Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft

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?


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.


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?


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.


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!


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!


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.


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!


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.


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.


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


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.


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!

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Grammar Graphic Novel Handout Draft