured through a

diagnostic test, but its not always accurate.

Example: Its not perfect but the paint in the can

basically matches its sample.
USAGE GUIDELINES: THERE, THEYRE,
OR THEIR
There is a reference to a place, lets go there, or
a pronoun, There is hope.

Their is a possessive pronoun, their opinions or

their bags.

Theyre is a contraction for they are. Theyre

going to Dearborn.

Example: There is no reason for their behavior

except that theyre crazy.
VERB TENSE
1. Judy saved thirty dollars. (past) Often students
drop the ed, but you must always include it if the
action happened in the past.
2. Judy will save thirty dollars. (future)

3. Judy has saved thirty dollars. (present perfect)

4. Judy had saved thirty dollars by the end of last

month. (past perfect)

5. Judy will have saved thirty dollars by the end

of this month. (future perfect)
KEEPING CONSISTENT VERB TENSE
General guideline: Do not shift from one tense to
another if the time frame for each action or state is
the same.

Incorrect: About noon the sky darkened, a breeze sprang

up, and a low rumble announces the approaching storm.
Darkened and sprang up are past tense verbs; announces is

present but should be past (announced) to maintain

consistency within the time frame.
Corrected: About noon the sky darkened, a breeze sprang

up, and a low rumble announced the approaching storm.

Verb tense consistency. Purdue OWL. Retrieved from

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/601/04/
KEEPING CONSISTENT VERB TENSE
2. Incorrect: Yesterday we walk to school but later
rode the bus home.

Walk is present tense but should be past to

maintain consistency within the time frame
(yesterday); rode is past, referring to an action
completed before the current time frame.

Corrected: Yesterday we walked to school but

later rode the bus home.
VERB TENSE
General guideline: Do shift tense to indicate a
change in time frame from one action or state to
another.

1. The children love their new tree house, which they built
themselves.

Love is present tense, referring to a current state (they still

love it now;) built is past, referring to an action completed
before the current time frame (they are not still building it.)

Verb tense consistency. Purdue OWL. Retrieved from

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/601/04/
VERB TENSE
2. Workers are installing extra loudspeakers
because the music in tonight's concert will need
amplification.
Are installing refers to an ongoing action in the
current time frame (the workers are still
installing, and have not finished;) will need is
future, referring to action expected to begin after
the current time frame (the concert will start in
the future, and that's when it will need
amplification.)
Verb tense consistency. Purdue OWL. Retrieved from
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/601/04/
VERB TENSE IN SOCIAL
SCIENCE WRITING
General guideline: Establish a primary tense for
the main discourse, and use occasional shifts to
other tenses to indicate changes in time frame.
Use present tense to state facts, to refer to perpetual or

habitual actions, and to discuss your own ideas or those

expressed by an author in a particular work.
Rely on past tense to narrate events and to refer to an

author or an author's ideas as historical entities. (This

is appropriate when citing a theory that was founded at
a specific, definite time in the past.)
Future action may be expressed in a variety of ways,

including the use of will, shall, is going to, are about to,
tomorrow and other adverbs of time, and a wide range of
contextual cues.
WHEN TO USE ARTICLES
Articles are the words a, an and the that
accompany nouns.

The dog jumped in the car and brought a bone.

Nouns that dont need articles

Proper nouns are specific people, places or things.
This includes names of specific theories.
Incorrect: Cat needs to be feed.
Correct: Fluffy needs to be feed.
WHEN TO USE ARTICLES
Plural Nouns can go without articles. You can
say cats or you can say the cats.

Mass Nouns are nouns that are uncountable.

These are often ideas like information.

You could say I need information.

Or, I need the information.
WHEN IN DOUBT USE AN
ARTICLE
Very often students will drop the article from the
beginning of the sentence.

Incorrect: Location was a place where women

could get job training.
Correct: The location was a place

Incorrect: Interview gave me insight into the

profession.
Correct: The interview gave me insight
When to use articles before nouns. Grammar Girl. Retrieved from
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/articles-before-nouns.aspx
REFERENCES
Grammar Girl. (2010). When to use articles before nouns.
Grammar Girl. Retrieved from
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/articlesbeforenouns.aspx

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (2012). Verb tense consistency.

Purdue OWL. Retrieved from
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/601/04/

Sevastopoulos, J. (2012). Semicolons: Punctuating joined clauses.

Grammar-Quizzes.com. Retrieved from http://www.grammar
quizzes.com/punc-semicolons.html