Rhetoric and Composition/Grammar and Mechanics

Overview

Understanding Grammar

• What is Grammar?
  • The Parts of Speech
    • Nouns
    • Pronouns
    • Verbs
    • Adjectives
    • Adverbs
    • Conjunctions
    • Prepositions
  • The Parts of the Sentence
  • Types of Sentences
  • Active and Passive Voice

Understanding Mechanics

• What is Mechanics?
  • Punctuation
    • Commas
    • Semicolons
    • Colons
    • Apostrophes
    • Quotation Marks
    • Hyphens and Dashes
    • Parentheses and Brackets
  • Capitalization

Common Errors

• Know your patterns
• Mixing up words that sound alike
• When subjects and verbs don't agree
• When pronouns and antecedents don't agree
• When subject and object pronouns are incorrect
• Missing commas after introductory elements
• Missing commas with compound sentences
• Sentence fragments
• Missing or misplaced apostrophes
• Unnecessary tense shifts
• Run-on or fused sentences
• Comma Splice
• Disruptive commas
• Dangling, misplaced, and squinting modifiers
• Logical Fallacies

Writing feedback

Teachers can use the following pages to provide students with information about specific errors in their writing. If the students' papers are graded online, write a short comment and add a link to one of these pages.

• Enumeration consistency
• Unclear demonstrative pronoun reference

Citing Sources

• Citing Sources
  • Plagiarism

External Links

• Common Errors in English
• The Elements of Style
• Big Dog's Grammar: A Bare Bones Guide to English
• Darling's Guide to Grammar
• Grammar Bytes!
• The Hypertext Book: Modern English Grammar
• Properly Placed Punctuation
• Punctuation Points
• Grammar Tips from Harvard
• The Owl at Purdue
• Academic Grammar- help students with their academic assignments
• American Heritage Book of English Usage
• University of Texas at Austin Grammar Guides
• Online Bibliography Maker