Grammar Challenge:

(Learning Objective 1: Incorporate writing skills in more detailed compositions.)

Here are three grammar tips you need to know!!!!!

1 No "YOU"! Don't use 2nd person pronouns such as you, your, yours, yourself, or yourselves. These are informal and not to be used in scholarly, formal essays. INSTEAD, decide to go with either 1st person ( I, me, my, myself) or 3rd person (we, our, us, ours, ourselves).

EXAMPLE: Instead of "You should check yourself for testicular cancer," which makes the female readers say "Uh, no," it would be better to say, "We men should check ourselves for testicular cancer. We as a society should learn more about the prevention of testicular cancer."

2. Make pronouns agree! Remember this math: A doesn't equal they.

EXAMPLE of wrong: A person will be happy when they get a check-up. A person is singular and doesn't agree in number with they, which is plural.

EXAMPLE of right: People will be happy when they get a check-up. (Both people and they are plural.)

3. Check every "and"!! Avoid losing points for RUN ON sentences which are joined by "and." If there is a subject and verb on the left side of "and" followed by a subject and verb making a complete thought on the right side of your "and," then you MUST HAVE A COMMA!

WRONG: We girls went to town for pizza and the guys picked up some ice cold beer and a movie.

RIGHT: We girls went to town for pizza, and the guys picked up some ice cold beer and a movie.

Note: The "and" in front of "a movie" doesn't have a complete sentence to the right, so no comma is needed!

THIS rule ALSO HOLDS TRUE FOR OTHER CONJUNCTIONS, INCLUDING but, for, nor, yet, and so.

You may want to use the "FIND" feature on the computer to help you proofread and find all the "ands."

These three errors will cost you -5 points each on the Final Research Paper!!!!!!