Content Writing

Course
Module1:
CREATING GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT & SOUND CONTENT
Basic Parts of Speech

 NOUN: Name of a person, place, thing, or idea.

 Examples: man... Butte College... house... happiness
 PRONOUN: A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.
 Examples: She... we... they... it
 VERB: A verb expresses action or being.
 Examples: jump... is... write... become
 ADJECTIVE: An adjective modifies or describes a noun or pronoun.
 Examples: pretty... old... blue... smart
 ADVERB: An adverb modifies or describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
 Examples: gently... extremely... carefully... well
 PREPOSITION: A preposition is a word placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase modifying another word in the sentence.
 Examples: by... with.... about... until
 CONJUNCTION: A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses.
 Examples: and... but... or... while... because
 INTERJECTION: An interjection is a word used to express emotion.
 Examples: Oh!... Wow!... Oops!
Writing in Active & Passive Voice

 Active voice means that a sentence has a subject that acts upon its verb. 

 Passive voice means that a subject is a recipient of a verb’s action. 

Active Voice

 Sentences in the active voice have a strong, direct, and clear tone. Here are some
short and straightforward examples of active voice.
 The active voice is easy to identify in writing because it follows a simple form,
which is the basis of English grammar:
 Subject (doer) → Verb → Object (recipient)

 Examples:
 Monkeys adore bananas.
 The cashier counted the money.
 The dog chased the squirrel.
Passive Voice

 The passive voice is basically the opposite of the active voice: it’s when the subject is
acted upon by the object. In other words, the subject receives the action, and the
object does the action.
 The passive voice is a little trickier to identify, as it uses more words than the active
voice. The basic structure is as follows:
 Subject (recipient) → Verb (past participle of "to be" form) → Object (doer)
 Note that the object here is always preceded by the word "by.“
 Examples:
 Bananas are adored by monkeys.
 The money was counted by the cashier.
 The squirrel was chased by the dog.
Singular and Plural

 Regular nouns
 Most singular nouns form the plural by adding -s.

Examples
Singular Plural
boat boats
house houses
cat cats
river rivers
 A singular noun ending in s, x, z, ch, sh makes the plural by adding-es.

Examples
Singular Plural
bus buses
wish wishes
pitch pitches
box boxes
 A singular noun ending in a consonant and then y makes the plural by dropping
the y and adding-ies.
Examples
Singular Plural
penny pennies
spy spies
baby babies
city cities
daisy daisies
 Irregular nouns
 There are some irregular noun plurals. The most common ones are listed below.
Singular Plural

woman women

man men

child children

tooth teeth

foot feet

person people

leaf leaves

mouse mice

goose geese

half halves

knife knives

wife wives

life lives
elf elves

loaf loaves

potato potatoes

tomato tomatoes

cactus cacti

focus foci

fungus fungi

nucleus nuclei

syllabus syllabi/syllabuses

analysis analyses

diagnosis diagnoses

oasis oases

thesis theses

crisis crises

phenomenon phenomena

criterion criteria

datum data
 Some nouns have the same form in the singular and the plural.

Singular Plural
sheep sheep
fish fish
deer deer
species species
aircraft aircraft
Irregular verb/noun agreement

 Some nouns have a plural form but take a singular verb.

Plural nouns used with a singular verb Sentence

news The news is at 6.30 p.m.
athletics Athletics is good for young people.
linguistics Linguistics is the study of language.
darts Darts is a popular game in England.
billiards Billiards is played all over the world.
 Some nouns have a fixed plural form and take a plural verb. They are not used in
the singular, or they have a different meaning in the singular. Nouns like this
include: trousers, jeans, glasses, savings, thanks, steps, stairs, customs,
congratulations, tropics, wages, spectacles, outskirts, goods, wits

Plural noun with plural verb Sentence

trousers My trousers are too tight.
jeans Her jeans are black.
glasses Those glasses are his.
Verb Tenses

 Verbs come in three tenses: past, present, and future. The past is used to describe
things that have already happened (e.g., earlier in the day, yesterday, last week,
three years ago). The present tense is used to describe things that are happening
right now, or things that are continuous. The future tense describes things that
have yet to happen (e.g., later, tomorrow, next week, next year, three years from
now).
Simple Present Simple Past Simple Future
Last night, I read an entire I will read as much as I can
I read nearly every day.
novel. this year.

Present Continuous Past Continuous Future Continuous

I am reading Shakespeare at I was reading Edgar Allan I will be reading Nathaniel
the moment. Poe last night. Hawthorne soon.
Present Perfect Past Perfect Future Perfect
I have read so many books I I had read at least 100 books I will have read at least 500
can’t keep count. by the time I was twelve. books by the end of the year.

Present Perfect Continuous Past Perfect Continuous Future Perfect Continuous

I had been reading for at least I will have been reading for at
I have been reading since I
a year before my sister least two hours before dinner
was four years old.
learned to read. tonight.
Direct and indirect speech

 Direct Speech
 When we want to describe what someone said, one option is to use direct speech.
We use direct speech when we simply repeat what someone says, putting the
phrase between speech marks:
 Paul came in and said, “I’m really hungry.”
 Indirect Speech
 When we want to report what someone said without speech marks and without
necessarily using exactly the same words, we can use indirect speech (also called
reported speech). For example:
 Direct speech: “We’re quite cold in here.”
Using Adjectives

 Adjectives tell the reader how much—or how many—of something you’re talking
about, which thing you want passed to you, or which kind of something you want.
 Adjectives come in three forms: absolute, comparative, and superlative. 
 Absolute adjectives describe something in its own right.
 A cool guy
 A messy desk
 A mischievous cat
 Garrulous squirrels
 Comparative adjectives, unsurprisingly, make a comparison between two or more
things. For most one-syllable adjectives, the comparative is formed by adding the
suffix -er (or just -r if the adjective already ends with an e). For two-syllable
adjectives ending in -y, replace -y with -ier. For multi-syllable adjectives, add the
word more.
 A cooler guy
 A messier desk
 A more mischievous cat
 More garrulous squirrels
 Superlative adjectives indicate that something has the highest degree of the quality
in question. One-syllable adjectives become superlatives by adding the suffix -
est (or just -st for adjectives that already end in e). Two-syllable adjectives ending
in -y replace -y with -iest. Multi-syllable adjectives add the word most. When you
use an article with a superlative adjective, it will almost always be the definite
article (the) rather than a or an. Using a superlative inherently indicates that you
are talking about a specific item or items.
 The coolest guy
 The messiest desk
 The most mischievous cat
 The most garrulous squirrels
 old – older – oldest
 young – younger – youngest
 pretty – prettier – prettiest
 long – longer – longest
 short – shorter – shortest
 bright – brighter – brightest
 close – closer – closest
 happy – happier - happiest
 respectable – more respectable – most respectable
 beautiful – more beautiful – most beautiful
 preferable – more preferable – most preferable
 hardworking – more hardworking – most hardworking
 Some adjectives have different forms of comparatives and superlatives.

good – better – best

 bad – worse – worst
 little – less – least
 much (many) – more – most
 far – further - furthest
Using Idiomatic Phrases

 An idiom (also called idiomatic expression) is an expression, word,

or phrase that has a figurative meaning conventionally understood by native
speakers.
Idiom Meaning Usage

A blessing in disguise a good thing that seemed bad at first as part of a sentence

A dime a dozen Something common as part of a sentence

Beat around the bush Avoid saying what you mean, usually because as part of a sentence
it is uncomfortable

Better late than never Better to arrive late than not to come at all by itself

Bite the bullet To get something over with because it is as part of a sentence
inevitable

Break a leg Good luck by itself

Call it a day Stop working on something as part of a sentence

Cut somebody some slack Don't be so critical as part of a sentence

Cutting corners Doing something poorly in order to save time as part of a sentence
or money
 https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-idioms/
 http://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/grammar/parts_of_speech.html
 https://optinmonster.com/7-tips-to-write-a-blog-post-that-converts/