Capitalization Capitalization is an important tool to help us identify (1) the beginning of a new sentence and (2) proper nouns and adjectives. Here are six rules for correct capitalization: 1. Capitalize the first word of a sentence. Please close the door. What are you trying to say? If you are quoting a full sentence within your own sentence, use a capital letter, unless you introduce the quote with that. The author notes, “A shocking three out of four students admitted to cheating.” The author notes that “a shocking three out of four students admitted to cheating.” If you have a full sentence within parentheses, that sentence should be capitalized as well (and the end punctuation mark should be within the parentheses). He was expelled for repeatedly violating the school’s code of conduct. (He was caught stealing and cheating several times.) 2. Capitalize proper nouns. A proper noun is the name of a specific person, place, or thing (as opposed to a general person, place, or thing). See the table at the bottom of this page. 3. Capitalize the days of the weeks and months of the year, but not the seasons. It was a warm spring day in May. Wednesday is the first official day of autumn. 4. Capitalize the names of countries, nationalities, geographical regions, languages, and religions. He has traveled to Brazil and Tunisia. She is half Chinese, half French. She is from the South. (But, Drive south for five miles.) We speak Spanish at home. He is a devout Catholic. – MECHANICS– 65 CAPITALIZE (SPECIFIC) DON’T CAPITALIZE (GENERAL) Jennifer Johnson (specific person) the lady Algebra 101 (specific class) my math class Main Street (specific street) on the street Frosted Flakes (specific brand) good cereal Caspian Sea (specific sea) deep sea/ocean Lincoln Memorial (specific monument) impressive memorial/monument S.S. Cole (specific ship) naval carrier Dade High School (specific school) our high school Precambrian Age (specific time period) long ago Microsoft Corporation (specific company) that company 5. Capitalize titles that come before proper names. Judge Lydia Ng Lydia Ng, judge in the Fifth District Professor Lee Chang Lee Chang, professor of physical science Vice President Tilda Stanton Tilda Stanton, vice president 6. Capitalize titles of publications, including books, stories, poems, plays, articles, speeches, essays, and other documents, and works of art, including films, paintings, and musical composi- tions. Pablo Picasso’s painting Guernica captures the agony of the Spanish Civil War. Read Susan Sontag’s essay “On Photography” for class tomorrow. The Declaration of Independence is a sacred document. Spelling As noted earlier, spelling questions on the GED are limited to homonyms, contractions, and possessives. The spelling of these words is reviewed below. Contractions and Possessives Confusion between contractions and possessives results in some of the most common spelling mistakes. Contractions are words that use an apostrophe to show that a letter or letters have been omitted from the word(s). Possessive pronouns indicate ownership of objects and ideas. They do NOT take an apostrophe. – MECHANICS– 66 POSSESSIVE PRONOUN MEANING EXAMPLE its belonging to it The dog chased its tail. your belonging to you Your time is up. their belonging to them Their words were comforting. whose belonging to who Whose tickets are these? CONTRACTION MEANING EXAMPLE it’s it is It’s time to eat. you’re you are You’re not going to believe your eyes. they’re they are They’re getting their tickets now. who’s who is Who’s going to dinner? who has Who’s got my tickets? – MECHANICS– 67 Homonyms Homonyms are words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings. Here are some of the most com- mon homonyms: accept to take or receive except leave out affect (verb) to have an influence effect (noun) the result or impact of something all ready fully prepared already previously bare (adj) uncovered; (verb) to uncover bear (noun) animal; (verb) to carry or endure brake (verb) to stop; (noun) device for stopping break (verb) to fracture or rend; (noun) a pause or temporary stoppage buy (verb) to purchase by (preposition) next to or near; through desert (noun) dry area; (verb) to abandon dessert sweet course at the end of a meal every day each day everyday ordinary; daily hear (verb) to perceive with the ears here (adverb) in this place know to understand, be aware of no negative—opposite of yes loose (adj) not tight; not confined lose (verb) to misplace; to fail to win may be might be (possibility) maybe perhaps morning the first part of the day mourning grieving passed past tense of pass (to go by) past beyond; events that have already occurred patience quality of being patient; able to wait patients people under medical care personal (adj) private or pertaining to the individual personnel (noun) employees presence condition of being presents gifts principal most important; head of a school principle fundamental truth right correct; opposite of left rite ceremony write produce words on a surface scene setting or view seen past participle of see than used to compare (he is taller than I) then at that time, therefore (first this, then that; if you think it’s good, then I’ll do it) their possessive form of they there location; in that place through in one side and out the other; by means of threw past tense of throw to (preposition) in the direction of too (adverb) in addition; excessive two number waist part of the body waste (verb) to squander; (noun) trash weak feeble week seven days weather climatic conditions whether introducing a choice which what, that witch practitioner of witchcraft – MECHANICS– 68 O n the GED Language Arts, Writing Test,questions about organization are designed to measure your ability to organize ideas effectively.You may be asked to identify the best sequence of sentences or para- graphs, the best place to move a sentence or paragraph, or the best sentence or paragraph to eliminate to improve a paragraph’s unity or coherence. This section reviews three aspects of organization: 1. essay structure and organizational patterns 2. effective paragraphs 3. transitions Essay Structure and Organizational Patterns Most nonfiction texts have the basic underlying structure of main idea → support. They begin with a main idea (some- times called the thesis or theme of the text) that controls the whole passage. It is this idea that the text will develop. The rest of the text then provides support for that idea in the form of examples, definitions, reasons, and so on. Most paragraphs function this way, too. In fact, you can think of a paragraph as a mini-essay. 69 CHAPTER 9 Organization THE LANGUAGE Arts, Writing Test includes questions about organization: how ideas are arranged in a text. This chapter reviews key strategies and patterns that writers use to effectively organize their ideas. On this basic level of main idea → support, every- thing in the passage or paragraph should support or develop that main idea. When sentences or paragraphs lose focus or stray from that controlling idea, the passage or paragraph loses its effectiveness. Writers can use several different strategies for organ- izing their support. One of these strategies often serves as the overall organizing principle for the text, while indi- vidual sections may use other techniques as well. For example, imagine an essay comparing and contrasting two film versions of Frankenstein. The support will be organized by comparison and contrast. But the writer may also use other organizational techniques within that comparison and contrast structure. For example, he or she may use order of importance when explaining what makes one version better than the other. The four most common organizational patterns are: 1. chronological order 2. order of importance 3. comparison and contrast 4. cause and effect To answer many of the questions about organization on the GED, you will need to be able to determine the writer’s purpose and to recognize organizational patterns on both the essay and paragraph levels. By identifying the organizational pattern, you can determine where to insert sentences or paragraphs and whether any sen- tences or paragraphs are misplaced, such as a sentence that is out of chronological order. Chronological Order When writers use time as their main organization prin- ciple, it is called chronological order. They describe events in the order in which they did happen, will happen, or should happen. Much of what you read is organized in this way, including historical texts, instructions and pro- cedures, and essays about personal experiences. Passages organized by chronology typically use a lot of transitional words and phrases to help us follow the pas- sage of time. The transitions help us see when things happened and in what order. They help us follow along when the passage shifts from one period of time to another. Transitional words and phrases keep events linked together in the proper order. (Transitions are cov- ered in more detail on page 72.) The following is a list of some of the most common chronological transitions: first, second, third, etc. before after next now then when as soon as immediately suddenly soon during while meanwhile later in the meantime at last eventually finally afterward The third paragraph of the Batman text from page 30 uses this organizational pattern. The transitions are underlined: Kane’s Batman was a big success right from the start. The masked hero s oon moved from comic books to its own newspaper strip, and in 1943 ,Bat- man episodes were aired on the radio. In 1966,live- action Batman shows hit the TV screen. The series was wildly popular, and the syndicated show st ill airs today on channels like the Cartoon Network. Order of Importance With this organizational pattern, ideas are arranged by rank instead of time. What’s most important comes first or last, depending upon the writer’s purpose. Organizing ideas from most important to least important puts the most essential information first. Many writers do this when they are offering advice or when they want to be sure readers get the most impor- tant information right away. Newspaper articles, for example, generally use this structure. They begin with the most important information (the who, what, when, where, and why of the event) so readers don’t have to read the whole article to get those key facts. Details and background information come later in the article. When writers move from least to most important, they save their most important idea or piece of infor- mation for last. Writers often use this approach when they are presenting an argument. That’s because this kind of structure is usually more convincing than the most-to-least organizational pattern. The more contro- versial the argument, the more important this structure. – ORGANIZATION– 70 . I) then at that time, therefore (first this, then that; if you think it’s good, then I’ll do it) their possessive form of they there location; in that place through in one side and out the other;. the basic underlying structure of main idea → support. They begin with a main idea (some- times called the thesis or theme of the text) that controls the whole passage. It is this idea that the. ideas. They do NOT take an apostrophe. – MECHANICS– 66 POSSESSIVE PRONOUN MEANING EXAMPLE its belonging to it The dog chased its tail. your belonging to you Your time is up. their belonging to them