Grammar Assignment 3 Capitalization, Commas in a Series, and .docx

Grammar Assignment 3: Capitalization, Commas in a Series,
and Parallelism
Introduction to Assignment
: This assignment contains a number of sections. Each section
contains a reading followed by a practice exercise. To complete
the assignment, you need to respond to all the practice exercises
in the assignment.
Directions
: Type out the answers to all the practice exercises on a separate
sheet of paper. This sheet of paper or document will be known
as the “Answer Sheet for Grammar Assignment 3” Be sure to
number your answer sheet in the same way the practice
exercises are numbered. For this assignment, your answer sheet
should be numbered from 1 through 36. Also, be aware that for
some of the practice exercises you have to rewrite the sentences
to complete the practice, and for some of the practice exercise
you do not have to rewrite the sentences to complete the
practice.
Where and How to Submit Assignment
: When you complete the assignment, you will submit it either
by uploading it as an attachment or by cutting and pasting the
assignment from your word processing program into the
textbox. Both of these options appear at the bottom of the
assignment page. If you cut and paste your assignment into the
textbox, be sure to do so by choosing the option to “Paste from
Word.” Using this option will maintain your original
formatting. To access the “Paste from Word” option, click on
the three dots that appear in the box in the far right hand corner
of the textbox. After you do this, several more buttons should
appear. Once these buttons appear, click on the arrow beside the
picture of the clipboard in order to see the option “Paste from

Word.” Click on this option and follow the directions provided.
If you send the assignment as an attachment, name the
attachment in the following way: GA3LastName. For example,
if I were submitting the assignment as an attachment, I would
name the attachment GA3Tolbert.
If you submit the exercise as an attachment, be sure to save it
and attach it as a Rich Text Format (RTF) since the majority of
computers can open an RTF attachment.
If you submit an assignment as an attachment that my computer
will not open, I will return the assignment to you ungraded. The
assignment will remain ungraded until you submit it in a form
my computer will open
.
When to Submit Your Assignment:
Grammar Assignment 3 is due by 11:59 Eastern Standard Time
on
Sunday, November 9, 2014.
How to Format Assignmen
t:
Title
: Center the following information at the top of the completed
exercise:
Answer Sheet for Grammar Assignment 3
Font
: 12pt Times New Roman
Spacing
: Double Spacing
If you have any questions about how to do Grammar
Assignment 3 or how to submit it, be sure to let me know.
Section 1: Capitalization [The following information is taken
from pp. 79-85 of
Writing for Success

]
Text messages, casual e-mails, and instant messages often
ignore the rules ofcapitalization. In fact, it can seem
unnecessary to capitalize in these contexts. In other, more
formal forms of communication, however, knowing the basic
rules of capitalization and using capitalization correctly gives
the reader the impression that you choose your words carefully
and care about the ideas you are conveying.
Capitalize the First Word of a Sentence
Incorrect:
t
he museum has a new butterfly exhibit.
Correct:
T
he museum has a new butterfly exhibit.
Incorrect:
c
ooking can be therapeutic.
Correct
:
C
ooking can be therapeutic.
Capitalize Proper Nouns
Proper nouns—the names of specific people, places, objects,
streets, buildings, events, or titles of individuals—are always
capitalized.
Incorrect:
He grew up in
h
arlem,
n
ew
y

ork.
Correct:
He grew up in
H
arlem,
N
ew
Y
ork.
Incorrect
: The
s
ears
t
ower in
c
hicago has a new name.
Correct
: The
S
ears
T
ower in
C
hicago has a new name.
Tip
Always capitalize nationalities, races, languages, and religions.
For example, American, African American, Hispanic, Catholic,
Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and so on.
Do not capitalize nouns for people, places, things, streets,
buildings, events, and titles when the noun is used in general or
common way. See the following chart for the difference
between proper nouns and common nouns.
Common Nouns
Proper Nouns

museum
The Art Institute of Chicago
theater
Apollo Theater
country
Malaysia
uncle
Uncle Javier
doctor
Dr. Jackson
book
Pride and Prejudice
college
Smith College
war
the Spanish American War (“the” is not capitalized because it is
not part of the official name of this particular war)
historical event
The Renaissance (“The” is capitalized because it is part of the
official name of this particular historical event.)
Capitalizing Family Relationships
Terms that describe family relationships such as “mother,”
“father,” “aunt,” “uncle,” etc. should be capitalized if they are
used in place of a person’s name or as part of a person’s name.
Example 1
: The principal asked Mother to be a chaperone for the field
trip.
Example 2
: We visited Uncle Leo last August.
HOWEVER
Terms that describe family relationships should not be
capitalized if a possessive pronoun such as “my,” “our,” “your,”
“his,” “her,” “their” or an article such as “an,” “a,” “the” comes
before the term.
Example 1

: My mother is taller than my father.
Example 2
: Aunt Geraldine is one of my favorite aunts.
Capitalizing Geographical Directions
Do not capitalize words such as “north,” “south,” “east,” “west”
when these words are used as common nouns to refer to
directions.
Example 1
: The storm front moved into the city from the west.
Example 2
: Angrily, Michael realized that he was driving north when he
should have been driving south.
HOWEVER
Do capitalize words such as “north,” “south,” “east,” “west”
when the words are used as proper nouns to refer to specific
geographical locations.
Example 1:
At the end of the Civil War, the South surrendered to the
North.
Example 2
: The West Coast includes the coastlines of Washington,
Oregon, and California.
Capitalize Days of the Week, Months of the Year, and Holidays
Incorrect
: On
w
ednesday, I will be traveling to Austin for a music festival.
Correct:
On
W
ednesday, I will be traveling to Austin for a music festival.
Incorrect:
The
f

outh of
j
uly is my favorite holiday.
Correct:
The
F
ourth of
J
uly is my favorite holiday.
Capitalize Titles
Incorrect:
The play
f
ences by August Wilson is one of my favorites.
Correct:
The play
F
ences by August Wilson is one of my favorites.
Incorrect:
The
p
reside of the
u
nited
s
tates will be speaking at my university.
Correct:
The
P
resident of the
U
nited
S
tates will be speaking at my university.
NOTE:

Articles (“a,” “an,” “the”) and prepositions in a title are not
capitalized unless they are the first word of the title.
To Kill a Mockingbird
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Great Gatsby
Tip
Computer-related words such as “Internet” and “World Wide
Web” are usually capitalized; however, “e-mail” and “online”
are never capitalized.
Practice 1: On your answer sheet, correct the errors in
capitalization in the following sentences. Be aware some words
are capitalized that should not be capitalized, and some words
are not capitalized that should be capitalized. You
will need
to rewrite the sentences to complete this practice.
1. The prince of England enjoys playing polo.
2. “Ode to a nightingale” is a sad poem.
3. My sister loves to read magazines such as the new yorker.
4. To get to the restaurant, you need to drive West for four
miles on hamilton avenue and then turn on to Richlands
parkway and drive south for two miles.
5.
The
house on Mango street
is an excellent Novel written by sandra cisneros.
6. My Father was very angry when he saw his new lexus had a
bent fender.
7. My physician, dr. alvarez, always makes me feel comfortable
in her office.
8. david grann’s book
the lost City of Z

imitates the Snake-like winding of the amazon river.
9. There are three distinct Stories that are like twists in the
amazon.
10. In the Book, the Author describes his journey to the
amazon.
Section 2: Section 2: Commas with items in a series [The
following information about commas with items in a series is
taken from p. 107 of
Writing for Success
. For additional information about using commas in a series,
view
Lecture 1 in Module 4
:
Accuracy in Punctuation and Mechanics
located under the
Modules
tab in the
Course Resources
area of the course site.]
When you want to list several nouns in a sentence, you separate
each word with a comma. This allows the reader to pause after
each item and identify which words are included in the
grouping. When you list items in a sentence, put a comma after
each noun, then add the word
and
before the last item. However, you do not need to include a
comma after the last item.
Examples:
We’ll need to get flour
,
tomatoes
,

and cheese at the store.
The pizza will be topped with olives
,
peppers
,
and pineapple chunks
NOTE
: If there are only two items in the list, then you do not need a
comma before and.
Examples:
Mary went to the store to buy
apples and oranges
. [Since there are only two items in the list, you do not need a
comma after apples]
Howard wanted only
pepperoni and mushrooms
on his pizza. [Since there are only two items in the list, you do
not need a comma after pepperoni.]
Practice 2: On your answer sheet, place commas in the
following sentences where needed. One of the sentences is
correct. For the sentence that is correct, type a C after its
number. You will need to rewrite the sentences to correct this
practice.
11. Sarah had to go to the store study for her chemistry final
and clean up the kitchen.
12. Tuesday was an uneventful and an unproductive day.
13. We will need to prepare bank statements for the Franks the
Todds and the Smiths.
14. Shaking hands kissing babies and giving speeches are tasks
that all politicians must do.
15. Michael can talk write and sing in six languages.
16. Mondays Tuesdays and Wednesdays are much busier for me

than Thursdays and Fridays.
Section 3: Parallelism in lists [The following information about
parallelism in lists is taken from pp. 273-275 of
Writing for Success
. For additional information about parallelism in lists, view
Lecture 4 in Module 3: Accuracy in Modifiers
located under the
Modules
tab in the
Course Resources
area of the course site.]
Parallelism is the use of similar structure in related words,
clauses, or phrases. It creates a sense of rhythm and balance
within a sentence. As readers, we often correct faulty
parallelism—a lack of parallel structure—intuitively because an
unbalanced sentence sounds awkward and poorly constructed.
Read the following sentences aloud:
Faulty parallelism:
Kelly had to iron, do the washing, and shopping before her
parents arrived.
Faulty parallelism:
Driving a car requires coordination, patience, and to have good
eyesight.
Faulty parallelism:
Ali prefers jeans to wearing a suit.
All of these sentences contain faulty parallelism. Although they
are factually correct, the construction is clunky and confusing.
In the first example, three different verb forms are used. In the
second and third examples, the writer begins each sentence by
using a noun (
coordination
,
jeans

), but ends with a phrase (
to have good eyesight
,
wearing a suit.
Now read the same three sentences that have correct
parallelism.
Correct parallelism:
Kelly had to do the ironing, washing, and shopping before her
parents arrived.
Driving a car requires coordination, patience, and good
eyesight.
Ali prefers wearing jeans to wearing a suit.
When these sentences are written using a parallel structure, they
sound more aesthetically pleasing because they are balanced.
Repetition of grammatical construction also minimizes the
amount of work the reader has to do to decode the sentence.
This enables the reader to focus on the main idea in the
sentence and not on how the sentence is put together.
Tip
A simple way to check for parallelism in your writing is to
make sure you have paired nouns with nouns, verbs with verbs,
prepositional phrases with prepositional phrases, and so on.
Underline each element in a sentence and check that the
corresponding element uses the same grammatical form.
Creating Parallelism Using Coordinating Conjunctions
When you connect two clauses using a coordinating conjunction
(
for
,
and
,
nor
,

but
,
or
,
yet
,
so
), make sure that the same grammatical structure is used on each
side of the conjunction. Take a look at the following example:
Faulty parallelism:
When I walk the dog, I like
to listen to music
and
talking to friends
on the phone.
When I walk the dog, I like
listening to music
and
talking to friends
on the phone.
The first sentence uses two different verb forms (
to listen
,
talking
). In the second sentence, the grammatical construction on each
side of the coordinating conjunction (
and
) is the same, creating a parallel sentence.
The same technique should be used for joining items or lists in
a series:
Faulty parallelism:

This committee needs to decide whether the company should
reduce its workforce, cut its benefits,
or
lowering workers’ wages
.
This committee needs to decide whether the company should
reduce its workforce, cut its benefits,
or
lower workers’ wages
.
The first sentence contains two items that use the same verb
construction (
reduce
,
cut
) and a third item that uses a different verb form (
lowering
). The second sentence uses the same verb construction in all
three items, creating a parallel structure.
Practice 3: On your answer sheet, correct the errors in
parallelism in the following sentences. All the sentences need to
be corrected. You
will need
to rewrite the sentences to complete this practice.
17. Mr. Halloway enjoys reading and to play his guitar.
18. Breaking out of the prison compound, the escapees moved
carefully, quietly, and they were quick.
19. I have read the book, seen the play, and I have watched the
movie.
20. The doctor told Mrs. Franklin to eat healthier, exercise
more, and that she should get more sleep.
21. A completely full in-box the first thing in the morning can
be frustrating, time-consuming, and it can annoy you.

Section 4: Parallelism with comparisons [The following
information about parallelism in comparisons is taken from pp.
275-276 in
Writing for Success
.]
When you are making a comparison, the two items being
compared should have a parallel structure. Comparing two items
without using parallel structure can lead to confusion about
what is being compared. Comparisons frequently use the words
than
or
as
, and the items on each side of these comparison words should
be parallel. Take a look at the following example:
Faulty parallelism: Swimming in the ocean
is much tougher than
a pool
.
Correct parallelism: Swimming in the ocean
is much tougher than
swimming in a pool
.
In the first sentence, the elements before the comparison word (
than
) are not equal to the elements after the comparison word. It
appears that the writer is comparing an action (
swimming
) with a noun (
a pool
). In the second sentence, the writer uses the same grammatical
construction to create a parallel structure. This clarifies that an
action is being compared with another action.
To correct some instances of faulty parallelism, it may be
necessary to add or delete words in a sentence.
Faulty parallelism: A brisk walk

is as beneficial to your health as
going for a run
.
Correct parallelism: Going for a brisk walk
is as beneficial to your health as
going for a run
.
In this example, it is necessary to add the verb phrase
going for
to the sentence in order to clarify that the act of walking is
being compared to the act of running.
...

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