Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Slashed Constructions Slashed Constructions This is one of the easier concepts to understand in English grammar. The purpose of a slashed construction is to provide more than one term that fits within the context of the surrounding elements in a sentence. It simply allows for a sentence to have two alternate interpretations, one for each version that includes one of the two words provided.

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Using Gerunds Using Gerunds A gerund is a verb ending in "ing." A gerund is itself also a verb, but may be used infrequently as a noun; such as, playing in the sun makes me tired. In this example, playing is the subject of the example independent clause, and makes is the verb. It's important to note that as a verb, gerunds introduce a parenthetic clause to the sentence, but as a noun they do not. They may be followed by a prepositional phrase (such as, in the sun in the previous example) when used as a noun, but rarely if ever are they followed by a parenthetic expression when used as a noun.

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Commas Understanding Commas Commas are the most widely utilized and under-appreciated form of punctuation in the English language. That means they are used the most and appreciated the least. More importantly, they are less understood than they should be. Understanding proper comma usage can be distilled into an art form when considering some of the finer points of the grammar rules regarding comma usage.

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Hyphens Understanding Hyphens A hyphen is used to connect either two syllables of two different words or a syllable (or group of syllables) to a word. The hyphen is intended for the newly-created term to be read as a single word, such as the noun anti-hero , the adjective near-sighted , or the recently coined term e-mail .

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Colons Understanding Colons A colon is a punctuation mark used to introduce one item or items that follows the colon to an item or items that precedes the colon. a colon is only used in the middle of a sentence or at the end of an independent or dependent clause, providing that something follows the colon after the independent or dependemt clause.

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Abbreviations & Acronyms Understanding Abbreviations An abbreviation is a shortening of a word for the sake of brevity; hence the word abbreviation . For example, ex. is a common abbreviation for the word example . Notice that the next word in the sentence is not capitalized after the period following an abbreviation.

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Periods Understanding Periods A period ends a sentence. Every complete sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with either a period, question mark, or exclamation point. When a period ends a sentence, it is neither a question nor an exclamation. It is simply a statement.

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Because Commas Understanding Because Commas Let’s start with an example before adding any guidelines. Examples: I am not happy because it’s Friday. I am happy, because it’s Friday. So which sentence is correct?

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Double Punctuation Understanding Double Punctuation Double punctuation should be avoided if possible, but in some cases are necessary. A period or comma always go inside a quotation mark, so that is an example of double punctuation, a period followed by a quote mark.

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Quotes Understanding Quotes Quotes are generally used to signify spoken words in writing. There are double quotes and single quotes, each with their own useful purposes.

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Non-restrictive Clauses Understanding Restrictive Versus Non-Restrictive Clauses Restrictive clauses and non-restrictive clauses are generally known by the 'that versus which' question we ask ourselves when determining when to use a comma before placing a relative pronoun in a sentence. As a general rule of thumb, a comma usually precedes 'which' and no comma before the word 'that.'

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Quotes >> Exceptions Quotes Exceptions A semicolon and question mark signal the end of a sentence if followed by a capitalized word; for example, when quoting speech, the spoken words may end with a question mark or exclamation point, but the sentence continues on without any unnecessary capitalization of the following word.

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Capitalization Capitalization Capitalization is a standard grammatical practice throughout al of the english language uses. A capital letter of a word can symbolize various grammatical implications. Capitalization rules are generally the same throughout all the various style guides in the English language.

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Sentence Basics Understanding Sentence Structure A Sentence is an Independent Clause; for example, "I am Papoose." A sentence must begin with a capital letter, with few exceptions and must end with some form of punctuation; typically, a period .

Open and Closed Forms The concept of the open form and closed form relates to the principles of nonrestrictive clauses and is one of the few execeptions in English (US) grammar to those rules on clauses.

Build your own poem by selecting from the options presented after each previous choice you select. No matter what you pick, the result is always a poem probably maybe...Refresh the page to start again!! The possibilities are endless!! Warning: possibilities are not endless.

  Administering Healing Energy When providing a subject with healing energy, it is important to remember that good thoughts can be just as preventative as bad thoughts. Obviously, such a claim begs the question: Why?, but there is no short answer for that. The question then shifts over to How? Luckily for me, that is an easy answer. 

Home >> Grammar Style Guide >> Headline Caps Understanding Headline Capitalization For headline capitalization, the first letter of each word in a phrase or expression is capitalized, much like the headlines in newspapers, which is where the term originated. In other words, we capitalize the first letter of each word in a phrase that is treated with headline capitalization, or headline caps for short. This Is Headline Capitalization.