Monthly Archives: February 2020

Nine tips I’ve learned from teaching the writing parts of the SAT and ACT

Posted on February 25, 2020 | Leave a comment
  1. A rewritten phrase or clause with the word “being” in it is almost always wrong. Perplexed student writing
  2. Shorter versions of rewritten grammar are usually the correct answers.  If in doubt, choose the shortest or second shortest answer.
  3. Hard to spot run-on sentences often have a comma in the middle of the sentence followed by a subject pronoun.   The comma needs to be  a period, or a semicolon.  Or you need to put a coordinating conjunction after the comma.
  4. If you have one dash, you need two dashes unless the sentence ends where the second dash would be.
  5. In lists or series, the important words must be the same part of speech such as all nouns, all verbs, all infinitives, or all gerunds.
  6. “It’s” means it is. “Its” means something belongs to it.  Its’ is not a word.
  7. “They’re” means they are. “Their” means something belongs to them.  “There” means over there or that something exists.  All three begin with “the.”  Thier is not a word.
  8. Commas come before coordinating conjunctions, not after unless what follows the conjunction is nonessential information.
  9. Third person singular verbs (the kind you use with “he,” “she,” or “it” as the subject) in the present tense end in an “s.”

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Posted in run-ons, SAT, writing problems, writing rules, writing tips

The magic of snow

Posted on February 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

It snowed in Georgia this morning, the first snow this year.  I was tutoring a fifth grader still in his pajamas when the snow started.  The dining room blinds were drawn, so we didn’t know.  The student finished his lesson, stood, stretched, and walked to the door.

By Nicholas Powers, 6

“It’s snowing!  It’s snowing!” he screamed, literally jumping.  “Miss Kathy, it’s snowing! My shoes.  My coat.  I gotta get outside.  Everybody!  It’s snowing!”

The family came running.  Everyone was shouting about the snow.  None fell last year near where I live, and maybe just a few flurries spit from the sky the year before.  The forecast was for flurries in the morning and melting of anything that stuck in the afternoon.  But already more than an inch had fallen.  Serrendipidy!

The boy’s older sister looked longingly outside and then sat down next to me for her lesson.  “I remember when it snowed,” she mused, gazing out the window.  “Maybe I was three.”  We sputtered, trying to get the lesson going, but she was distracted, glancing through the blinds, now open, to the cluster of kids gathering outside, scraping the car for wet snow to pack into snowballs.  For 15 minutes we struggled, but the shouts of the kids  captivated her.  We ended the lesson.  “Thank you, thank you, thank you, Miss Kathy,” she said, bolting.

Guess what we’ll be writing about next week?

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Posted in know when to quit, writing topics

5 ways to use ellipsis points

Posted on February 3, 2020 | Leave a comment

Ellipsis points (. . .) are used to show omissions in quoted text or pauses in text.  Three ellipsis points are used if the omission is within a single sentence.  A period and three ellipsis points are used if the omission bridges more than a single sentence.

When are ellipsis points used?  When citing text, ellipsis points are often used.  When writing dialog, ellipsis points are also used to show pauses in speech or thinking.

To show what I mean, let’s use a part of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address  as an example:

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”

If the quoted material that comes before the ellipsis is not a complete sentence, use three ellipsis points with a space before and after the first and last point. For example, “We have come to dedicate a portion of that field . . . for those who here gave their lives.”

If the quoted material comes before or after a sentence, use a period for the sentence as well as three ellipsis points. For example, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . . . We are met on a great battle-field of that war.”  (The period goes next to the last word of the sentence without a space even if that word does not end the sentence in the original text.)

If one or more sentences are omitted, use a period for the end of a sentence followed by three ellipsis points. For example, “We are met on a great battle-field of that war.  .  .  . It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”

If a full line or more of poetry is omitted, use a complete line of spaced periods. For example, from Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,”

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep,

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And miles to go before I sleep.

If you want to show a pause in speech or thought, use three ellipsis points plus a space before the first one and after the last one. For example, “Well . . . I’m not sure I want to go.”

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Posted in ellipsis