Articles, subject verb agreement, transition usage, MLA formatting

Purpose of articles

Articles modify nouns

Use of The(definite article)

used to refer to specific or particular nouns

A/an(indefinite article)

used to refer to non specific or non particular nouns.

indefinite pronouns such as all, some

singular and plural depending on what they’re referring to (countable or not)

None can be

singular or plural

Everyone and everybody

are always singular

Each is followed by

a prepositional phrase ending in a plural word

Each is

always singular and requires a singular verb

Phrases joined with together with, as well as, along with

follow a singular verb

Compound subjects “and”

take a plural verb

Neither and either

are singular so they required singular verbs

when nor or or is used

the subject closer to the verb determines the number of the verb

When "no" or "not" is used, the verb

should agree with the number of the subject before "and."

Nouns that take singular verb

• collective nouns

• weight

• measure

• amount

• time/distance

Subjects that are singular and sometimes plural

• half of

• part of

• a percetnage of

• a majrotiy of

When one subject is plural and the other is singualr

the verb shoudl agree with the positive subject

words to not capitalize

• a

• an

• the

• to

• of

• in

• at

• with

• and

• but

• or

Correlative Conjunctions

pairs of words that connects ideas (either, or) work as a pair to link two similar items related to each other (not only, but also)

Coordinate Conjuction

Contrast phrases, creates compound sentences and connects phrases

Subordinate Conjunction

Creates complex sentences by combining an independent and dependent clause

denotation

dictionary meaning of a word

A parenthetical citation

 this follows an in-text citation to show the source of the quote E.g. (Litman lines 4-5). 

criteria for parenthetical citation

• The author's last name will match the 'Works Cited' citation

• No punctuation is added

• No need to write page just the number

• For poetry, we add the lines and/or the stanza #

When to quote “parts of a whole”

• a chapter title

• a poem in an anthology

• article in a magazine/encyclopedia/dictionary

when to use italics

• entire thing

• book title

• publication title

• movie title

Containers for Electronic Sources

1. Author

2. Article name

3. Title of the web

4. Any version numbers

5. publisher info, name, date

6. Pg no

7. DOI

8. Date accessed

Differences between electronic vs books

1. Books end with date e sources end with date accessed

2. No publication city for e sources

3. URL

Example of citations for both

Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory. Purdue U, 28 Nov. 2003, www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/. Accessed 10 May 2006.

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.