rev. 2.22.2015
How good at grammar are you? QUIZ for fun!
http://en.what-character-are-you.com/d/en/927/index/4879.html
Try this grammar quiz on usage of frequently misused words!
http://www.playbuzz.com/toddbv10/can-you-correctly-use-these-commonly-misused-words?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=page-posts&utm_campaign=can-you-correctly-use-these-commonly-misused-words
Formal Writing Tips
Even though this is a Wiki, the tips on formality are great!
Check this out!
Click HERE or http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Colloquial-%28Informal%29-Writing.
Tips from Dr. James A. Bednar:
http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/jbednar/writingtips.html
Salmon Comma Pretest For copy of this salmon pretest, click HERE.
GREAT GRAMMAR WEBSITE! CHECK IT OUT! BOOKMARK IT IN YOUR FAVORITES!
For a fun sight to help you with grammar, go to http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/ . For example, are you splitting your infinitives and thus driving your teacher nuts? Find out what you’re doing and how to NOT split those infinitives! Click http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/split-infinitives.aspx
For fun, play the PUNCTUATION GAME! Click HERE. 
FOR FUN! read about THE GREAT TYPO HUNT! Armed with Sharpies, erasers and righteous indignation, two apostles of the apostrophe make it their crusade to rid the world of bad signs!
GREAT TYPO HUNT WEBSITE:
REED ON!
A FEW VIDEOS about the GREAT TYPO HUNT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M55wtTSNJAg
http://greattypohunt.com/?page_id=56
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncvhn8HUhaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpVlJJ2z2qI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnBHzdhYV0Q&feature=related
Can you spot typos as well as Deck and Herson? Click here to take The Great Typo Quiz.
FOR FUN!!! Subject: How to Write “Good”
1. Avoid alliteration. Always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid clichés like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren’t necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said,
“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
12. Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
13. Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
14. Be more or less specific.
15. Understatement is always best.
16. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
17. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
18. The passive voice is to be avoided.
19. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
20. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
21. Who needs rhetorical questions?
22. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
For a copy of these, click HERE!
I saw someone yesterday advertising herself on Facebook by saying something like, “Hey u guyz I need a jobb sooo if you know of anything hit me up k? Im desprit so ill do anything!” Or some such nonsense.
I don’t know a single business owner who would see that and say, “Yes, I want that person to work for me.”
I worked for a manager once who threw out any resume that had any errors on it – spelling or grammar – no matter how qualified the candidate was for the position. His theory was, “If they can’t be careful making a first impression in their resume, I don’t want them.”
Absolutely agree, Kerry – assessment of grammar and punctuation is my key tool for that first sift through applications and I show no mercy!
It is still true in many quarters. I know I would still throw away a CV containing grammatical or spelling mistakes.
Buybacks (rev. 2010)! If buybacks are not turned in on your deadline, they are 1/2 credit the next day and no credit the day after! Read the blue BUYBACK hand-out CAREFULLY so you can ask any questions/clear up anything you don’t understand about the buyback procedure. If you want to print out your own copy of the BUYBACK PACKET for highlighting, active reading, etc., click HERE. If you would like to use a template (rev. 2010) to do your buybacks, click HERE. (You can cut and paste this into a WORD DOCUMENT and make changes–add more rows or delete categories etc. to make it work for you. Remember to print it out in landscape format!) For a sample of what BUYBACKS ARE SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE WHEN DONE, CLICK HERE (WORD version) OR HERE(pdf.verson)! If you would like to use the ACE template, click HERE.
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Works Cited Fix-it Assignment For a copy of the actual ivory hand-out given in class, click HERE. Use the pink WC (Works Cited) section of the EPHS Survival Manual (For a navigational Works Cited page, GO TO THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT HOMEPAGE)
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OLES ONLY–Weekend HW:
GRAMMAR WORK FROM CHAPTER 20 in the GRAY GRAMMAR BOOK. IT’S ON PARTS OF SPEECH AND PHRASES–Using your EWS (Gray grammar book), do the following: Skim pp. 456-486. Then, slow down! Read carefully pp. 490-507. If you think you need to, take one side of a page of notes over this material. Do ODD items from all exercises (including the Review Exercises) from pp. 490-508. To make your life easier, you can use these scanned in exercises and just write on these pages. For the ODDS, click Grammar Exercises gray EWS chapter 20 PHRASES pp. 490-508 ODDS ONLY so you can type out your responses and avoid all the hand writing! If you want extra practice and want to do the EVENS, too. For the EVENS, click GRAMMAR HOMEWORK EXPLANATION EWS chap 20 PHRASES pp. 490-508 EVENS ONLY.
wallenbergsplit2 