English 11 Final Exam

Essay Grammar Component Guide

Directions: Use the following guide to help you with the grammar component of the final essay. Make sure you highlight these areas in your essay.

Requirement #1: Comma with an introductory phrase.

Definition

Introductory phrases “set the stage” for the rest of the sentence. They are dependent clauses and usually add extra information for the reader.

Example

“Last time I looked, my name's Ron Burgundy. What's your name?”

Requirement #2: Semicolon

Definition

Semicolons go in between two sentences that are related. They connect independent clauses to show a relationship. They take the place of periods and words like “and” and “but”.

Example

“What? You pooped in the refrigerator? And you ate the whole wheel of cheese? How’d you do that? Heck, I’m not even mad; that is amazing. How ‘bout we get you in your PJs and we hit the hay.”

Requirement #3: Colon

Definition

Use a colon before a list of items or before you restate an idea. You should set up the premise of your list before the colon.

Example

“We elves try to stick to the four food groups: candy, candy cane, candy corn and syrup.”

Requirement #4: Subject and Verb Labeled

Definition

The subject of a sentence is what the sentence is about- the thing doing the action. The verb (or predicate) is the action of the sentence.

Example

“Why are you so sweaty?”

“Iwas watching Cops.” (“I” is the subject) (“was” is the verb.)

Requirement #5: Pronoun and Matching Antecedent

Definition

A pronoun refers back to a noun or proper noun (she, he, they, it). A pronoun’s antecedent comes before the pronoun in the sentence. You need to make sure these two things match.

Example

“People laughed at Louis Armstrong when he said he was going to go to the moon. Now he's up there, laughing at them.” (“Them” is the pronoun and “People” is the antecedent. They match!)

Requirement #6: Parallel Structure

Definition

Parallel structure means that the sentence is set up in the same way throughout.

Example

“I thought maybe we could make ginger bread houses, eat cookie dough, go ice skating, and hold hands.”

Requirement #7: Proper Formatting of Titles

Definition

To properly format titles, put longer texts/works in italics and put smaller texts/works in quotes. Movies, novels, epic poems, and plays would be italicized. Poems, short stories, and songs should have quotation marks around them.

Example

Hamlet

Lord of the Flies

“A Modest Proposal”