Grammar Lecture

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Grammar Lecture
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Spectrum of Punctuation
Weakest
Strongest
, . !
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Thumb Rule (AKA That vs. Which)

• Hang in with me here.
• That and which are used to introduce phrases.
• There are two kinds of phrases you need to know
  about. See the next slide.

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Restrictive Phrases

• A restrictive phrase restricts the meaning of the
  sentence it is a part of. These never have
  commas.
• The dog that had three legs won the race.
• Had three legs restricts the meaning of dog to
  one very specific dog.

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Non-restrictive Phrases

• Non-restrictive phrases provide information that
  is nice to have, but dont fundamentally change
  the meaning of the sentence. They are surrounded
  by commas.
• Ex The dog, which had the long coat, won the
  race.

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Choosing That vs. Which

• As you may have noticed from the examples
• That begins restrictive phrases.
• Which begins non-restrictive phrases.

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How do I tell the difference?

• Restrictive phrases provide information that is
  vital to the sentence. Non-restrictive phrases
  provide info that is nice to have, but not
  necessary.
• To tell the difference, use

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Eatons Thumb Rule

• Stick your thumb over the phrase you wonder
  about.
• If the sentence is fundamentally different, the
  phrase is restrictive. Begin the phrase with
  that.
• If the sentence is pretty much the same, but
  missing some descriptive info, its
  non-restrictive. Begin the phrase with which and
  put commas around it.

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Lets try it.

• The sound system ____ had purple speakers blasted
  music through the fraternity party.
• The sound system ____had 2000 Watt speakers
  blasted music through the fraternity party.

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The Oxford or Serial Comma
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Lists

• There are two grammatically correct ways to
  punctuate lists in sentences.
• The items are a, b, and c.
• or
• The items are a, b and c.

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Id argue that one is superior.

• How many departments are in this sentence?
• Weve received budgets from Finance, Sales,
  Public Relations, Research and Development.

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If you always use a, b, and c . .

• theres no ambiguity.
• Weve received budgets from Finance, Sales,
  Public Relations, Research, and Development.

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The Semicolon
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The Semi-Colon

• Two ways to use this one.
• To combine sentences.
• To separate items with internal commas in a list.

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To combine sentences using a semi-colon

• Rules
• The statements on both sides of the semi-colon
  must be independent clauses (sentences).
• The second statement is not capitalized.

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Suggestion 1 for using a semi-colon.

• Generally, you want both sentences to be of equal
  weightessentially, they should be the
  approximately the same length.
• Joe Shmoe is a junior taking five classes and
  majoring in technical communication at Texas Tech
  in Lubbock, Texas he likes it.

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Suggestion 2 for using a semi-colon.

• Also, the second sentence should be related to
  the first.
• Joe Schmoe is a student at Texas Tech University
  Dr. Eaton has a puppy.

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So, to change the rhythm of a paragraph

• You can combine sentences with a semi-colon if
  you follow the previous rules.
• Ex The instructor tailored the lecture to fit
  the skills of her new students because it was
  late, she had trouble thinking of interesting
  examples.

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Punctuating List Items with Internal Commas

• First, let me show you what Im talking about.

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How many people are in this sentence?

• Jeff Laster, the CEO, Shukriye Khamin, the head
  of IT, An Jingle, and the VP of Sales were in the
  meeting.

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Could be 4, could be 6.

• Jeff Laster, the CEO Shukriye Khamin, the head
  of IT An Jingle and the VP of Sales were in the
  meeting.
• Jeff Laster the CEO Shukriye Khamin the head
  of IT An Jingle and the VP of Sales were in the
  meeting.

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When to Use the Semi-colon

• So, instead of commas, use a semi-colon when list
  items have internal commas.
• The only rule is that once you being using
  semi-colons to separate items, they ALL must be
  separated by semi-colonseven if they dont have
  an internal comma.

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Lets look at that again.

• Jeff Laster the CEO Shukriye Khamin, the head
  of IT An Jingle and the VP of Sales were in the
  meeting.

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The Colon

• Introduces lists or interesting sections within a
  sentence.
• Three topics will be discussed the colon, the
  semicolon, and the restrictive phrase.

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Most important rule

• What comes before the colon has to be a complete
  sentence (an independent clause).

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Practice of Major Rule

• The three causes of the problem are high student
  enrollments, lack of parking spaces, and lack of
  time between class periods.

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Major Rule

• The three causes of the problem are high student
  enrollments, lack of parking spaces, and lack of
  time between class periods.
• Wrong! The three causes of the problem are is
  not a complete sentence.

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Examplecorrect or not?

• After graduation, I will move to San Antonio,
  New York, or San Francisco.

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Example of the rule in use

• After graduation, I will move to San Antonio,
  New York, or San Francisco.
• Wrong! After graduation, I will move to is not
  a complete sentence.

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Neat Use

• You can have an entire sentence after a colon.
• Any organization is confronted with two separate,
  though related, information problems It must
  maintain an effective internal communication
  system, and it must see that an effective
  external communication system is maintained.

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• With full sentences after colons, capitalize the
  first letter if the sentence is formal or
  complete.
• If the item after the colon is not a full
  sentence or very formal, use lower case.

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Neat Use

• Introduce quotations
• My grandfather had a favorite saying Money is
  always the right color and it always fits.
• Introduce small elements for impact
• There is only one thing that will satisfy Mr.
  Sturgess our finished report.

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• If the list after the colon is numbered,
  bulleted, or formatted separately, you can skip
  the complete sentence before the colon.

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