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Longfellow Skills and Explanations
Day 1
Unnecessary Capitalization
When a word is not a proper noun, proper adjective or a title, do not
capitalize it unless it is the first word of a sentence. Adjectives that modify
proper nouns are not capitalized.
Use of an Adjective Qualifier
In some cases, nouns will need to be limited in scope so that the sentence is
not illogical.
Teenagers are never on time. This is not a logical sentence since there are
some teenagers who are on time. Thus, if one adds many to the sentence, the
sentence is now more logical.
Many teenagers are never on time.
Titles of Poems
Unless a poem is an epic or of book length for some other reason,
put its title in quotation marks.
Possession of Nouns
Form the possessive of singular nouns by adding 's. For a plural noun ending in
-s, just add an apostrophe after the -s. For nouns ending in s, add an 's. Some
grammarians suggest that you should only add an apostrophe (without an s) if a
proper noun would sound awkward if pronounced with -iz as in Jesusiz (Jesus's).
Day 2
Commonly Misspelled Word: Truly
Truly is spelled without an e.
Italics or Underlining for Names of Ships
When using the name of a ship, underline the name if writing by
hand or italicize it if you are wordprocessing.
I wish she had been on the Titanic.
Capitalization of Proper Nouns
Proper nouns name specific people, places and things and are capitalized. If a
noun is general, it is not a proper noun and is not capitalized.
Day 3
Unnecessary Capitalization
When a word is not a proper noun, proper adjective or a title, do not
capitalize it unless it is the first word of a sentence. Adjectives that modify
proper nouns are not capitalized.
Absolute Phrases
An absolute phrase is usually--but not always--a group of words consisting of a
noun or pronoun and a participle as well as any related modifiers. An absolute
phrase is not a clause because it does not have a true verb. Absolute phrases do
not directly connect to or modify any specific word in the sentence but they
modify the entire sentence by adding information. They are set off from the rest of
the sentence with a comma, a pair of commas, a dash or a pair of dashes. They
can be used to combine sentences.
And or But at the Beginning of a Sentence
In formal writing, eliminate the conjunctions and or but at the beginning of
sentences. This helps to make sure that you do not write a sentence fragment.
Day 4
Comma after Introductory Phrase
Use a comma after a phrase that introduces a sentence.
Sequence of Verb Tenses
In a sentence with two clauses, the verbs must show simultaneous occurance
or sequence of occurance. If one verb is in the past tense and another verb
occured before it, the verb that occured first needs to be in the pluperfect or
past perfect tense (using the helping verbs had, has etcetera). If one verb is
in the past tense and another verb that occured at the same time is in the
present, you must change the second verb so that both verbs are in the same
tense.
Because she murdered him, Myron did not come to Sally's party. Incorrect
Because she had murdered him, Myron did not come to Sally's party.
Correct
We went to the party and play many games. Incorrect
We went to the party and played many games. Correct
Streamlining Sentences with the Use of the Possessive
Since writing is meant to communicate, sentences should do so in a clear way.
Adding unnecessary words can confuse the audience. At times, we use the
phrase the __________ of __________ (as in, the daughter of Phaedrus).
This can be simplified as ___________'s ______________ (as in, Phaedrus's
daughter).
Day 5
Split Infinitives
In English, an infinitive is a verb form created from the word to and the
verb. For example, the infinitive of run is to run. Splitting an infinitive
means putting a word between the to and the verb. Since one cannot
literally split an infinitive in Latin (amare=to love with the are making the
verb an infinitive), this has become a rule in English.
to swiftly run is incorrect
to run swiftly is correct
Punctuation inside Quotation Marks
When a period or comma follows a word, phrase or sentence enclosed in
quotation marks, the period or comma is located inside the quotation marks.
If the sentence enclosed in quotation marks is a question, the question mark
goes inside the quotation marks.
Commonly Confused Words: Whose versus Who's
Whose is used as the possessive form of who.
Who's is a contraction meaning who is.