Sentence Resources

Adjectives and Adverbs

What's an Article and which do I use, when?

The Use and Non-Use of Articles (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link includes chart for visual clarification and two exercises with answer keys.

When do I use "A" or "An" with a noun?

A or An (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link includes an exercise and answer key.

What's the difference between an adjective and an adverb?

Adjective or Adverb (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link includes exercises with answer keys.

Which Adjective do I use with count and non-count nouns?

Adjectives With Count and Non Count Nouns (Purdue Online Writing Center)

Nouns

When do I capitalize words?

A Little Help with Capitals (Purdue Online Writing Center)

What's the difference between a count noun and a non-count noun (mass nouns)?

Count and Non Count Nouns (with plurals, articles and quantity words) (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link offers visuals to call attention between distinction of count/non-count nouns.

When do I use an article with a noun?

Count and Non-Count Nouns with Articles Link includes a chart for visual aid and an exercise with an answer key.

What's a possessive noun?

Possessive and Plural Nouns (Southern Illinois University Writing Center, Adobe Acrobat) This page distinguishes between when a noun is made plural and when it is made possessive.

When do I spell out a number?

Writing Numbers (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link includes exercise and answer key.

Prepositions

What are Prepositions?

Prepositions of Direction: To, On (to), In (to);

Prepositions of Location: At, In, On;

Prepositions of Time, of Place, and to Introduce Objects;

Prepositions of Spatial Relationships.

Each of these Links from the Purdue Owl use graphics to illustrate points. The first two links also have exercises with answer keys.

Pronouns

What are pronouns and how do I use them?

Pronoun Case (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link provides charts for pronoun case, and outlines typical problems with pronoun use.

How do I make my pronouns agree?

Using Pronouns Clearly (Purdue Online Writing Center)

Verbs

What are active and passive verbs?

Active and Passive Verbs (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link provides visual illustration of concepts.

What are the different verb tenses and when do I use them?

Sequence of Verb Tenses

Verb Tenses, a Chart of Tenses (Purdue Online Writing Center)

Why does my verb tense need to be consistent?

Verb Tense Consistency (Purdue Online Writing Center) Linkincludes exercise with answer key.

What are irregular verbs?

Irregular verbs(Purdue Online Writing Center) Link provides visual illustration of concepts.

How do I use Helping Verbs?

Verbs with Helpers (Purdue Online Writing Center)

What's the difference between a gerund and a participle? (Purdue Online Writing Center)

Spelling and Word Usage

How do I decide between words that sound alike?

Common Words that Sound Alike (Purdue Online Writing Center)

When do I use "ie" rather than "ei"?

Spelling IE/EI (Purdue Online Writing Center)

What plural ending do I use?

Spelling: Noun Plurals (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link uses chart to illustrate ideas.

How do I know when to use "able" versus "ible"?

Able and Ible Words (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link uses chart to illustrate idea.

What are the most common word usage mistakes?

Mis-uses Most Foul: Common mistakes that Drive Your Professors Crazy!

Sentence Structure

What is an appositive?

Appositives (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link provides exercise and answer key.

What's a Dangling Modifier?

Dangling Modifiers (Purdue Online Writing Center)

What are clauses?

Dependent and Independent Clauses (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link defines types of clauses and shows how to punctuate when using them.

How do I make my subjects agree with my verbs?

Making Subjects and Verbs Agree (Purdue Online Writing Center)

What's the difference between Who and Whom?

Who Versus Whom (from Franklin and Marshall College Writing Center)

What is parallel Sentence Structure?

Parallel Sentence Structure (Purdue Online Writing Center)

How do I avoid run-on sentences?

Run-ons, Comma Splices, and Fused Sentences (Purdue Online Writing Center)

What are sentence fragments and how do I eliminate them?

Sentence Fragments (Purdue Online Writing Center)Link includes three exercises with answer keys.

How do I make my sentences clear and concise?

Strategies for Improving Sentence Clarity (Purdue Online Writing Center) Link discusses pronoun clarity, active verbs, clause placement, parallelism, wordiness.

How do I avoid wordiness?

Five Principles of Readability (Southern Illinois University Writing Center, Adobe Acrobat). This resource is just like it sounds, advice for making your prose easily readable.

Also see: Revising Prose (Southern Illinois University Writing Center, Adobe Acrobat). This page presents "The Paramedic Method" (so called because it is said to breath life back into your sentences). The Paramedic Method is a quick set of steps for eliminating wordiness and passive voice in your sentences--a very useful tool.

Conciseness (Purdue Online Writing Center) This page suggests a variety of ways to condense wordy sentences.

How do I emphasize ideas in my sentences?

Adding Emphasis (Purdue Online Writing Center) This page suggests several way to highlight ideas ranging from punctuation choices to use of clauses and order of ideas.

How do I make my sentences and ideas more interesting to readers?

Sentence Variety, (Purdue Online Writing Center) This page suggests ways to eliminate monotony from your writing through varying sentence length & style, as well as through variety in word choice. Discusses coordination and subordination of ideas.

Also see: Metaphors, (Purdue Online Writing Center) This link defines metaphors, gives examples and suggests ways that they may enliven your sentences.

How do I avoid sexist language?

Using Non-Sexist Language (Purdue Online Writing Center) This page offers examples of sexist writing and alternatives to eliminate it.

For Additional Grammar and Punctuation Resources

Punctuation and Grammar Review from Gallaudet University. Offers a quick overview of grammar and punctuation and uses charts and visuals to illustrate points.

Purdue Online Writing Center. In addition to the handouts linked above, Purdue's site offers a number of exercises and answer keys.

Grammar, Mechanics and Usage from Texas A&M University. Many of their handouts have tutorials, which include an exercise and an answer key.

Common Errors from the Gallaudet University Writer's Handbook. Information listed alphabetically.

Writing Resources Southern Illinois University

Grammar and Punctuation Handouts from Franklin and Marshall College Writing Center
(http://www.fandm.edu/Departments/WritingCenter/resources.html)

Updated October 2006 by the College Advancement Department.