Heinles Brief Writers Handbook

2008 12

I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.

I. (Punctuation)
, , ,
, .
1. Apostrophe ()
z + s (); Johns iphone,
his fathers house
z : Anne and
Jims book () Annes and Jims books ()
z : Ill = I will, Hes = He is, Youre = You are
2. Brackets []
z He said, This is good time meaning today
for us to go hiking.
z

3 . He

said, This is good time to go hiking.

3. Colon (:)
z 13:00
z () My
father likes to do many kinds of exercises: Hiking, playing tennis, playing
golf, swimming, and so on.
z Dear Mr. Brown:
4. Comma (,)
z January 21, 2009; 15 Hunter Street, Columbia, SN
z

10235
After studying for 3 hours, I went to bed

z
z

immediately last night.

I like to eat noodle, pizza, rice, and salad.
Mr. Lee, my neighbor, had a car

accident. Rebecca, who just passed by, is my best friend.

z Dear Mary, Sincerely yours,
5. Dash ()
z
This hospital offers several special courses
onsleeping problems, losing weight, and healthy eatingas well as a
wide variety of doing exercises to make more money.
6. Exclamation Point (!)
z Shut up! Sit down!

7. Hyphen (-)
z mother-in-low, thirty-one
8. Parentheses ( )
z I told her about your story in
details (such as when and how did you do it).
9. Period (.)
z () - We
love to go shopping on weekends.
z Mr. etc. P.M. i.e.
10. Question Mark (?)
z What did you do?

When

did you go to bed yesterday? Do you like my supper?

11. - Quotation Marks ( )
z My father said
Michael, you have to go to bed now.

My favorite Chinese dish

is Fried dumping.
12. Semicolon (;)
z ( such as, and, but, or, nor for)
Some people like pop music; some people dont.
z Some people like Jazz
music; however, other people dislike it very much.
13. Slash (/)
z and/or
z 12/31/2008
II. (Capitalization)
, ,
, , (//
), .
:
z Gone with the Wind.
z () Jackie Chan, Central Park, United States,
z

UK
() Internal Affair Department, AT&T,
UN

Tuesday, Saturday, January, Christmas, New Year

z
z

Holidays
Bible, Muslim
the World War II, Declaration of Independence

III. (Italicization)
1. Is this really your first time in the United
States?
2. New York TimesNewsweekTitanic (movie)
3. The first four phonics in Chinese are bo,
po, mo, fo.
4. E = mc2
IV.
Accept

Except ..

Advice ()

Advise ()

Affect ()

Effect ()

Already

All ready ok

Altogether ()

All together ()

Amoral

Immoral

Angel

Angle

Assistance

Assistant

Breath

Breathe

Capital

Capitol

Clothes

Cloth

Complement

Compliment

Conscience

Conscious

Council

Counsel

Diary

Dairy

Decent

Descent

Dissent

Desert

Dessert

Discreet

Discrete

Dyeing

Dying

Elicit

Illicit

Emigrate ()

Immigrate ()

Envelop

Envelope

Fair

Fare

Fine

Find

Formerly

Formally

Human ()

Humane

Later

Latter

Lessen

Lesson

Miner

Minor

Peace

Piece

Personal

Personnel

Plain

Plane

Principle

Principal

Raise /

Rise

Stationary

Stationery

Marital

Martial

Believe

Belief

V. Conjunctions
,, ,
.

1. (Coordinating Conjunctions) 2
: and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet
z
z
z

Michael and John

We have pride but money.
You can give me a hand, or you can ask someone to help me with this
work.
z She was late for work today, for she got a cold yesterday.
2. (Correlative Conjunctions) 2
: both and, either or, neithernor, not onlybut also,
whetheror
z Neither you nor I can do this job alone.
z Jane not only got married last month, but she also got pregnant
immediately.
3. (Subordinating Conjunctions)
: If I were you, I wouldnt give up on her.
:
After

If

Though (Although)

Inasmuch as

Till (Until)

As if (As though)

In case

Unless

Lest

As soon as

When (Whenever)

Now that

Because

Since

Once

Where(Wherever)

So that

Whether

Even though

While

How

Than

Why

No matter how

Provided that

Before

4. (Conjunctive Adverbs):
() However, instead (
)
z
z

She wanted to buy a new car; however, she didnt have enough money.
She didnt go to work; instead, she went shopping.

Also

However

Next

Anyhow

Incidentally

Otherwise

Anyway

Indeed

Similarly

Besides

Instead

Still

Consequently

Likewise

Then

Finally

Meanwhile

Therefore

Furthermore

Moreover

Hence

Nevertheless

Thus

5. Transition phrases
()
z
z

Betty needs to study for her tomorrow test. On the other hand, she
doesnt want to miss her favorite TV program tonight.
Jessica stayed up all night studying. As a result, she overslept and
missed her test this morning.

After all

By the way

In fact

As a result

Even so

In other words

At any rate

For example (For instance)

On the contrary

At the same time

In addition

On the other hand

VI.

He was born in February. , He went into the car.

, The ball is on the table. , She usually goes to
movies with her friends. .
(in, on, with )(
)+

According to

By way of (By means of)

In spite of

Along with

Due to

Instead of

Apart from

Except for

On account of

Because of

As for

In addition to

Out of

As regards

In case of

In front of

As to

In lieu of

With regard to

With respect to

By reason of

In regard to

With the exception of

Because of the rain, we cancelled today gathering.

As to my points of view, I would say the result is not promising.

(phrasal verbs)

()
Add up

Open up

Burn out

Come around

Come along

Hear me out

Go ahead

Get by

Get on

Pull over

Listen up

Shut up

Miss out

Make over

Watch out

VII.
(), ()
, , :
.
:
(1) + (be) - I am.

We cried.
(2) + + (-) She is a good

student. You look pale. The book is on the table.

(3) + + () I am playing
baseball. She hate eating meat. You like to do your homework after mid-night.
(4) + () + + ( + +
) I lent my sister some money. She bought a Christmas gift for her
parents. (: give, send, mail. Make, buy, cook, ask)
(5) + (think, believe, find, keep call, want, leave, consider, regard) +
+ () I find this job time-consuming. Can you leave me
alone?

She regards this problem serious.

(agreement)

agr

He go to work at 9:00 in the morning.

(capital letters)

cap

The united kingdom

Frag

Where she found the key.

(sentence fragment)

gr

Its the bigger car in this area.

(lower case)

lc

I dont like Peanut Butter.

Where did you find the key.

(punctuation error)
(plural)

pl

She bought the grocery on her way home.

(spelling)

sp

Did you have any stationary?

(wrong

I see her the other day.

tense)
(wrong

ww

My sister used to rise rice and wheat.

word)

:
? ()

! E-Mail: smp360@ymail.com
150


Chapter I Basic Grammar Guidelines
Sentence completeness?
Common English writing mistakes
Articles
Punctuations

Chapter II How to Strengthen Your

Sentence?
Transform vocabulary into meaningful
phrases
Sentence structures

Four basic English sentence structures

Five different ways to diversify your
sentence structure

Chapter III Paragraph Writing Introduction

- What is a paragraph?

How to form a topic sentence?

Supporting idea sentences

Chapter IV English Composition Writing

Brainstorming practices
Four Major English Writing Models

Narrative Writing
Descriptive Writing
Expository Writing
Persuasive Writing

Chapter V A Brief Introduction to English

Essay Writing
Locate overall writing directions
How to start an introductory
paragraph
How to build it up with body
paragraphs
How to give it an end as a concluding
paragraph
Chapter VI A Brief Introduction to
Some Problem Words and Phrases
Appendix Connectors