20 October 2011

posted Oct 20, 2011, 6:22 AM by Unknown user
Sorry for such a long delay in updating this part of the site.

Tomorrow is the midterm. You were given a study sheet and information today to refresh your memory based on what we've done so far this semester. 

Here are your very helpful reminders:


*Read the directions and title first – know what you are reading!

*Read the questions before reading the passage – have a purpose and sometimes you can answer a questions without reading!

*Answer the questions that refer to a specific line first BUT don’t just read that line.  Read a few above and a few below – be efficient!

*Be aware of tricky words like NOT, BESIDES, ALL BUT

*Look for the author’s purpose or passage’s purpose in the first few lines or the last couple of lines

*Last, read the passage and watch your time

*Also remember, you do not need to take any test in a particular order.



Simple Sentence – 1 subject, 1 verb, 1 complete thought (ind. clause)

*you can have a compound subject and compound verb.

Ex:  Sally went swimming.

Ex:  Sally and Justin swam and lifted weights at the gym.

Compound Sentence – 2 subjects, 2 verbs, 2 complete thoughts (2 ind. clauses)

*Ind. clauses are separated by a comma and coordinating conjunction (,FANBOYS)  or a semicolon (;)

Ex:  Sally and Justin swam and lifted weights at the gym, and the next day they decided to give themselves a break.

Complex Sentence – 2 subjects, 2 verbs, 2 clauses (1 ind. clause and 1 dep. Clause)

*complex sentences contain a subordinating conjunction either starting the sentence or in the middle of the sentence where the two clauses meet (A WHITE BUS)

Ex:  Because Sally and Justin swam and lifted weights at the gym, they took the next day off to recuperate.

Compound/Complex Sentence – 2 or more subjects, 2 or more verbs, 2 or more clauses (mix of dep. and ind. clauses)

*CC sentences will have both ,FANBOYS & A WHITE BUS

Ex:  Because Sally and Justin swam and lifted weights at the gym, they took the next day off to recuperate; they needed to give their bodies a day of rest to prevent injuries.


Coordinating conjunctions:  used to separate two ind. clauses

FANBOYS – for and nor but or yet so

Subordinating conjunctions:  used to separate 1 ind. and 1 dep. clause

A WHITE BUS – although, when, how, however (w/o semicolon), if, if so, to, towards, even, even though (w/o semicolon), before, because, unless, since

*relative pronouns and adverbs can also be used for the same purpose

Relative pronouns:  That, which, who, whom, whose.  Relative adverb:  when


Correlative conjunctions:  used to correlate two ideas.  There are always TWO correlating conjunctions in a sentence.

Either….or, neither…nor, not only…but also, if…then


About, above, across, after, against, around, among, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, by, concerning, considering, despite, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, onto, opposite, out, over, past, regarding, round, through, to, toward, under, underneath, until, up, upon, with, within, without

Prepositional phrases – always end in a noun or pronoun and will act either as an adjective (adjective prep. phrases), or it will act like an adverb (adverb prep. phrases)


Larger/longer works are underlined while shorter/smaller works are quoted.

Underline:  books, newspapers, most movie titles, magazine titles, whole plays, title of a whole CD

*if it takes you more than 30 minutes to read, listen, or watch it, it probably needs to be underlined

Quote:  poems, chapters in a book, acts in a play, songs on a CD, articles in a newspaper/magazine, scenes in a movie

*if it takes you less than 30 minutes to read, listen, or watch it, it probably needs to be quoted.



Short stories, novels, biography, autobiography, poems, fables, drama/play, essay, research essay


Persuading the reader, recounting a true story, entertaining with non-fiction/fiction/play, explaining a process, providing information


Prewrite/brainstorm, draft (rough draft), revise, edit, publish (final copy)


Dictionary, thesaurus, almanac, atlas, encyclopedia


Located as the last sentence in your introductory paragraph, the thesis statement should give a description of the information presented in the paper.  The reader should read the thesis statement and understand what the paper will regard.


The 1st paragraph in the paper.  Introduction paragraph gives background information, general information and essentially introduces the topic without getting into too many specifics.


Just like it names signifies, the conclusion paragraph concludes (brings together) all your main points.  It should outline what you paper presented and should restate the main points; however, you never RESTATE (verbatim) your ideas and thesis in your concluding paragraph. 


The body paragraphs contain all the information presented in the paper.  When writing a research paper, the body paragraphs are where all the citations are listed.  Most body paragraphs, at least when dealing with an essay, contain quotes and textual support