10/11

Vocab

  • Equanimity - evenness of temper

  • Parsimony - not overspending money, resources, or words

  • Macabre (adj) - disturbing and horrifying because of involvement with or depiction of death or injury

  • Nonchalant - calm and unconcerned, even excessively so

  • Capricious - prone to unpredictable behaviour

  • Extemporaneous - improvised

  • Mercurial - inclined to mood swings

  • Ossify - to become stagnant or rigid, to turn into bone

  • Ephemeral - losing a short time

  • Prosaic - lacking poetic beauty

  • Banal (adj) - lacking in originality


Nonchalant, Capricious, extemporaneous: Day in the life of a nonchalant businessman; Waking up every day and going to the office might feel disturbing for some people, but a nonchalant businessman saw it as stability and peace of mind. The customers whom the businessman was assisting were capricious, asking for unpredictable and unusual things, but he grew accustomed to it. Although it was annoying sometimes, he was able to figure out the extemporaneous solutions even in the most uncertain situations.


Complete Sentences 

  • Subject + Predicate (containing the verb) + complete thought

  • fragments often start with subordinators (because, although, when, which, that)

  • Fixes: remove the subordinator, add an independent clause, or attach to a nearby sentence correctly

  • Aim for 1 clear independent clause unless you correctly join clauses


Describing Phrases 

  • Place modifiers next to what they describe: avoid dangling modifiers 

  • If you can remove it and the sentence remains clear, it’s likely nonessential - use commas 

  • Opening modifiers (“Walking through the gallery, …”)must be followed by the noun they describe 


Linking Independent Clauses 

  • Correct joins: period; semicolon; commas + coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yes, so)

  • A colon can join clauses when the second explains or illustrates the first (the first must be independent)


Dependent Clauses

  • If a dependent clause comes first, follow it with a comma: Although the data were limited, the trend was clear

  • If the dependent clause comes after the independent clause and is essential to the meaning, usually no comma

  • Words that start dependent clauses: although, because, if, when, while, since. unless, before, after, etc


Lists (Commas, Colons, Parallelism)

  • Use a colon to introduce a list after an independent clause

  • Use commas to separate items

  • Ensure parallel structure (match forms: nouns with nouns)

  • Do not use a colon after “such as” or a preposition; the clause before a colon must be complete.


No Punctuation

  • Do NOT separate a subject from its verb with a comma

  • Do NOT set off essential clauses with commas

  • Do NOT use a comma between adjectives that are not coordinate

  • Test for coordinate adjectives: can you swap them or insert “and”? If not, no comma


Top 10 Grammar Rules

  1. Comma (break in sentence structure)

  2. Appositive (extra descriptions) - when a specific name comes second, the extra description can flow in without any commas.

  3. Its vs. it’s (it’s = it is, they’re = they are)

  4. Its vs. their (its = singular, their = plural)

  5. Apostrophe (show possession) singular=dog’s, plural = dogs’

  6. Double Dash (interrupt a sentence) - can use 2 dashes, commas, or parentheses

  7. Verb Agreement (tenses, grammar, singulars, plurals)

  8. Colon (full sentence: explanation) - can also use a single dash

  9. Comma + Conjunctions (need both to join a sentence

  10. Semicolon (same as a period) - if choices include period and semicolon, cross both out