Overcoming Difficulty in Grammar Rules and Language Arts

By Dorothy M. Johnson-Nelson

Overcoming Difficulty in Grammar Rules and Language Arts provides a clear and comprehensive understanding for students and help students master grammar rules as well as other language arts. The rules in the books offer clear instructions, definitions, models of effective writing, and concepts that are used in real-life writing. The book is informative, unique, easy to understand, and is a good resource for educators, parents, guardians, and professionals who work with students and want them to do well.

Language arts is used in all educational institutions. When students and individuals are able to master grammar rules in language arts, they will be able to perform effectively in other subjects. Today, students in many public schools are not performing as they should in language arts.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthen me” (Philippians 4:13, KJV).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796025712

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Copyright © 2019 by Dorothy M. Johnson-Nelson. 792904

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 05/22/2019

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

KINDS OF SENTENCES

IDENTIFYING KINDS OF SENTENCES

SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

IDENTIFYING FRAGMENTS

IDENTIFYING RUN-ON SENTENCES

SUBJECTS AND PREDICATES

CHAPTER 2

PARTS OF SPEECH

NOUNS

IDENTIFYING KINDS OF NOUNS

SINGULAR NOUNS AND PLURAL NOUNS

IMPROVING SPELLING SKILLS

POSSESSIVE NOUNS

DISTINGUISHING PLURALS, POSSESSIVES, AND CONTRACTIONS

COLLECTIVE NOUNS

APPOSITIVES

CHAPTER 3

PERSONAL PRONOUNS

CHAPTER 4

VERBS

TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERBS

LINKING VERBS

ADJECTIVES FOLLOWING LINKING VERBS

PRESENT AND PAST TENSE

MAIN VERBS AND HELPING VERBS

MAKING SUBJECTS AND VERBS AGREE

IRREGULAR VERBS

ADJECTIVES

COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE

ARTICLES

GOOD/WELL

CHAPTER 5

ADVERBS

COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE ADVERBS

ADVERB THE VERB DESCRIBES

PREPOSITIONS AND PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

CONJUNCTIONS

INTERJECTIONS

FINDING ALL PARTS OF SPEECH

CHAPTER 6

SIGHT WORDS

USING ABBREVIATIONS

CONTRACTIONS

COMPOUND WORDS

SYLLABLES

CHAPTER 7

SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS

HOMOPHONES

ALPHABETICAL ORDER

ROOT WORD

PREFIXES

SUFFIXES

OPPOSITES

CHAPTER 8

TIME ORDER

STORY

FEATURES OF A STORY

POEM

BIOGRAPHY

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER 9

LISTENING FOR FACTS AND OPINIONS

WRITING A BOOK REPORT

SAMPLE OF A BOOK REPORT

PARTS OF A BOOK

CHAPTER 10

WRITING LETTERS

KINDS OF LETTERS

SAMPLES OF FRIENDLY LETTERS

GIFT LETTERS

BUSINESS LETTERS

OFFICIAL LETTER

CHAPTER 11

ADDRESSING ENVELOPES

MEMORANDUM

POSTCARDS

WRITING AN INVITATION

CHAPTER 12

COMPOSITION

ESSAY

PARAGRAPH

SAMPLE OF AN ESSAY

CHAPTER 13

JOURNAL

CREATIVE WRITING

ACROSTIC COMPOSITION

USING THE TELEPHONE

TELEPHONE DIRECTORY

ADVERTISEMENT

INTERNET

READING SCHEDULES

CHAPTER 14

USING TROUBLESOME WORDS

CHOOSING THE CORRECT WORD

CHAPTER 15

CAPITALIZING SENTENCES, QUOTATIONS, AND SALUTATIONS

CAPITALIZING NAMES AND TITLES OF PEOPLE

CAPITALIZE NAMES OF PLACES

CAPITALIZING OTHER PROPER NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES

CHAPTER 16

PUNCTUATION

APOSTROPHE (‘)

ASTERISKS (*)

BRACKETS []

USING COMMAS I

USING COMMAS II

USING COMMAS III

COLON (:)

SEMICOLON (;)

DASH (-)

DIAERESIS (¨)

ELLIPSIS (…)

EXCLAMATION MARK (!)

HYPHEN (-)

INTERROGATION OR QUESTION MARK (?)

PERIOD (.)

PARENTHESIS ()

QUOTATION MARKS

ITALICS/UNDERLINING

CHAPTER 17

LINE-END DIVISION OF WORDS

RULES WHEN NOT TO DIVIDE WORDS

APPLY GOOD WRITING TRAITS

WRITING PROCESS

CHAPTER 18

REFERENCE RESOURCES

THE DICTIONARY

THESAURUS

ENCYCLOPEDIAS

PERIODICALS

ATLASES

STUDY SKILLS

CHAPTER 19

TAKING NOTES

PREPARING FOR A TEST

TAKING A TEST

USING EMAIL

PREFACE

OVERCOMING DIFFICULTY IN GRAMMAR RULES AND LANGUAGE ARTS, will provide a clear and comprehensive understanding for students and help students master grammar rules as well as other language arts.

I offer my sincere appreciation to:

Dr. Andrea M. Nelson-Royes, educational researcher and writer, on the

tedious and time intensive task of coordinating the editing of this book.

In addition, my grateful thanks to:

Teachers, parents, and guardians,

Bethlehem Pre-School, Inc.

and

Bethlehem Junior Academy, Inc.

THANKS FOR YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT!

INTRODUCTION

OVERCOMING DIFFICULTY

IN

GRAMMAR RULES

AND

LANGUAGE ARTS

Many people think grammar rules are difficult. They do not realize that it is easy to become a better writer.

PREWRITING: Plan what you are going to write.

DRAFTING: Write your ideas in sentences.

REVISING: Revising is the first stage of editing your writing. Make changes that will improve your writing.

PROOFREADING: Check for errors in grammar, spelling, and capitalization.

PUBLISHING: Choose a way to present your work.

GRAMMAR

Grammar consists of the rules and principles that govern our language.

When we speak or when we write, our thoughts are expressed by means of sentences rather than by separate words.

A sentence is a group of words that express a complete thought. Every sentence has a subject and a predicate, also called a verb.

There are four (4) types of sentences:

Declaration Sentence

Interrogation Sentence

Imperative Sentence

Exclamatory Sentence

A sentence begins with a capital letter.

A sentence ends with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point.

A sentence may be long or may be short.

CHAPTER 1

KINDS OF SENTENCES

DECLARATION SENTENCE makes a statement. It ends with a period.

For example: July 4 is Independence Day.

INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE asks a question. It ends with a question mark.

For example: Why is pizza so popular?

IMPERATIVE SENTENCE gives a command or makes a request. It ends with a period.

For example: Spread the toppings on the pizza.

EXLAMATORY SENTENCE expresses strong feeling and ends with an exclamation mark.

For example: Hurray!

IDENTIFYING KINDS OF SENTENCES

SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

SENTENCE FRAGMENTS do not express a complete thought. They may lack a subject or a verb or both.

For example: A good friend of mine. (fragment)

Tony is a good friend of mine. (sentence)

IDENTIFYING FRAGMENTS

Over the hill.

Our Father, which art in heaven.

Enjoying my vacation.

RUN-ON SENTENCE is two or more sentences written incorrectly as one sentence.

For Example: The sick woman had faith to touch Jesus’s garment and so Jesus healed her.

IDENTIFYING RUN-ON SENTENCES

Last Saturday, Dad and I went shopping for a pair of new shoes and I didn’t like any of the shoes that I saw in the first store and then after that, we tried several other stores, but they didn’t have any shoes in my size and we came home without any new shoes. (run-on)

Last Saturday, Dad and I went shopping for a pair of new shoes. I didn’t like any of the shoes that I saw in the first store. After that, we tried several other stores, but they didn’t have any shoes in my size. We came home without any new shoes. (not run-on)

NOTE: Get rid of any unnecessary uses of and, so, or then.

SUBJECTS AND PREDICATES

A sentence has two parts:

1. Subject

2. Predicate

Subject: Names who or what the sentence is about.

Predicate: Tells what that person or thing does.

For example: Old books are lessons from the past.

IDENTIFYING SUBJECTS AND PREDICATES

Claude Box catches the ball.

Everyone cheers loudly.

The Yankees win the game.

They run onto the field.

Sara saw a very old book in the library.

Both subject and predicate may consist of more than one word:

Complete subject

Complete predicate

COMPLETE SUBJECT – includes all the words in the subject of a sentence.

COMPLETE PREDICATE – includes all the words in the predicate.

Note: Not all of the words in the subject are of equal importance.

SIMPLE SUBJECT is the main or most important word or group of words in the complete subject. The simple subject is usually a noun or a pronoun.

Noun: Names a person, a place, a thing or an idea.

Pronoun: A word that takes the place of