Download - Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
1/13
Pete the Programmer and Eddy the Editor often
chit-chat at the water cooler in the afternoon to
see if anything new and exciting has happened.
Eddy the Editor was about to ask Pete the
Programmer what happened to his friend Anna theAssistant. She recently applied for an
Administrative Assistant position at the Noun
Company where they both work. Pete beat Eddy to
the punch and started complaining about the new
system memo.
Noun Company Employees;
Implementation of the new HR
system will be depleated January 7th.
DO NOT USE PRIOR SYSTEM AFTER
JAN. 6th. Be sure to take online
training prior to accessing the new
system into our learning managemen
system. The Red Word system will
increase efficiency, taking processes
further, and communication. You're
pleasant cooperation is grately.
Michael Manager, VP
Atthewatercooler...Hey, man.
what's up?
EddyPete
If the
vicepresident
doesn't takethe time tolook at hismemo, whyshould i?
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
2/13
Thinkabouthowyouraudienc
e
willperceiveyou
rmessage.
Emphasizewords
withstyling,
suchasitalicand
bold,andavoid
usingallcapital
letters.
usedincorrectpreposition(MichaelManagershouldhavewrittenviaourlearningmanagementsysteminste
adof
"into")
failedtouseparallelstructure,whichcausesconfusion
usedthewordYourinsteadof"You're,"whichisacontractionofyouare
misspelleddepletedandgreatly
Emphasis
Eddy'sNotes
he shouldn't haveused all caps in
that one sentencethat tells us not to
use the old systemafter january 6th. itmakes me feel like
he is yelling atme!
as an editor, iknow how you feel,
pete. plus, He shouldnot have used a semicolon(;) in the greeting of thememo. You always use a
colon (:) at thebeginning of a
business letter.
i wonder ifthe VP knew how
people wouldreact to his
poorly writtenmemo.
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
3/13
it goes without saying thatyou should always use spellcheck in your email or word
processing software...
...but you haveto be extrasmart when
using grammarcheck!!In the "For PC" example below,
grammar check has marked anerror with a squiggle underline.
grammar check says the phrase is asentence fragment although it isactually a complete sentence.
So, why did grammar check get itwrong?
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
4/13
Sentences that tell youto do
something, such as "Press Enter on
your keyboard," are commands.
Command sentences are also known
as imperative sentences. They give
instructions or requests. When you
are telling someone to press the
Enter key, you do not have to say
"Youpress Enter on your keyboard"because the listener or reader
alreadyunderstands that youare
speaking to him or her. This is also
known as the Universal You because
it could refer to anyone who is
currently reading the sentence.
With You Understood or Universal
You, there is not a thirdperson
involved in the conversation orwriting.
You Understood/Universal You
thesubject is
the personor thing that
the sentenceis about.
thepredicate isthe rest of
the sentencethat describes
what thesubject does
or is.
grammarcheck thinks
the subject ismissing!
{Eddy} {likes to wear ties.}
SUBJECTPREDICATE
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
5/13
Contractionsaretw
owordspushedtog
ether.
It'slikewhenanat
hleteflexesorcon
tracts
hismusclestobrin
gaheavyweightcl
oser
tohim.Withcontra
ctions,wecanbring
wordstogetherand
makethemshorte
r.We
pushtwowordstog
etherandthensho
wthat
somelettersaremissing
byinsertingan
apostrophe.Inhism
emo,theVPwrote
You're,whichmeans
youareinthesen
tence
You'repleasantcooper
ationisgrately.Hedid
n't
meantouseacontr
action.Hemeantt
o
writeYour,whichis
apossessiveprono
un
showingthatsome
thingbelongstosom
eone.
TheVice Presidentalsohadamajorparallel
structureissue.Itisdifficulttounderstand
whatthefollowingsentencemeans:TheRed
Wordsystemwillincreaseefficiency,takingprocessesfurther,andcommunication. Itis best to
usethesameverbformswhenlistingactions.
Forexample, Juanlikesswimming,running, and
skiing.The sentencehasparallel structure. This
sentencedoesnot:Juanlikestoswim,running,and
toski.Thissentenceisawkwardbecauseitdoes
not haveparallelstructure.Wecouldalso
rewriteitasJuanlikestoswim,run,andski.If
wewere correctingtheVP'smemo,wecould
writeTheRedWordsystemwillincrease
efficiency,extendprocesses,andfacilitate
communication.
ParallelStructure
Contractions
whatelse could
we fix?
keep allitems in alist in the
same form tavoid
awkwardnesand
confusion.
somedayi'll have
muscles.
can + not =can't.
rememberthe
apostrophe!
WOULD + HAVE =WOULD'VE
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
6/13
In the VP's memo, he could have
chosen abetter preposition forhissentence about taking online training.Which prepositionwouldyouuseinstead ofinto? Be sure to take online
training priorto accessing the newsystemintoour learning management
system. Wouldthrough, by, in, orsince be the best preposition?
Be sure to take online training prior
to accessing the new systemthrough
ourlearning management system.
Picking the correct preposition is
not always easy, and sometimes
more than one choice is
appropriate. Here is adefinition of
preposition from dictionary.com:
any member of a class of words found in
manylanguages thatare usedbefore
nouns, pronouns,or othersubstantives
to form phrases functioning as
modifiersof verbs, nouns, or
adjectives, and thattypicallyexpressa
spatial, temporal, or other relationship,
as in, on, by, to, since.
Water flows under bridges.
Prepositions
Whatwould we do
withoutprepositions? We
wouldn't knowwhether to go
through or aroundor to or
beneath!
they don't call meeddy the editor
for nothing!
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
7/13
AnnatheAssistantappliedfora
greatjobattheNounCompany
whereEddyandPetework.She
wouldhavebeenagoodcandidateif
shehadbeenmorecarefulaboutthe
grammar,usage,andpunctuationin
herresumeandcoverletter.Ifthe
hiringmanagerhadn'tbeendistractedbyerrors,hewouldhave
interviewedher.
pete, are youfeeling any better
now? I don't think thevp meant to make you
feel like he wasyelling.
AnnatheAssistant
i'll beokay.
when annaapplied for the
job, herwritten
communicationwas so riddled
with errorsthat the ceosaid he didn't
want to talk to
her!
so what everhappened to
anna?
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
8/13
that'sterrible!
i know. i feelbad. i guess itmade a badimpression.
what can we do to help?
write tips onyour eddy the
editorblog, andI will point anna
to it.
greatidea!
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
9/13
i'll tell her aboutsubject-verbagreement...
...andmisplacedmodifiers.
youmisplaced
what?
if you are writingabout a single
object, you must usea singular verb.
for example,the red tulipgrows. growsis the singular
form of the
verb.
misplaced modifiers
cause confusion. theydescribe the wrongthing when they are not
in the right spot in asentence.
let's getinto more
detail aboutsubject-verb
agreementand misplaced
modifiers.
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
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if you are talkingabout multiple
objects, you needthe plural form of
the verb.
for example,the white tulipsgrow. grow is
the plural formof the verb.
when you use theconjunctionor
ornor, singularsubjects remain
singular. forexample, neither
the red tulip northe pink grow.
it also helps to know which pronouns are singulareach, everyone, somebody, anyone, and anybody are
few examples of singular pronouns. don't befooled by what comes after the pronoun.
For example, each of the girls picks flowers.the singular form of the verb is needed because it
belongs to the pronoun each, which is singular.
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
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now, what dowe do when
the modifiersget lost?
we mustplace them
properly sotheir meaning
is clear. Whenanadjectiveormodifieris
inthewrongspot,itcanmakea
sentencesoundveryfunny!Here
isanexample:Mariafounda
pinkdog'scollar.Thissentence
makesitsoundlikethereisapinkdogrunningaroundwithout
itscollar.Ifwerepositionthemodifier/adjective,thenwecan
tellthatthecollarispink,not
thedog.Mariafoundadog'spinkcollar.
how cute!
MisplacedModifier
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
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Adangling modifier is aphrase orclause that is not clearly andlogicallyrelated to the wordorwords it modifies (i.e., is placednext to). Unlike amisplaced
modifier, a dangling modifier cannotbe correctedby simplymoving it toadifferent place in a sentence.Usuallythe dangling modifierappears at the beginning ofthesentence, although it can also comeat the end. Here is an examplesentence: Yawning from exhaustion,the grapes dangled from her hand. Itseems like the grapes are verytired,but we know that grapes don't yawn,
so who is yawning?
Yawning from exhaustion, Lauralet the grapes dangle from herhand.
DanglingModifier
it's difficultto tell whois doing what
with adangling
modifier.
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8/2/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout
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great! i thinkthis will
really helpanna.
AWESOME. DO
YOU THINK ISHOULD TELL THE
VP TOO?
SURE, ASLONG AS I'M
NOT THERE!
LOOKS LIKEWE DRANK ALLTHE WATER!!!
BACK TOWORK!