Quick Grammar Guidelines

·         The first letter of the first word in a sentence

·         When using the pronoun “I”

·         The names of people, places, organizations, and sometimes things. Remember when capitalizing proper nouns, you must capitalize the first letter of each word. See example on the side.

·         The names of Gods, religious figures, and holy books.

·         Titles preceding names but not following names.

·         The days of the weeks, the months of the year, and holidays but not seasons. Seasons are only capitalized when used in a title.

·         The names of countries, languages, and nationalities.

·         The first word in a sentence in a direct quote.

·         The major words in a title, article song, etc. Unless terms such as “for,” “the,” “an,” “in,” etc. are at the beginning of a given title, article, song, they remain UNCAPITALIZED.

·         Members of national, racial, political, social, civic, and athletic groups.

·         Trademarks are always capitalized.

·         Periods and events but not century numbers.

·         Shereen Ramadan à name

·         Paterson, New Jersey à place

·         World Trade Organization à organization

·         Jesus, Allah, God the Father, Muhammad, Moses, the Bible, the Quran.

·         Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey as opposed to Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey.

·         Sunday, Monday, September, February, August, Christmas, Easter, Ramadan, Eid al Adha, winter, summer, spring. I.e. Winter of 2015

·         Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Arabic. English, French

·         Shereen once said, “History is an important subject regardless of one’s major.”

·         Of Mice and Men, The Catcher in the Rye

·         African Americans, Democrats, New York Yankees, Japanese

·         Coca Cola, Puma, Coach, Michael Kors

·         Gilded Age, Bronze Age, Hellenistic Era, seventeenth century.

·         haven’t -à have not

·         aren’t à are not

·         I’m à I am

·         don’t à do not

Possessives:

·         their /they’re

·         your/you’re

·         Correct: I did not know which country I wanted to travel to, and I was too excited to decide.

·         Correct: Passaic County Community College offers many exciting majors such as early childhood education and criminal justice.

An adjective is a term that describes a noun or pronoun. A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea. A pronoun is a term that takes the place of a noun (i.e. he, she, I etc).

An adverb is a term that modifies verbs, adjectives, or others adverbs. A verb is a word used to describe an action, state, or an occurrence.

·         This is a cute kitten. In this example, the adjective “cute” precedes the noun “kitten.”

·         He looks hot. In this example, the adjective follows the pronoun “he. “

·         She speaks quickly. In this example, the adverb “quickly” describes the verb “speaks.” Notice that this example incorporates the pronoun “she” instead of a noun.

·         Sara is especially smart. In this example, the adverb “especially” modifies the adjective “smart.” Notice that this example incorporates the noun “Sara” instead of a pronoun.

A comma is placed before a conjunction (and, but, yet etc.) if you two independent clauses (meaning each sentence could stand alone). The same is true for the opposite situation.

A comma is used to separate three or more elements.

Use a comma after an introductory word group.

A comma is used in a quotation that is a complete sentence and that begins with a capitalized word.  However, a comma usually does not go before a quotation that is an integral part of a sentence.

·         Sara increased her running pace, but Jessica had already crossed the finish line. In this example, “Sara increased her running pace” could stand alone as a sentence. The same is true for the second part of this example.

·         Sara ran the race but missed the finish line.

In this example, “missed the finish line” is not a complete sentence or clause and omitting it would take the central idea away from the sentence. Therefore, a comma cannot be used before the conjunction in this example.

·         Correct use: I have a choice of chicken, beef, and pork.

·         Incorrect use: I have a choice of chicken, beef and pork.

·         After reading the paper, the instructor turned bright red.  In this example, “After reading the paper” is the introductory word group in which the comma comes after.

·         Sara stated, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

·         Sara stated “she had no idea what Jessica was talking about.”

I.        Plural Nouns vs. Plural Possessive Nouns

·         Correct: Sara was born in Clifton; she moved to Paterson when she was three.

·         The kittens are mine. This sentence is an example that uses the plural noun “kittens.” 

·         The kittens’ claws are long. This sentence is an example that uses a plural possessive noun. This example takes a noun that is ALREADY plural and shows possession.

·         The children are wonderful. This example uses a plural noun that DOES NOT end with –s. Therefore, when converting to a plural possessive noun, the apostrophe is placed between the word and the –s and not after the –s as we have seen above. Take a look at the example below:

·         The children’s coats are adorable. Notice that although the plural noun shows possession, the noun itself does not regularly end with –s.