Transcript Slide 1
Declaration of Independence Skills and Principles Spelling of Plural Nouns Day 1 1. Add an -s to form the plural of most words. stereo--stereos elephant--elephants 2. For words that end in a "hissing" sound (-s, -z, -x, -ch, -sh), add an -es to form the plural. box--boxes, church--churches 3. If the word ends in a vowel plus -y (-ay, -ey, -iy, -oy, -uy), add an -s to the word. tray--trays, key--keys 4. If the word ends in a consonant plus -y, change the -y into -ie and add an -s to form the plural. enemy--enemies, baby--babies Possession of Nouns Nouns take either an 's or an s' to show possession. Capitalization of Particular Documents Since documents with specific names are proper nouns, they are capitalized. Commonly Confused Words: Lay versus Lie lie, lying (to tell a falsehood) I lied to my mother. (past) I have lied under oath. lie, lying (to recline) I lay on the bed because I was tired. (past) He has lain in the grass. lay, laying (to put, place) I laid the baby in her cradle. We have laid the dishes on the table. After laying down his weapon, the soldier lay down to sleep. Will you lay out my clothes while I lie down to rest? Day 2 Comma in Punctuation of Dates Put a comma between the day and year in a date. Numbers at the Beginning of a Sentence Spell out numbers when they are the first word in a sentence. Periods after Initials In names, put a period after initials. Day 3 Commonly Misused Words: Doubt with But When one uses the word doubt, do not follow it with the word but. Must of, should of, could of These are incorrect. They are written the way they sound, but they should be must have (must've), should have (should've) and could have (could've). Use of Ellipsis in a Quote If you leave words out of a quotation, use an ellipsis mark to indicate the omitted words. If this occurs at the end of the sentence, add a period, creating four periods. Remember that this punctuation goes inside the quotation marks. Day 4 Examples ie = believe, field, yield, priest, shield i before e cei=receive, receipt, conceited, conceive except after c "I" = ei Eileen, height, sleight, stein, or when sounded as "I" as in Einstein Einstein or when sounding like a "A" = ei weigh, weight, neighbor, sleigh, as in neighbor and weigh heir, their neither, weird, foreign, leisure "X" = ei either, weirdo, foreigner seize, forfeit, and height "X" = ei seizure, forfeiture, protein, are the common exceptions caffeine, heifer Spelling: I before E Rule spelled right but don't let the C-I-E-N cien = cien!=science, efficient, sufficient, conscience, ancient, words get you uptight! Exclamation Point The exclamation point is used after an interjection or at the end of a sentence showing strong emotion. Unclear Antecedent/Pronoun Referent An antecedent is the noun to which a pronoun refers. If the antecedent is uncleardifficult to decide the noun to which the pronoun refers-correct the pronoun by using a specific noun in its place. If the pronouns you and they are used, make sure that there is actually an antecedent identifiable in the passage. Be careful not to use the same preposition twice to refer to two different antecedents. At times, a sentence can be rewritten to bring the pronoun closer to its antecedent and thus make the antecedent clear. Tim asked him if he knew him. To whom do the him's refer? Tim asked Marcus if he knew Michael. Day 5 Punctuation of a Split Quotation A split quotation is a direct quotation that is interrupted by the tag line (the phrase identifying the speaker). Punctuate it as you would any direct quotation, but do not capitalize the word when you resume the quote after the tag line if it does not begin a new sentence. As with all direct quotations, put quotation marks only around the words that are being quoted. Pronoun Cases There are four cases (forms): Subjective case is for pronouns used as the subject. (I, you, he, she, it, we, they, who) The objective case is for pronouns used as objects of verbs or prepositions. (me, you, him, her, it, us, them, whom) Possessive case is for pronouns that express ownership. (my/mine, your/yours, his, her/hers, it/its, our/ours, their/theirs, whose) Reflexive case is for when you have already used the antecedent in the sentence. It is NEVER the subject of the sentence. (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)