| A | B |
|---|
| Antonym | This is a word or phrase that means the opposite of another word or phrase. |
| Apostrophe | This is used to show the possessive form of a noun and is used to show that a letter or letters have been left out of a contraction. |
| Appositive | This is a word or phrase that identifies or explains the noun that it follows. |
| Capitalization | This is the use of letters to indicate proper nouns or the beginning of a sentence. |
| Clause | This is a group of words that has a subject and a predicate. It can be dependent or independent. |
| Colon | This is a punctuation mark used before a list of items or details, before a statement that summarizes the original statement, before a long, formal quotation or statement, or in a business letter after the salutation. |
| Comma | This is a punctuation mark that may be used to indicate a pause, connection, separation, list or for clarity or to show importance. |
| Comma Splice | This results when two or more independent clauses are joined by a comma without a coordinating conjunction. |
| Conjunctive Adverb | This may be used with a semicolon to connect independent clauses and usually serves as a transition between the clauses. |
| Contraction | This is a word formed by combining two words and adding an apostrophe where the letters are omitted. |
| Conventions | In writing, this is the trait to measure standard writing and the editing processes of spelling, punctuation, grammar, capitalization, and paraphrasing. |
| Ellipsis Mark | This, three spaced periods, is used to indicate that a word or words have been deleted from a direct quote. |
| Gender | Traditionally, this has been used primarily to refer to the grammatical categories of ‘masculine,’ ‘feminine,’ and ‘neuter.’ |
| Gerund | This is a verb form ending in -ing that functions as a noun. |
| Grammar | This is the structure of language and the rules that go with it. |
| Hyphen | This is a punctuation mark used to divide or to compound words or elements. |
| Indefinite Pronoun | This takes the place of a noun and refers to nonspecific persons or things. |
| Independent Clause | This is a group of words that states the main thought of a sentence and is complete within itself. |
| Infinitive | This is always in the form of ’to’ + a verb-like word. This verbal unit in a sentence actually acts as a noun, adjective, or adverb, rather than a verb. |
| Object | This is never the subject, but always a noun, in a sentence it can be either direct or indirect. |
| Paragraph | This is a section in a piece of writing that discusses a particular point or topic. It always begins with a new line, usually with indentation. |
| Phrase | This is a group of words used as a single part of speech without a subject and verb. |
| Plural | This indicates more than one person, place, thing, or idea. |
| Possessive Pronoun | This is a word that takes the place of noun and shows ownership. |
| Pronoun | This is a word that takes the place of a noun. |
| Punctuation | This is the system of standardized marks in written language to clarify meaning. |
| Quotation Marks | These are used to enclose direct quotations and to designate titles of short works (like newspaper and magazine articles, poems, short stories, songs, episodes of television and radio programs, and subdivisions of books or web sites). |
| Run-on Sentence | This results when independent clauses have not been joined correctly. |
| Semicolon | This is a punctuation mark that is used between clauses of a compound sentence when a conjunction is not used, before conjunctive adverbs that join independent clauses, and in a series when the series already contains commas. |
| Sentence Fragment | This is a group of words that does not have both a subject and a verb and cannot stand alone. |
| Simple Sentence | This is an independent clause with no subordinate clauses. |
| Subject Verb Agreement | This is a rule that both the subject and verb must be the same in number. |
| Subordinate Clause | This is also known as a dependent clause. While it may contain a subject and verb and sometimes objects or complements, it cannot stand alone as it conveys an incomplete thought. It usually functions as an adjective, adverb or noun within a complete sentence. |
| Synonym | This is a word or phrase that has the same or almost the same meaning as another word or phrase. |
| Syntax | This refers to the ordering of elements in a sentence. |
| Tense Shift | This is when a passage begins as happening in one particular time and then goes to another time without warning and for no reason. |
| Verb | This is a word that denotes action, occurrence or existence. |
| Verb Tense | This indicates the time of the action or state of being. |
| Word Choice | This is another way of saying ’diction.’ This can help reveal a) the tone of the work, b) connotations of meaning, and/or c) his style of writing. |
