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Literacy
Tips
Parts of speech
Noun
A noun is the name of a person,
place, object or idea.
Maryʼs dog ran into the house to
eat his bone.
Pronoun
A pronoun is a word that is used to
replace a noun, e.g. he, she, it,
they, we.
Command words
Advise
Analyse
Arrange
Compare
Calculate
Conclude
Contrast
Create
Define
Describe
Develop
Discuss
Evaluate
Examine
Explain
Identify
Illustrate
Implement
Interpret
Investigate
Justify
Outline
Predict
Refine
Sentences
Reflect
Select
Solve
Substitute
Suggest
Summarise
Simple sentence:
Compound sentence:
Complex sentence:
Contains a subject and a
verb; and can contain an
object.
Joins two simple sentences
using the conjunctions: for,
and, not, but, or, yet, so
(FANBOYS)
Is made up of an
independent clause and a
dependent clause.
The cat sat on the mat.
Subject - cat;
Verb - sat;
Object - mat.
Sarah and Tom went to the
cinema after they had
finished their homework.
Sarah likes to read in the
library but Tom prefers to
read at home.
Adjective
An adjective is a descriptive word. It
gives more information about the
person, place or thing that is being
described.
The heavy shower of rain beat
down upon the thirsty land.
Verb
A verb is a doing word. It can
express:
A physical action, e.g.: She swam to
the shore.
A mental action, e.g.: He thought
about it for a long time.
A state of being, e.g.: It appeared
in front of me.
Adverb
An adverb is a descriptive word. It
describes or modifies a verb.
The fox crept quietly and slowly
through the tall grass.
Definite article
The definite article is ʻtheʼ. It is used
to refer to something once it has
already been mentioned.
Ways to start
a sentence
With an adjective
Terrible secrets lay under the sea.
With a verb
Laying under the sea was a terrible
secret.
With a preposition
Under the sea lay a terrible secret.
With an adverb
Furiously, he shouted at the top of his
voice.
With a pronoun
He shouted furiously at the top of his
voice.
Connectives
For sequencing ideas or events
Firstly / secondly / thirdly / finally / eventually / then / since /
meanwhile / afterwards / whilst / earlier / until / before / during
To show cause and effect
Because / so / therefore / thus / consequently / owing to
To emphasise or repeat information
Above all / in particular / especially / significantly / indeed /
notably / in fact / in other words / once again
To further explain an idea
Although / however / unless / except / yet / apart / from / as
long as
To compare
Equally / like wise / similarly /as / with / like / in the same way
To contrast
Whereas / instead of / alternatively / otherwise / unlike / but /
on the other hand / in contrast to / nevertheless / yet
With a connective
Unlike Michael, Mina likes to eat
chocolate.
To give examples
With a noun
Davidʼs use of imagery helped us to
understand some of the novelʼs main
messages.
For adding information
For example / such as / for instance / as revealed by / in the
case of
And / also / as well as / moreover / too / furthermore / besides
/ in addition / moreover
To show conclusion
Finally / in conclusion / to conclude / to sum up / overall
Indefinite article
The indefinite article is ʻaʼ. It is used
to refer to something for the first
time.
Preposition
A preposition show direction or
relationship between words in a
sentence.
They walked into the water.
What are you writing?
Genre
Audience
Purpose
TIPTOP Rule
You need a new paragraph
when you change time,
place, topic or person.
Chalfonts Community College
Literacy
Tips
Past, present or future?
Past tense:
Present tense:
Future tense:
Where verbs are written to
show that events occurred in
the past.
Where verbs are written to
show that events are
occurring right now.
Where verbs are written to
show that events are going
to occur in the future.
It happened yesterday.
It is happening today.
It will happen tomorrow.
Punctuation
.
ʻ
A ʻfull stopʼ marks the end of
a sentence.
First person:
Second person:
Third person:
A cat sat on a mat.
First person is when the text
is written from one
characterʼs perspective.
Second person is when the
text is written to include the
reader, making it more
personal.
Third person is when the text
is written in such a way that
the narrator is all-knowing.
An apostrophe replaces
omitted letters and shows
omission or possession.
Theyʼre Tonyʼs shoes.
:
A colon is used to introduce a
list or emphasise a
word/phrase.
""
She had one love: reading.
Speech marks are used to
show that someone is
speaking and to distinguish a
quotation.
“To be or not to be, that is
the question.”
!
An exclamation mark is used
at the end of a dramatic
statement or sentence.
“Help!”
,
A comma separates clauses in
a sentence and items in a list.
Because it was dark, they lost
their way.
-
A hyphen is used to indicate
an extended pause or to join
two words together.
He looked at her - all the
while wondering who she
was.
()
Brackets are used to separate
extra or less important
information.
Harry Potter (a wizard) cast a
spell on the dragon.
?
A question mark is used at the
end of a question.
Would you like a drink?
;
I was as still as a mouse, as I
watched them walk into the
room.
You can make a difference
by giving your time and
energy to the project.
Homophones
Advice / Advise
Affect / Effect
Aloud / Allowed
Bare / Bear
Brake / Break
Coarse / Course
Fare / Fair
Find / Fined
Groan / Grown
Here / Hear
Hole / Whole
Lose / Loose
Mail / Male
New / Knew
Peace / Piece
Pair / Pare / Pear
Principal / Principle
Rain / Reign / Rein
Road / Rode
Quiet / Quite
Sight / Site
Stationary / Stationery
Steel / Steal
There / Their / Theyʼre
Threw / Through
To / Too / Two
Waist / Waste
Weak / Week
Wear / Where
Weather / Whether
They both looked shocked. It
was running towards them,
far quicker than they had
expected.
Commonly misspelled
words
Acceptable
Acquire
Apparent
Believe
Column
Conscience
Deduce
Discipline
Environment
Experience
Government
Guarantee
Hierarchy
Interpretation
Intelligence
Liaison
Manoeuvre
Miniature
Naive
Noticeable
Opportunity
Possession
Prejudice
Questionnaire
Recommend
Relevant
Rhythm
Twelfth
Accidentally
Amateur
Argument
Category
Committed
Conscious
Definite
Embarrass
Existence
Foreign
Grateful
Height
Immediate
Independent
Leisure
Library
Medieval
Mischievous
Neighbour
Occasionally
Playwright
Precede
Pronunciation
Receive
Referred
Rhyme
Separate
Weird
A semi-colon is used to link
two related sentences.
Tea is my favourite drink; I like
it with milk and sugar.
...
Perspectives
Ellipses represent missing
words and indicate thought or
create suspense.
"Hello… Hello…? … Is … is
anyone there?"
Check your work!
Check your work!
Spellings
Punctuation
Grammar
Sentence Types
Paragraphs
Genre Features
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