Basic rules

• A sentence is made up of a subject and a verb
• A sentence must begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop
• Types of sentences:

  • Simple sentence contains a subject and a verb, expresses a complete thought
  • Compound sentence is made of at least two main clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction
• Some subordinating conjunctions include: after, although, as, because, before, even though, if, in order to, once, provided that, rather than, since, so that, than, that, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, whether, while, why
• Incomplete sentences can be of three types:

  • Type One: omit the main clause and often begin with a subordinating conjunction
  • Type Two: do not have a main clause containing the subject
  • Type Three: made up of additional information that does not make sense on its own
• A comma splice is when two independent clauses are joined by a comma and no conjunction
• The rule of concord states that the subject and the verb in a sentence should correspond or agree
• Concord rules:

  • The subject and the verb must agree in number
  • When two singular subjects are joined by 'and', the verb should always be in the plural
  • Collective nouns take a singular verb form
• Pronoun agreement errors occur when the antecedent and the pronoun do not agree in number
• In active voice, the subject does the action; in passive voice, the object becomes the subject and is acted upon
• Cases when passive voice is used:

  • When the agent is unknown
  • When the agent is obvious
  • When the agent is unimportant or irrelevant
  • When you want to be vague about who is responsible
  • When you want to emphasize the person or thing acted on
• Punctuation marks and their uses:
• A full stop indicates the end of a sentence and is found after abbreviations
• A question mark is used to indicate a question
• An exclamation mark shows strong emotion
• A comma is used to:

  • Separate words or phrases in a list
  • Introduce direct speech
• Quotation marks are used to indicate direct speech, titles, quotations, slang or foreign words, and dubious use of a word
• A colon introduces:

  • A list
  • An explanation
  • A definition
  • A quote
  • In script writing, a colon follows the speaker
• Parentheses are used to enclose additional information
• A hyphen is used to join two words to form a compound word and indicate a typographical split
• An apostrophe shows contraction and possession, and can also be used for omission
• Capital letters are used at the beginning of a sentence, direct speech, a title, proper nouns, proper adjectives, titles of people, educational subjects, initials, some abbreviations, and the pronoun 'I'
• Italics are used to indicate titles and foreign words
• Jargon

  Special words or expressions used by a profession Or group
• Emotive words 


  Evoke a strong emotional reaction + adjectives
• Punctuation

  Look out for ellipsis, exclamation marks, rhetorical questions
• Interjections

  Abrupt remarks, exclamation ah! Dear me!
• Sound effects

  Onomatopoeia, assonance, alliteration - atmosphere + pace
• Sentence Construction

  long, short, loose/periodic, simple/complex/compound
• Paragraph structure

  Long/short/mixed -why
• Direct speech/ dialogue

  Function
• Figures of speech

  Look out for irony, euphemisms, hyperbole, other imagery
• Foreshadowing 


  Clues
• Climax, anti-climax, bathos 


  An effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood “let down”
• Contrast, juxtaposition

  Stark - stand out-
• Tone

  critical / admiring/ alarmed / agitated / calm / romantic / approving / disapproving / hopeful / despairing / confident / aggressive / hesitant / playful / lighthearted ...
• Point of view/ voice

  look out for first person / second person / third person - pronouns
• Subject matter

  General content
• Bias/ objective/ subjective

  Purpose
• persuasive techniques

  Ethos - ethic, pathos - emotion, logos - logic