Amy Tan Skills and Explanations Day 1

Immigrant versus Emigrant

Immigrant

is used to refer to people who come into a country.

Emigrant

is used to refer to people who leave a country.

Subject and Verb Agreement: Words Intervening

The verb of a sentence should agree in number with the subject.

The dog eat out of that bowl so I wouldn't use it for cereal. Incorrect The dog eats out of that bowl so I wouldn't use it for cereal. Correct Do not let words that come between the subject and the verb influence the number of the verb.

The dog, not the cats, eat my shoes. Incorrect The dog, not the cats, eats my shoes. Correct

Pronoun Shift

A pronoun shift is an error when a writer begins by using one pronoun and then changes the pronoun even though the antecedent of the pronoun has not changed.

Subordinate Clause

A subordinate clause--sometimes called a

dependent clause

--will begin with a subordinate conjunction or a relative pronoun and will contain both a subject and a verb. This combination of words will

not

form a complete sentence. It will instead make a reader want additional information to finish the thought. If it comes at the beginning of the sentence, put a comma after it. If it comes at the end of a sentence, do

not

put a comma before it.

Day 2

Neither...nor

When using neither x nor y, use the singular form of the verb if the second item is singular or the plural form if the second is plural.

Neither Frederico nor Eduardo is planning to run for governor.

Neither my sister nor my parents are planning to agree to monetarily support me.

Titles of Movies

The titles of movies are underlined or italicized.

Don't you just love the movie

Spiderman

?

Active Voice versus Passive Voice

Active voice has the subject doing something to the object.

Passive voice has something being done to the subject by an unknown agent or by something in the prepositional phrase

by _______________.

Use active voice as much as possible. Only use passive when you have a specific reason.

The students were tortured by their teacher. (Passive) The teacher tortured the students. (Active)

Day 3

Illogical Comparison

When you have something being called

a better noun than any

, you are making an illogical comparison. If it is

better than any,

then you must put

better than any other

because, without this addition, this statement automatically includes what is being called better . Something cannot be better than itself.

Combining Sentences

In order not to seem repetitious, it is a good idea to combine sentences when possible, unless you have a good reason not to do so.

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are used when the object of a sentences is the same as its subject. Do not use one as the subject of a sentence.

The following chart shows the subject pronoun and its reflexive counterpart: myself I you (singular) you (plural) he she it we they I scare myself just thinking about you.

They hurt themselves when they played with the loaded pistol. yourself yourselves himself herself itself ourselves themselves

Adverb: Hopefully

Day 4 The word

hopefully

is an adverb and thus modifies the verb of a sentence. It is not a synonym for the phrase

I hope

. Only use

hopefully

if you mean that the action of the verb is done in a hopeful manner. If you mean

I hope

, use

I hope

.

Choosing between Comparative and Superlative

Comparative is used when something is being compared to something else. "It is ________er than the other thing." The word

than

is a clue that you need the comparative--not all comparatives use the word

than,

however.

Superlative is used when something is more than any other thing of its kind. "It is the _______________est of all." The word

the

can be a clue that you are to use the superlative.

Compound Modifiers

When an adverb modifies an adjective, do not hypenate them.

Sentence Fragment

Day 5 A sentence fragment is a group of words punctuated like a sentence that is not a complete thought. In formal writing, sentences should express complete thoughts. A sentence fragment can also be a sentence missing a subject or predicate. Correct sentence fragments by connecting them to sentences or by creating sentences with additional words.

The Prefix All-

The prefix

all-

always has a hyphen after it.

I asked the all-knowing seer if I had a skin problem.

Comma after Introductory Prepositional Phrase

Use a comma after a prepositional phrase that introduces a sentence if the prepositional phrase is three words or more. If it is less, the comma is optional.

Without knowing why, Michael jumped into the abyss.

The Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense (also know as the pluperfect) is used to show that one action in the past occured before another action in the past. It is formed by adding the auxilary verb had before the main verb. For example, if Myron called his mother before he told his friends she had said he couldn't go to the concert, you would use the past perfect tense for the verb about Myron calling his mother: Myron had called his mother and then told his friends he could not go to the concert. If the past perfect requires two

had

's as in "Myron had had to go to the concert because his mother forced him to go," do not put a comma between the two

had

's.