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As the name implies, an introductory clause is a dependent clause at the beginning of a sentence. The preceding sentence, in fact, contained such a clause. Use commas to separate introductory clauses and certain phrases from independent clauses. Introductory phrases of more than five words or phrases containing verbal elements also require commas. Dependent clause openers include:WhenIfAsAlthoughBecauseAfterThoughDuringBeforeWhile Some examples are: "As expected, she could not turn in the homework on time." "In the fall of last year, we held a family reunion." (use a comma after a phrase containing five or more words) "To decide, they held a

Use adverbs, not adjectives, to describe the action of verbs. "He did well on the test." (not "good") "She completed her tasks more quickly than expected." (not "quicker") A note on "well" versus "good," though. You should always use "well" when referring to health ("she looks well") and "good" when referring to emotion ("she didn't feel good about the exam").

When are we supposed to use hyphens? One way is to pull adjectives together. Hyphenate two or more adjectives that are joined to create a compound modifier before a noun. Examples include:Step-by-stepWell-designed Note that when you have several adjectives that are NOT joined, you would use commas to separate them like normal instead. How to tell if the adjectives are joined? See if each adjective can "survive" in the sentence without the other. If a "well-designed" laptop suddenly became a "well" laptop--doesn't make too much sense, does it?

Pronouns come in subjective, objective, and possessive forms (there are more, but these are the three we shall focus on). We seem to understand this until we want to use the word "who." Recall that a subjective pronoun is the subject of a sentence (naturally), whereas an objective pronoun is the thing receiving the verb/action ("she passed the salt to me"--where "she" is the subjective pronoun and "me" is the objective pronoun). A list of such pronouns would look something like this:I (subjective), me (objective), my/mine (possessive)We (subjective), us (objective), our/ours (possessive)You (subjective AND objective), yours (possessive)He/She

Have you ever thought about how redundantly we speak in every day conversation? Sometimes this passes into our writing. For graduates especially, we are unfortunately trained to add extra "padding" into our text to reach a desired word count. Word redundancies (known as pleonasms and sometimes given the nickname of "baby puppies") are one such way. Here is a list highlighting such phrases--avoid using these at all costs:advance warningalter or changeassemble togetherbasic fundamentalscollect togetherconsensus of opinioncontributing factordollar amounteach and everyend resultexactly identicalfew in numberfree and cleargrateful thanksgreat majo

Why are these important when proofreading? It's knowing when to use a singular or a plural verb. The "indefinite" part of these pronouns refers to the fact that the subject is undefined. Many writers fall into the grammar trap by assuming that because the pronoun is referencing multiple entities, it requires a plural verb. Often it just "won't sound right" otherwise. But when these entities are referred to as a collective, a singular verb is the word you'll want to use. Examples of singular verb indefinite pronouns include:AnyoneAnybodyAnythingEachEitherEveryEveryoneEverybodyEverythingNeitherNobodyNothingSomeoneSomebodySomething Here are some

...Wow, that's a mouthful! These suckers are used to attach two independent clauses as one single sentence. Many people have confusion about when to use commas, semicolons, and colons. Semicolon conjunctive adverbs are helpful to emphasize the relationship between two thoughts (as opposed to separate sentences). Here is a list of words commonly used for this:ConsequentlyFurthermoreHoweverThereforeThenThusAdditionallySimilarlySubsequently Some examples in sentences include: "She arrived to school late; consequently, the teacher did not accept her homework." "Man could not overcome the demon army; thus, the age of darkness was born." "He forgot