Grammar and Punctuation
Performance Schedule
Six three-hour sessions
Eighteen instructional hours
Or a customized schedule
Course Objective
The objective of this course is to improve the ability of participants to find and correct errors in grammar, punctuation, and sentence sense.
Specific Course Goals
Participants will improve their control of the following trouble spots:
- commas
- colons
- semicolons
- hyphens
- quotation marks
- apostrophes
- minor marks of punctuation (parentheses, ellipses, dashes), as time permits
- parts of speech
- plural and possessive forms of nouns
- subject-verb agreement
- pronoun-antecedent agreement
- pronoun case
- verb tense and mood
- misplaced and dangling modifiers
- sentence sense (fragments and run-one sentence)
- common language errors and misused expressions
- double negatives
Course Concept
Reinforcement is critical to mastery of the mechanical aspects of grammar. To help participants work with the standard patterns of the English language, the instructor will provide highly structured drill on each concept. Grammar will be taught from a level-of-usage approach. The instructor will stress that different levels of usage are appropriate for different situations.
The problems covered in class will range from gross errors (such as sentence fragments and double negatives) to subtle problems (such as verb mood and semicolons). By including a wide range of problems, we ensure that all participants will feel challenged and yet will experience a sense of accomplishment.
The instructor serves as motivator, resource person, and evaluator of student progress.
Materials
The contractor will provide Abrams’ Guide to Grammar by Ellie Abrams and a folder with supplementary handouts and use the online version of The Gregg Reference Manual by William Sabin as a resource.