Introduction to Chapter 38
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Instructor's Notes
To assign the lettered questions that appear in the exercises for this unit, go to "Browse Resources for this Unit" or to the "Resources" tab. Students can also complete the numbered exercises for practice.To assign LearningCurve adaptive quizzing activities on the topics covered in this unit, go to the LearningCurve unit that follows this one.To download handouts of the Learning by Doing activities that appear in this unit, and to access lecture slides, teaching tips, and Instructor's Manual materials, go to the "Instructor Resources" folder at the end of this unit.
38
Basic Grammar
The English language has rules about how to put words together in order to create clear sentences. These rules are called “grammar,” and they are the subject of all the chapters in this handbook. This first chapter, Basic Grammar, gives an overview of the building blocks of language and grammar. Rather than focusing on grammatical correctness, this chapter serves as more of a description of the ingredients—parts of speech, parts of sentences, and types of sentences—you’ll need to understand in order to follow the rules explained in more detail in later chapters.
Learning by Doing Creating an Error Log
Learning by Doing
Creating an Error Log
Keeping track of errors will dramatically improve your writing skills. Whether you use a paper notebook or a computer file, maintain a running list of corrections made on your drafts by your instructor or writing tutors. Keep track of the date, the name of the error and its symbol or abbreviation (“pronoun agreement / pn agr”), a sample sentence or word group, and a note about how to fix the mistake. You may also wish to note the type of error: matters of grammar are addressed in Chapter 39, style is covered in Chapter 40, word choice is in Chapter 41, punctuation is in Chapter 42, and mechanics are in Chapter 43. If you are unsure of the meaning of a grammatical term, check this chapter for a review of common elements such as parts of speech or look in the index for specific page numbers.