grammar graphic novel handout draft
TRANSCRIPT
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
1/13
Noun Company Employees;
Implementation of the newHR system will be depleated
January 7th. DO NOT USE
PRIOR SYSTEM AFTER
JAN. 6th. Be sure to take
online training prior to
accessing the new system
into our learning
management system. The
Red Word system willincrease efficiency, taking
processes further, and
communication. You're
pleasant cooperation is
grately.
Michael Manager, VP
Atthewatercooler...
Pete beats Eddy to the punchand starts complaining aboutthe new system memo.
Pete the Programmer and Eddy the Editor often
chit-chat at the water cooler in the afternoon to see
if anything new and exciting has happened.
Eddy the Editor was about to ask Pete the
Programmer what happened to his friend Anna the
Assistant. She recently applied for an
Administrative Assistant position at the Noun
Company where they both work.
Hey, man.what's up?
EddyPete
If the
vicepresident
doesn't takethe time tolook at hismemo, whyshould i?
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
2/13
Thinkabouthowyouraudiencewillperceiveyourmessage.Emphasizewordswithstyling,suchasitalicand
bold,andavoidusingallcapitalletters.
TheNounCompanyplanstoimplementitsnewHRsysteminJanuary,not"depleat"it.It'struethatemployeesareencouraged
tocompleteonlinetrainingbeforetryingtousethenewsystem.Theyneedtologintothelearningma
nagementsystemtoaccessthetraining.(MichaelManageralsocouldhavewrittenviaourlearningmanagementsysteminsteadof"into").In
addition,Michael'slackofparallelstructurecausesconfusion.Whatishesayinginthepenultimate(second-to-last)
sentence?ItseemslikeMichaelmeanttousethewordYourinsteadof"You're,"whichisacontractionofyouare.Finally,
hehasmisspelledawordandaccidentally
omittedawordinthelastsentence.
Emphasis
Clarification
he shouldn't haveused all caps in
that one sentencethat tells us not to
use the old systemafter january 6th. it
makes me feel likehe is yelling atme!
as an editor, iknow how you feel,
pete. plus, He shouldnot have used a semicolon(;) in the greeting of thememo. You always use a
colon (:) at thebeginning of a
business letter.
iwonder if
the VP knewhow people
would react this poorly
writtenmemo.
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
3/13
it goes without saying thatyou should always use spellcheck in your email or word
processing software...
...but you haveto be extrasmart when
using grammarcheck!!In the example below, grammar
check has marked an error with asquiggle underline. grammar
check says the phrase is asentence fragment although it isactually a complete sentence.
So, why did grammar check get itwrong?
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
4/13
Sentences that tell you to do something,
suchas "PressEnteron yourkeyboard,"
arecommands. Command sentences arealsoknown as imperative sentences. They
give instructions or requests. When you
aretelling someoneto press theEnterkey,
you do not have to say "YoupressEnter
on your keyboard"because thelistener or
readeralready understands thatyouare
speaking to him or her. This is also known
as theUniversal You because it could
referto anyone who is currently reading
the sentence. With You Understood orUniversal You, there isno third person
involvedin the conversationor writing.
It's just you and I!
You Understood/Universal You
Grammar check
thinks the
subject is
missing!
thesubject is
the personor thing that
the sentenceis about.
thepredicate isthe rest of
the sentencethat describes
what thesubject does
or is.
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
5/13
Contractionsaretwow
ordspushedtogether.I
t's
likewhenanathletefl
exesorcontractshis
musclestobringahea
vyweightclosertohim
.
Withcontractions,we
canbringwordstogeth
er
andmakethemshorter.
Wepushtwowords
togetherandthenshow
thatsomelettersare
missingbyinsertingan
apostrophe.Forexamp
le,
whenthewordswouldan
dhavecontract,they
becomewould've.Anothercontraction
weuse
allthetimeiscan't,w
hichcomesfromcanand
not.Inhismemo,theV
PwroteYou're,which
meansyouareinthes
entenceYou're
pleasantcooperati
onisgrately.Hedid
n't
meantouseacontracti
on.Hemeanttowrite
Your,whichisaposse
ssivepronounshowing
thatsomethingbelongs
tosomeone.
TheVicePresidentalsohadamajorparallel
structureissue. Itis difficulttounderstandwhat
thefollowingsentencemeans:TheRedWord
systemwillincreaseefficiency,taking
processesfurther, andcommunication.Itis
besttousethesameverbformswhenlisting
actions. Forexample, Juanlikes swimming,
running, andskiing. Thesentencehasparallel
structure.This sentencedoes not:Juanlikes to
swim, running, andtoski. This sentenceis
awkwardbecauseitdoesnothaveparallel
structure. WecouldalsorewriteitasJuanlikes to
swim, run, andski. IfwewerecorrectingtheVP'smemo, wecouldwriteTheRedWordsystem
will increaseefficiency,extendprocesses,
andfacilitatecommunication.
ParallelStructure
Contractions
whatelse could
we fix?
keep allitems in alist in the
same form tavoid
awkwardnesand
confusion.
somedayi'll have
muscles.
can + not =can't.
rememberthe
apostrophe!
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
6/13
IntheVP'smemo, hecouldhavechosena
better prepositionfor hissentenceabouttakingonline training. Whichprepositionwould youuseinsteadofinto?Be sureto takeonline trainingpriorto
accessingthe newsysteminto our
learning management system.Wouldthrough,by, in, orsince be thebestpreposition?
Be sure to take online training
priorto accessingthe newsystem
throughour learningmanagementsystem.
Picking the correct prepositionis not
always easy, and sometimesmore than
one choice is appropriate. Here isa
definitionof preposition from
dictionary.com:any member ofa classofwords found inmany languagesthatare used beforenouns, pronouns, or
other substantivesto form
phrases functioning asmodifiers of
verbs, nouns, oradjectives, andthat
typically express a spatial, temporal, or
other relationship, asin, on, by, to,
since.
Water flowsunderbridges.
Prepositions
What would we dowithout prepositions? We
wouldn't know whether to gothrough or around or to or
beneath!
they don't call meeddy the editor
for nothing!
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
7/13
AnnatheAssistantappliedforagreat
jobattheNounCompanywhereEddy
andPetework.Shewouldhavebeena
goodcandidateifshehadbeenmore
carefulaboutthegrammar,usage,and
punctuationinherresumeandcover
letter.Ifthehiringmanagerhadn'tbeen
distractedbyerrors,hewouldhave
interviewedher.
Where'sAnna?
pete, are youfeeling any better
now? I don't think thevp meant to make you
feel like he wasyelling.
AnnatheAssistant
i'll beokay.
when annaapplied for the
job, herwritten
communicationwas so riddled
with errorsthat the ceosaid he didn't
want to talk to
her!
so what everhappened to
anna?
AnnatheAssistantappliedforagreat
jobattheNounCompanywhereEddy
andPetework.Shewouldhavebeena
goodcandidateifshehadbeenmore
carefulaboutthegrammar,usage,and
punctuationinherresumeandcover
letter.Ifthehiringmanagerhadn'tbeen
distractedbyerrors,hewouldhave
interviewedher.
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
8/13
that'sterrible!
i know. i feelbad. i guess itmade a badimpression.
what can we do to help?
write tips onyour eddy the
editor blog, andI will point ann
to it.
greatidea!
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
9/13
i'll tell her aboutsubject verbagreement...
...andmisplacedmodifiers.
youmisplaced
what?
if you are writingabout a single
object, you must usea singular verb.
for example,the red tulipgrows. growsis the singular
form of the
verb.
misplaced modifiers
cause confusion. theydescribe the wrongthing when they are not
in the right spot in asentence.
let's getinto more
detail aboutsubject verbagreement
and misplaced
modifiers.
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
10/13
if you are talkingabout multiple
objects, you needthe plural form of
the verb.
for example,the white tulipsgrow. grow is
the plural formof the verb.
when you use theconjunctionor
ornor, singularsubjects remain
singular. forexample, neither
the red tulip northe pink grow.
it also helps to know whichpronouns are singular. each,
everyone, somebody, anyone, andanybody are a few examples of
singular pronouns. don't befooled by what comes after the
pronoun.For example, each of the girls
picks flowers.the singular form of the verb isneeded because it belongs to thepronoun each, which is singular.
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
11/13
now, what dowe do when
the modifiersget lost?
we mustplace them
properly sotheir meaning
is clear. Whenanadjectiveormodifierisinthewrongspot,itcanmakeasentencesoundveryfunny!Hereis
anexample:Mariafoundapinkdog'scollar.Thi
ssentencemakesitsoundlikethereisapinkdogrunningaroundwithoutitscollar.If
wereplacethemodifier/adjective,
thenwecantellthatthecollarispink,notthedog.Mariafoundadog'spinkcollar.
how cute!
MisplacedModifier
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
12/13
A dangling modifier is a phrase orclause that is not clearly and logicallyrelated to theword or wordsitmodifies (i.e. is placednext to).
Unlike a misplaced modifier, a danglingmodifier cannot becorrected by simplymoving itto a different placeinasentence. Usually the danglingmodifierappears at thebeginning of thesentence, although it can also comeatthe end. Hereis an example sentence:Yawning from exhaustion, thegrapes dangled from her hand. Itseems like thegrapes are verytired, butwe that grapes don't yawn, sowho is
yawning?
Yawning fromexhaustion, she letthe grapesdangle fromher hand.
DanglingModifier it's difficult
to tell whois doing what
with adangling
modifier.
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8/3/2019 Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft
13/13
great! i thinkthis will
really helpanna.
AWESOME. DOYOU THINK I
SHOULD TELL THEVP TOO?
SURE, ASLONG AS I'MNOT THERE!
LOOKS LIKEWE DRANK ALLTHE WATER!!!
BACK TOWORK!