C.U.P.S.

Capitalization
c  Sentences begin with a capital letter.
c  Proper names of people and places are capitalized.
c  Names of companies / businesses are capitalized.
c  Days of the week and months of the year are capitalized.
c  Cities, states, countries, nations, and continents are capitalized.
c  People and languages of other countries are capitalized.
c  Names of oceans, lakes, rivers, and other specific geographic locations are capitalized.
c  Each line of a poem starts with a capital.
c  Proper adjectives are capitalized.
c  Don’t capitalize seasons.
c  Capitalize directions only if they name a specific place. (Incorrect: We headed North on highway 91.) (Correct: We live in the Deep South.) / Punctuation
c  Sentences that make a statement end in a period.
c  Sentences that ask a question end in a question mark.
c  Sentences that share a strong feeling end with an exclamation point.
c  Commas are needed in a series of three or more words / phrases. My friends help me with my math, science, and history homework.
c  A comma separates the city / town from the state. Princeton, West Virginia
c  A comma separates the date and the year. May 20, 2005
c  Endmarks and commas are always placed inside the quotation marks.
c  An apostrophe is used when letters in a word are left out. I don’t care.
c  An apostrophe shows ownership / possession. Mike’s dog ran away. / Usage
c  Use singular verbs with singular subjects. The cat is purring.
c  Use plural verbs with plural subjects. The cats are purring.
c  Use singular verbs with collective nouns. The team is winning.
c  Keep the tense (present, past, future) of the verb the same throughout the paper.
c  Make sure the pronoun agrees with its antecedent.
c  Use plural verbs with indefinite pronouns that are plural. Many wanted to cast their votes.
c  Use singular verbs with indefinite pronouns that are singular. Each donated his or her time.
c  Make sure a participial phrase is not misplaced. (Incorrect: Running down the hall, the trash can tripped Steve.) (Correct: Running down the hall, Steve tripped over a trash can.)
c  Keep your ideas parallel by using matching grammatical structures. (Incorrect: I went to Maine in the summer, in the fall, and last winter.) (Correct: I went to Maine in the summer, in the fall, and in the winter.) / Spelling
c  Most words follow the i before e rule.
c  Remember these seven exceptions: either, neither, seize, seizure, leisure, height, weird, forfeit
c  The spelling of a word never changes when a prefix is added. Mis + spell = misspell. Un + necessary = unnecessary
c  If the last syllable of the root word is stressed, double the final consonant. Occur = occurring; prefer = preferring; omit = omitting
c  Most nouns that end in f or fe change to ve for the plural form. Knife = knives
c  Most nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant change the y to I and add es to form the plural. Family = families; baby = babies
c  Words that end in y preceded by a vowel become plural by adding an s. Turkey = turkeys. Monkey = monkeys.
c  Avoid the most common spelling errors by learning to use the following words correctly: to, too, two; you’re, your; their, they’re, there; it’s its.
c  Rely on dictionaries, lists of commonly misspelled words, and mechanical devices for help.
Capitalize / Insert / Spelling Error / Run-on Sentence / Sentence Fragment / Delete / Confusing
Add Space / Lower Case Letter / Connect / Start New Paragraph / Add Period / Transpose (switch) words / Indent Paragraph