THE MOST COMMONSPELLING, GRAMMAR & PUNCTUATION

MISTAKES[AND HOW YOU AN AVOID MAKIND THEM]

Clear written communication is important for everyone, no matter what college or career path you choose. Mistakes with pronunciation, spelling and grammar could lower school grades and limit career growth. Exceptional writing skills will carry you through life, opening doors and accurately conveying your thoughts, feelings and knowledge to others

7C’s OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

CLARITY Be clear with your message, Keep it simple

CONCISE Use less words but it should be meaningfull, as it helps to save time as well as to convey strong message

CORRECT Accurate facts and figures, proper use of gramma, spelling, punctuations and language

COMPLETE Must complete all the facts required by the receiver

CONSIDERATION Consider all audience and their requirements

CONCRETE Be definite and specific, not vague

COURTESY Think about the receiver, their viewpoint and be respectfull

SPELLING RulesAlthough we all know the “I” before “E” except after “C”, rule, most students of higher learning, as well as many adults, don’t know the following basic spelling rules:

WORDS ENDING WITH E OR Y

Q AND X

U Q X E S

EXCEPTIONS

When adding a suffix that starts with a vowel, such

as “Ing,” to a word ending in “E,” drop the “E,” as in

rope to roping

When adding an ending to a “Y” word with a

consonant before “Y,” change it to “I,” as in carry

to carried

When ending with a vowel and “Y,” most

words can remain the same when adding “ed” or “Ing,” such as stay, to

stayed or staying.

E Y Y

The letter “Q” is always followed by “U” as in queen

The letter “X” never follows “S” without “E” in between, as in foxes

The trouble with English spelling rules is that there is always an exception. For this reason, always look up a word in a dictionary

One way to illustrate this disparity is with the sound, “sh,” which is found in, but not limited to:

This is one of the examples for PHONEMES

Spellcheckers don’t always find mistakes in word like, “their,” “they’re” and “there” or “your” and “you’re”

shShow

Ocean

Sugar

National Suspicious

Mansion

Passion

Fuchsla

Phoneme is a small set of speech sounds that are distinguised by the speakers of a particular language

Phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of language

Phoneme is a minimal unit that serves to distinguish between meanings of words

Phoneme is a group of sounds with distinctive

WHAT IS PHONEME?

GRAMMAR RulesAlthough most students in college or high school know the basic grammar rules, these are the ones they break the most

PASSIVE VS. ACTIVE VOICE:In active voice the subject of the sentence performs the action in the sentence and in

passive voice the subject of the sentence has action done to it by someone or something else

COMPARISONS:It is a feature in the morphology or syntax of language, whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected or modified to indicate the relative degree of the property

defined by the adjective or adverb

Types Adjectives Comparative SuperlativeOne-syllable

adjectivesCheap Cheaper The cheapest

Large Larger The largestBig Bigger The biggest

Y adjectives noisy noisier The noisiestAdjectives with

two or more syllables

Expensive More expensive The most expensive

Irregular Good Better The best

Phoneme is a small set of speech sounds that are distinguised by the speakers of a particular language

Phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of language

Phoneme is a minimal unit that serves to distinguish between meanings of words

Phoneme is a group of sounds with distinctive

ACTIVE VOICE

At each concert, the soprano sang atleast one tune from a well-known opera

Doer of action action receiver of action

PASSIVE VOICE

At each concert, atleast one tune from a well-known opera was sung by the soprano

Receiver of action action doer of action

adjectivesBad Worst The worst

Many More The mostLittle Less The least

MISPLACED MODIFIERS:These are descriptive words or phrases that need to be beside the word they modify

to avoid confusions

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENTKeeping tenses straight will help your subject and verb agree

PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION:Two or more concepts in one sentence that are parallel should be the same in

grammatical style

WRONG:He served hotdogs to his guests

from the grill

RIGHT:He served

hotdogs from the grill to his

guests

Who or what is from the grill? The guests or the hotdogs?

WRONG:Each of the women in the class were nurses

RIGHT:Each of the womenin the class was a nurse

WRONG:To provide farmimg tools to the village is like building their

future

RIGHT:Providing farming tools to the village

is like building future

PRONOUNS:Should agree with and refer directly to a noun whether it is singular or plural

PUNCTUATIONS Rules

WRONG:My English professor talks

loud, but they also talk way too fast

RIGHT:My English professor talks

loud, but he also talks way too fast

COMMAS: Avoid confusion by separating introductory and independent clauses and words from rest of a sentence, making them easier to comprehend

Separate lists of three to four items, free modifiers, quotations and phrases from the rest of a sentence, with the exception of clauses that begin with the word, “that”

COLONS AND SEMICOLONS:

If the first part of a sentence can stand by itself, use in the following: research papers, essays and formal letters

If you use a semicolon; whatever follows must be capable of standing alone

COLONS AND SEMICOLONS:

APOSTROPHES:

When a plural words ends in “S,” put the apostrophe after the “S,” as in the Smiths’ house or Bananas’ peels

Never use apostrophes to indicate plurals: “list

of tasks” is not list of task’s or “choice of

sodas” not choice of soda’s

Indicates possessive nouns, such as Jean’s bike

QUOTATION MARKS:

Replace missing letters in

contractions, like “He’s funny”

Show quotation, reference or direct speech. It is also known as quotes, speech marks or quote

marks

Require commas to introduce quotes like

“I lost my tooth” said the child

The term “astronomy”

means study of stars

Uppercase the first word in full quotes such as, “Life is short”

English spelling, grammar and punctuation is difficult to master, because it is constant flux as usage changes and the language evolves. Yet practice makes is easier. Following these simple rules will help your written communication be easier to read and your message clearer

SYNONYMS

Words that have the same meaning but are completely different

words

ANTONYMS

A word that means the opposite of another word

HOMONYMS

Words that have same sound but have different in

meaning

ACRONYMS

Words derived from the initials of several words