• Writing 101

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WRITING 101
Okay, we've come up with this so everyone can learn some things, and others won't [or shouldn't] get confused on what other people write. I've come up with a post that goes through rules of writing; from verbs and nouns to exclamation marks and semi-colons. This first thread is for basic knowledge, and afterward there will be specific lessons paired with 'The Rules of Writing'. This will be constantly updated, so keep looking back for new lessons!

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• Lesson 1 - A Few Basics
• Lesson 2 - Clause, Sentence, Phrase

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Sources: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

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1.1 - NINE PARTS of SPEECH
This is just so you don't get confused with some of the vocabulary that may show up in this lesson.

1. Noun; names a person, place, thing, idea, living creature, quality, or action.
   Examples; class, boss, tree, arrival, cowboy, thought, computer
   
   
2. Verb; describes describes an action or a state.
   Examples; run, walk, think, feel, want, love
   
   
3. Adjective; describes a noun, telling you something about the noun.
   Examples; red, big, amazing, fast, important, intelligent
   
   
4. Adverb; describes a verb, telling you how something is done. It may also tell you when or where something happened.
   Examples; slowly, carefully, here, yesterday, well, tomorrow
   
   
5. Pronoun; It is used instead of a noun, to avoid repeating the noun.
   Examples; I, you, he, she , it, we, they
   
   
6. Conjunction; joins two words, phrases or sentences together
   Examples; but, so, and, because, or, yet, although, if
   
   
7. Preposition; usually comes before a noun, pronoun or noun phrase, joining the noun to some other part of the sentence.
   Examples; on, in, by, with, under, through, at , along, through, up, down, over
   
   
8. Interjection; a word which express emotion or surprise, and it is usually followed by exclamation marks.
   Examples; Ouch!, Hello!, Oh no!, Wow!, Ha!, Hurray!, My God!, Hey!
   
   
9. Article; used to introduce a noun.
   Examples; the, a, an

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1.2 - BASIC SPELLING
The English language has two kinds of letters: vowels and consonants. The vowels are a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y or w. The consonants are the other 21 letters that are not vowels; this includes y and w, as they can also be used as consonants.
There are also two types of vowels; long vowels and short vowels. With long vowels we hear the sound of the letter just as it is when we recite the alphabet. A long vowel a is pronounced like the a in the words: make, cake, take, ache. Short vowels have a soft sound; it is pronounced like the a in the words: mask, task, act, jack, bag.

The following will give you the basic guidelines of spelling.

1. Short-Vowel Rule: When one-syllable words have a vowel in the middle, the vowel usually has a short sound: cat, dog, man, hat, mom, dad, and got. If the letter after the vowel is f, l, or s, this letter is often doubled, such as staff, ball, and pass.
   
   
2. Two-Vowels Together: When two vowels are next to each other, the first vowel is usually long and the second vowel is silent.
   Examples: meat, seat, plain, rain, goat, road, lie, pie.
   
   
3. "Vowel-Consonant- e" Pattern: When a short word, or the last syllable of a longer word, ends in the pattern of a "vowel--consonant--e", the first vowel is usually long and the e is silent.
   Examples: place, cake, mice, vote, mute.
   
   
4. Y as a long i: The letter Y makes the long sound of i when it comes at the end of a short word that has no other vowel.
   Examples: cry, try, my, fly, by, hi.
   
   
5. Y as a long e: When y or ey ends a word in an unaccented syllable, the y has the long sound of e.
   Examples: money, honey, many, key, funny.
   
   
6. I before E: Write i before e (long e only) except after the letter c. Notice that there is a change when there is a c preceding the ie, like in receipt and ceiling.
   Examples: mischief, believe, field
   
   
7. E before I: Write e before i when the sound is long a.
   Examples: weight, freight, reign
   
   
8. Oi or Oy: Use oi in the middle of a word and use oy at the end of a word. There is an exception with the word oyster, however.
   Examples: boil, soil, toil, boy, toy
   
   
9. Ou or Ow: Use ou in the middle of a word and use ow at the end of words other than those that end in n or d.
   Examples: mouse, house, found, mount, borrow, row, throw, crow.
   
   
10. Double Consonants: When b, d, g, m, n, or p appear after a short vowel in a word with two syllables, double the consonant.
    Examples: rabbit, manner, dagger, banner, drummer.
    
    
11. The "ch" sound: At the beginning of a word, use "ch." At the end of a word, use "tch." When the "ch" sound is followed by ure or ion, use t instead of a h.
    Examples: choose, champ, watch, catch, picture, rapture

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1.3 - CREATING PLURALS of NOUNS

1. Add s to most nouns to form plurals, without change.
   Example: friend to friends, phone to phones, piece to pieces
   
   
2. Add -es to nouns ending with s, ss, sh, ch, and x.
   Examples: box to boxes, church to churches, stress to stresses
   
   
3. Change the ending of the y to i and add -es to nouns ending in the consonant y.
   Examples: country to countries, fly to flies, sky to skies
   
   
4. Add [i]s to nouns ending with the vowel y
   Examples: key to keys, boy to boys, delay to delays
   
   
5. Change the word endings of f or fe to v and add -es to some nouns.
   Example: half to halves, knife to knifes, life to lives
   
   
6. Some nouns change their spellings (almost completely) to make the plural.
   Examples: foot to feet, man to men, goose to geese
   
   
7. Some nouns are spelled the same for both singular and plural forms.
   Example: sheep, moose

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2.1 - CLAUSE, SENTENCE, PHRASE
Knowing the difference is helpful, even if just for common knowledge.

To simplify, sentences are made of two parts: the subject and the predicate. The subject is the person or thing that acts or is described in the sentence. The predicate, on the other hand, is that action or description (verb). There is a further description below dealing with sentences.

Sentences can be broken down into clauses. For example, consider this: The boy is going to the school, and he is going to eat there. This is a complete sentence composed of two clauses. There are mainly two types of clauses: independent clauses and subordinate clauses. Independent clauses act as complete sentences, while subordinate clauses cannot stand alone and need another clause to complete their meaning. Effectively, subordinate clauses provide additional clarification to the sentence. If we take just the independent clause of a sentence, such as “The boy went to the school", we still understand the sentence. However, if we only use a subordinate clause, like “After the boy went to the school…”, we really do not understand the sentence.

A group of two or more grammatically linked words that do not have subject and predicate is a phrase. Copnsider this sentence: The girl is at home, and tomorrow she is going to the amusement park. You can see that “the amusement park” is a phrase located in the second clause of the complete sentence above. Phrases act like parts of speech inside clauses. That is, they can act as nouns, adjectives, adverbs and so on.

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2.2 - WRITING SENTENCES
The first thing to writing, other than learning the letters, is making sentences.

Sentences have the following characteristics: they start with a capital letter; end with a full stop, exclamation mark or question mark; and contain a verb.

Students commonly make the mistake of not writing in full sentences (they fail to provide a main clause in their "sentence") or write very long, rambling sentences that would be better chopped into smaller ones. Short, clear sentences are usually more effective than those which are long and complex. If you are in any doubt, split up any longer sentences into two or three shorter ones. This advice is especially important if you find writing difficult or English is not your first language: short sentences will help you avoid grammatical mistakes and make it easy for the reader to follow your line of argument. Each sentence that you write should make sense if it were read out independently of the sentence before and after it.

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2.3 - TYPES of SENTENCES
There are three types of sentences: compound, complex, and fragment.

A compound sentence is made up of two simple sentences joined by a comma and a coordinating conjunction or by a semicolon. Examples include:
Mary is going to the party and she is wearing her red dress. I can't speak now, but I will soon.

A complex sentence is made up of a simple sentence and one or more dependent or subordinate clauses. There are three different types of subordinate clauses. Adverbial clauses are introduced by a subordinating conjunction such as after, although, as, because, before, once, though, until, whether, if, how, while, where, while. For example: While I was at the bathroom, a big fight started in the dancing area. Adjective clauses are introduced by relative pronouns such as who, whom, that, which, whichever, whomever, whoever. An example includes: You may invite whomever you like to the party. Noun clauses are introduced by that, whether, if, or questions words. For instance: It would be interesting to know where Susan is from.

A fragment or incomplete sentence is a subordinate clause that stands alone, or it is without an independent clause. In written academic English it is never appropriate. However, in spoken English it is very common to use incomplete sentences or fragments. It is also common in creative writing, though not encouraged. For example: Found an apartment yet?. This is a fragment for: Have you found an apartment yet?

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2.4 - INTERJECTIONS and CONJUNCTIONS
Just a little clarification on two points mentioned earlier.

Interjection comes from from a Latin word that means “throw between.” It’s a word or phrase that is thrown into, generally in the beginning, a sentence to express an emotion, such as, "Goodness, how you’ve grown!" or, "Darn, I forgot my lunch!" All the impolite expressions that we call expletives are interjections. Strictly speaking, an interjection is not generally considered a part of speech. However, it is mentioned in our first lesson just for knowledge purposes. In reality, there are only eight parts of speech. An interjection serves no grammatical function but is rather “a noisy utterance like the cry of an animal” (F.J. Rahtz). Interjections express feeling or emotion, not thought and have been called “the miserable refuge of the speechless.”

A conjunction joins words and groups of words. There are two classes of conjunction: co-ordinate, or coordinating, and subordinate, or subordinating. Co-ordinate conjunctions: and, but, either…or, neither…nor. Subordinate conjunctions: that, as, after, before, since, when, where, unless, if.

The relative pronouns who, whom, which, and that are used in the same way that subordinate conjunctions are. The difference is that the relative pronouns serve three purposes at once: they stand for a noun in the main clause; they connect the clauses; they serve as a subject or object word in the subordinate clause.

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2.5 - ACTIVE and PASSIVE VOICE
English verbs, and sentences are said to have two voices: active and passive.

The active voice occurs in a sentence when the subject performs an action (verb). The passive voice happens in a sentence when the subject receives the action. Let's use a sentence in the active voice: The boy catches the fly ball. Now let's change that to the passive voice: The fly ball is caught by the boy. Note that the position of the subject has changed - actually, the subject is changed completely. The verb, however, still sticks with the boy, just in a different way.

When writing academically, the passive voice is never acceptable. However, it is common with creative writing. Remember that it should not be overused, just as with fragments and semi-colons.

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