BSEE39

• Spelling


  • Considered a complex skill and an important part of writing
  • Requires students to draw on a range of knowledge about the English language including phonological, orthographical, morphemic, and etymological knowledge
• Spelling represents a challenge for both native and nonnative speakers of English and is learned from a combination of repeated experience and memorization
• Advice to improve spelling

  • Familiarize yourself with the basic spelling rules
  • Keep a list of problematic words
  • If you are not sure how a word is spelled, look it up in the dictionary
• Many words in English vocabulary come from a variety of languages including Old English, Ancient Greek, Latin, and French, among others. Because of this, English words like "physics," "pneumonia," and "pizza" are not spelled the way they are pronounced
• English is also famous for silent letters. Some English words with silent letters include "knight," "right," and "gnaw"
• Most often, the way how we say a word is different from how the word is spelled when it is written. It is common when speaking not to pronounce every sound in some words. For example, the word recognize may be pronounced "recogniz" or library may be pronounced "libery." However, when written these words must be spelled correctly
• Homophones


  Words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings and spellings
• Homophones


  • know/no
  • principle/principal
  • write/right
• The same problem often occurs with words that are not "exact" homophones but are quite similar in sound. For example, "except/expect" and "formerly/formally"
• Note that there is an exception in "be" to "being"
• Note that for words ending in "y," leave the "y" and add "ing"
• If the word is borrowed from a foreign language, then the rule may not be applicable; examples are "sheikh" and "reichsmark"
• These words are called degrees of comparison: positive, comparative, and superlative
• Capitalization


  The use of capital letters as a type of punctuation
• When we say that something is "capitalized," it means that the first letter of the word or words is a capital or in upper case form
• Capitalization's goal

  To point out and separate specific, individual things from general things, which helps us identify them in a sentence
• We also use capitalization to mark the beginning of a sentence and to identify all types of proper nouns, names, and titles
• Always capitalize the pronoun "I"
• Capitalize the names of holidays
• Punctuation


  The system of symbols that we use to separate written sentences and parts of sentences to make their meanings clear
• Each symbol is called a "punctuation mark"
• Use a period after initials

  • J.K. Rowling is the author of Harry Potter books
  • B.F. Skinner was the person behind the idea of Operant Conditioning
• Use a period after Roman numerals and letters of the alphabet in an outline


  • Test I. Multiple Choice, Test II. Modified True or False, Test III. Identification, Test IV. Essay Writing, Test V. Enumeration
  • At the end of a 60-minute class, the students are expected to: a., b., and c.
• Use a question mark for interrogative or asking questions
• The importance of and rules of punctuation vary from language to language. In English, punctuation is essential to allow the reader to understand the writer's meaning.
• When to use a period


  • After initials
  • After Roman numerals and letters of the alphabet in an outline
• Question mark


  Used for interrogative or asking sentences
• Exclamation point


  Used for interjections and statements that express strong emotions
• When to use a comma

  • Between the day of the month and year
  • Between the day of the week and the month
  • To separate the year from the rest of the sentence when the year follows the month and day
  • To the greeting and closing part of a friendly letter
  • To separate introductory words from the rest of the sentence
  • To separate words or phrases in a series
  • To separate the address from the city, state, or country
  • To separate the address, city, state, or country from the rest of the sentence
  • To separate two or more adjectives before or after a noun that are not connected by a conjunction
  • To separate nouns of direct address from the rest of the sentence
• Apostrophe


  Used for possessive forms of singular and plural nouns, and to form contractions in place of the letter or letters that have been omitted
• When to use quotation marks

  • Around the exact words of a speaker
  • Around words that are being discussed or emphasized
  • Around titles of songs, poems, essays, stories, articles in newspapers, novels, movies, etc.
• Colon


  Used to introduce a list of items that end a sentence with signal phrases such as these, the following, or as follows, after the salutations of business or formal letters, and between hours and minutes and between minutes and seconds of time
• A singular subject requires the "-s or -es form" of the verb. A plural subject requires the "base form" of the verb.
• Do not get confused by the words that come between the subject and verb; they do not affect the agreement.
• The subject of the sentence comes before the word "of".
• When sentences start with "there" or "here," the subject will always be placed after the verb.
• Subjects do not always come before verbs in asking sentences. Make sure you accurately identify the subject before deciding on the proper verb form to use.
• In most cases, if two subjects are joined by "and," they require the "base form" of the verb.
• Prepositional phrases between the subject and verb usually do not affect the agreement.
• The verb is in its "-s or -es form" if the two subjects separated by "and" refer to the same thing or person.