Quick and Dirty Grammar Guide

Quick and Dirty
Grammar Guide

Just a few of the bits and pieces to keep in mind in terms of the mechanics behind working with texts (in addition to the Writer's Checklist). Remember that the analytic effort is also a creative one and that the construction of an argument is analogous to the construction of poetry.

Punctuation and Grammar

1) A dash--as shown here--is made by two hyphens with no space before, after, or between. A single dash used at the end of an independent clause indicates a shift in thought--a useful tool in some rhetorical instances.
2) A semicolon is used to separate two independent clauses. Be certain that the material on both sides of the semicolon are independent clauses; otherwise, it will be a sentence fragment.
3) When you insert an interrupter into your independent clause, such as this one, make certain that a comma both precedes and follows it.
4) Do not link two independent clauses with only a comma; to do so results in a comma splice. You may connect two independent clauses with a comma if you follow it with “for,” “and,” “nor,” “but,” “or,” “yet,” or “so,” and you would then have made a compound sentence.
5) If you start a sentence with the word “if,” then make sure that the word “then” is preceded by a comma. If you decide to drop the “then,” make sure you retain the comma.
6) Restrictive phrases and non-restrictive phrases are things that are very confusing. Just remember that using “which” near the end of the sentence will require a comma, which means that the information is extraneous to the clause it is connected to.
7) A writer’s sentences must always use apostrophes correctly. Lois’s sentences are usually very well written, but the rest of the students’ apostrophes need work.

Quotations

1) Short quotations (3 or less lines of poetry; 3 or less typed lines of prose) should be run on in your text.
2) Short quotations of poetry must use “the slash / With a space on either side / To indicate line changes”---note that capitals are retained if they begin each line.
3) Longer quotations should be indented according to block format and made to look as much like the original text as possible.
4) When incorporating quoted material into your sentences, subordinate the syntax and punctuation of the quotation to your syntax and punctuation:
a) When the information given prior to the quotation is an independent clause, you will have to use a colon before the quotation (this is the most frequent case).
b) Sometimes there will be “no punctuation” before the quoted material, even if the quotation is a block quote.
c) Occasionally a comma may be used before a quotation, “but only if your syntax warrants it.”
d) In all of the above cases, the logic and syntax of the sentences as a whole dictate what punctuation is used.

e) All sentences, even those with quoted material at the end, must end with a period, and the period replaces rather than follows the original punctuation “in the quotation.” Do not let question and exclamation marks fool you: “Why did you think they would actually change the punctuation as a whole?” (14).

5) When you use “parentheses” to give page numbers in your text (32), the “punctuation” follows the parentheses (34). Also note that the citation should not come directly after the quote but at the end of a grammatical unit or sentence. If you are citing a block quote, the parentheses and page number remain OUTSIDE of the quotation’s punctuation.
6) In parentheses, line 32 should be abbreviated (l. 32); lines 32-33, (ll. 32-33). DO NOT abbreviate page 21 as (p. 21). Numbers in parentheses without an abbreviation are assumed to be page numbers.
7) In parentheses, act, scene, and line numbers should be given as follows: (2.3.21-25).
8) Semicolons and colons must be placed outside quotation “marks”; periods and commas must be placed inside quotation “marks.”
9) You must use brackets when you interpolate your own words or changes into quoted material. I will always use brackets “when [I] interpolate [my] own words” into quoted material (2).
10) Use single quotation marks within double when material you quote has quotation marks already in it. "I will always use brackets 'when [I] interpolate [my] own words' into quoted material" (2).
11) Block quotes do not have quotation marks unless the quotation marks appear in the original text.
12) Initial and terminal ellipses are not necessary; hence you may begin and conclude a quotation “on the use of parentheses” in this fashion (15).
13) Internal ellipses should always be used correctly: three “spaced . . . periods” when ellipsis does not go over a sentence and a period; a period plus three spaced periods when ellipsis go over a sentence “and a period. . . . In this latter case, what follows the ellipsis must be an independent clause.” If it cannot be so, then rewrite the sentence to allow two sets of quoted materials.