Copyright Terry Gibson, Updated Oct 2007

GREFS
are grammar references

FOR THE SELF TESTER, CLICK HERE
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..
.. .Punctuation, Grammar, Usage
. . . .Basic and.Intermediate e. . .
e. . . . .. . .. . . . .
Trophy
. . . . .
..

.Quick
Clicks
.Main-Menu
.and bonus points for extras.
. . . . . Writing, Grammar, Usage
. . Intermediate and Advanced
e. . . . .. . .. . . . . Trophy
. . . . . .
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Grefs1
A to E

Grefs 2
A to E

Grefs 3
A to E

Grefs 4
A to E

Grefs 5
A to E

Grefs 6
A to E

Grefs 7A
Grefs 7E

Grefs 8A
Grefs 8E

.Ready
.CourseA1
Ready
.CourseA2
Ready
.CourseA3
Ready
.CourseA4

*Horizontal for
Continuity

Ready *
.CourseA5
Next
.CourseA6
New
.CourseA7
New
.CourseA8
CourseB1 CourseB2 CourseB3  CourseB4  . .....Vertical for
. . . . .Variety
CourseB5   CourseB6  CourseB7  CourseB8
CourseC1 CourseC2 CourseC3 CourseC4 CourseC5 CourseC6 CourseC7 CourseC8
CourseD1 CourseD2 CourseD3 CourseD4

Black with display
in AP Classes
*Eventually

CourseD5 CourseD6 CourseD7 CourseD8
CourseE1 CourseE2 CourseE3 CourseE4 CourseE5 CourseE6 CourseE7 CourseE8
!  *But
!to save
!until AP !
!records
!!!work

!*8 horizontal choices: a straight row across 8 levels (best 5) will be a Trophy as always.
*8 Random choices within 1, 2, 3, 4 (OR 5,6,7,8) are each, one Trophy, not yet allowed.


Maximum two trophies per person, unless the rules change, but bonus points are good!

             

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                                                          *                                                                                

We need to invent a way to link *8 or 16 randomly!completed courses for Trophies

A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

D
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

E
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

With these it will be possible to get the trophies entirely with eight easier assignments each.
Without Kevin's miracles, Random-trophies will become a figment of creative imagination.
Then ?
A copy of this chart goes into the folder of each student who starts this set, and my bonus points flow.
Hand-updated, numbers turn dark when work is successfully completed. As for trophies... we beg?
--Terry
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Studying?

eYou are welcome to read the original versions above,
but please, not to do assignments there.
re

TAKE the TEST

.

Navigate by clicking the places above.

Be Grammar-Confident
GrammarGURU

Leisurely Crash Course in Written English
(oxymoron anyone?)

Euphemistically called
Updated Usage
Both British and American Forms

Grefs.htm
SEE what you knew, --- and possibly didn't.
......(Are you sure? Check it out, decide what your answers
......would be in a self-test in the box below,
..................and then click to find the answers!
......
Note, this gives help before taking 'The Test' !.

.
TAKE the TEST If you get them all right, (or 12 or more....
......
please tell me! I may need a second assistant someday. )
......Detailed answers and help follow the test..
.
.
History of Language: It is almost too late.
......WWhat happened to our language, Why, and How to help.
.
.Turbulent History of all www.mattaweb.ca websites
......WWhen it heals and sites become available, feel free to visit
......W
Kaleidoscope ( poetry ), Two novels, ( for and by kids )
......Wand other more
useful sites.

About
like who presumes to teach the rest of us?

Please respect Copyright .

Can you proofread what you wrote?

Quick Clicks
Sel


Playing with our language:
Exploring the writers' toolbox


Can you spot the spelling mistakes that spell-check software cannot find
because they are real words, just the wrong words?

What is the difference: its and it's, your and you're, lay and lie?
To, too, and two?
Who's and whose?
Could you use them correctly in sentences?

Do you know how to avoid mistakes in these?
Which are right: Give it to me and him. The flock of geese flies south.
Everyone has their own way. Between you and I, he's right ?


Do you know how to paragraph and punctuate conversation?

Important if you'd like to learn how to write good stories.

Do you believe plural's need apostrophe's? (Some local newspapers do!)
Do you feel secure with verb tenses, regular and irregular,
when to use "may" and "might" and know why it matters
?


Are you sure?
TAKE the TEST

Check it out,
click answers!

And for dessert, to be treated like puzzles:
Can you analyze all sentences from whatever source
and show what makes them tick?

Jobs as publishers' editors need this.
You will.

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To the Rescue:

The Truly Amazing
GrammarGURU
You believe that? Not likely, but in a world that has
forgotten more than it ever knew, all things are relative.

Achieving the Age of Literacy

For hundreds of years in human history the English language struggled to emerge from the Dark Ages where only the scribes and certain clergy.knew how to read and copy scriptures. Beowulf,
author unknown, is the earliest written fiction, illegible today except
by scholars. Translations do exist, but it was not until the 1200's
that another piece of fiction came:
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. In it we can decipher that human nature and motivations have not changed much over millennia.

Considering archaic "Saxon" spelling and vocabulary of Chaucer's
Middle English it is a magnificent achievement that by the 1500's it.could coalesce into the beautifully articulate English of Milton and
William Shakespeare.
So it continued, for more than four centuries, appreciated by multitudes and easily within the living.memory of
this writer!
..........
.......................................................................................

Return of the Oral Tradition

It was quick but very subtle.
At first the advent of Television fascinated the population. Years passed
and no one noticed that more and more, we watched and listened instead
.
of reading for news and entertainment.
Fifteen years, that's all it took here.
where I live, for the school system to respond to demands to modernize.
...
..

Something had to be dropped from the curriculum to make room for new
technology; where tape recorders replaced written record keeping, kids

wrote less. Cassettes, videotapes soon were all needed to be included
in the new Computer literacy. That it added a new visual component to
research when connected to a printer, copying the work of others.
.

During the almost two generations since.the 1960's when intensive.
formal teaching of Grammar was dropped, we hardly noticed a quietly
surreptitious slide to "anything-goes"
acceptance of the oral tradition:.
"spelling doesn't matter if it sounds right."
...
....
It has reached a stage where to many, the correct form looks wrong.
It is sad. A beautiful language that took hundreds of years to perfect
will
have been eroded in less than half a century to mere utility.
chart

...

Testt


Ta DAA! THE SELF-TEST

Copy the whole thing to notepad, delete the wrong ones.
Click to compare.

What is the difference: its and it's, your and you're, lay and lie?

It's time to give the dog its supper.
Its time to give the dog it's supper.
.
Your right if you're answers match these.
You're right if your answers match these.
.
The dog lay all day on the floor.
The dog will lie all day on the floor.

Please lay the books on that table.
He
lied where he laid the documents.
Chickens
lay eggs which lie in the nest, truthfully.
.
Two boys went to play ball too.
Too boys went two play ball to.
Too many boys went to play ball.
.
Whose going to find who's coat was left?
Who's going to find whose coat was left?
.
Give it to me and him.
Give it to him and
I.
Between you and
I, it is not true.
He is smarter than you and
me.
.
The flock of geese fly south.
The flock of geese
flies south.
.
Everyone has their own way.
All have their own way.
.
She will not forgive my having to go.
She will not forgive
me having to go.
.
The difference between us Liberals and the others...
The difference between
we Liberals and the others...
.
If only he had arrived sooner, he may have saved her
If only he had arrived sooner, he
might have saved her
 

Furthermore . . .
Do you know how to avoid mistakes in their choice?
Which (ones) are right?

Find out why, click answers!

12 right? I do need an assistant!
--Terry

And, as a writer,
Do you know how to paragraph and punctuate conversation?
In the assignments, using examples, dialogue becomes easy.
(dialog in US )


Not included:
Do you believe plural's need apostrophe's? Some newspapers do!
There are very few words that do. Wait to find which in Part 2.


Later:
Do you feel secure with verb tenses, regular and irregular,
News CTV, "...if only he had arrived sooner, he may have saved her"
Wrong. 'may' means a
future possibility; 'might' is the past of 'may' and
obviously since he could not save her, it is already in the past.

"...a ticket to a Leaf 's game" Michael Moore in his Newsletter Typo?
Maple Leafs is a team name and does not need an apostrophe.
(No one is safe anymore, so we are in good company.)


Hearty thanks if you can spot some good examples!
(Please send and identify speaker and source)

Scroll down for answers

ded


Challenge-answers and more information
What is the difference: its and it's, your and you're, lay and lie?

Using them in sentences, they are:
It's time to give the dog its supper. It's means 'it is'
You're right if your answers match these. You're means 'you are'
Chickens lay eggs which lie in the nest, truthfully.
Who's going to find whose coat was left? Who's means 'who is'
Two boys went to play ball too. too means also
*Too many boys went to play ball. Correct, adverb telling how 'many'
*With thanks to the sharp eyes of Epistomolus


Do you know how to avoid mistakes in their choice?
Which (ones) are right: Give it to me and him.
Right, but perhaps more polite as to him and me.
(to me)

BUT "he has more money than you and I."
Right. "more than you have, more than I have.


The flock of geese flies south.
Right. The flock flies. Of geese tells us the kind of flock.
(not sheep)

Everyone has their own way.
Swan accepts this as correct informally but in formal writing
it should be 'Everyone has
his own way. (one is singular) (her)
Avoid it with 'All have their own way.'

BUT "she will not forgive my having to go." Heard on CBC.
Rlght. in this one, "having" is a gerund (verb) that acts as a noun,
and like any noun, my hand, my work, my having to go.


Between you and I, he's right.
Wrong. 'Between you and me, he's right.'

"...the difference between we Liberals and the Conservatives..."
said by Paul Martin on CPAC
Likewise 'between us Liberals and the Conservatives.'
Swan agrees after between, it is 'us' because WE would be a subject.

Do you know how to paragraph and punctuate conversation?

In the assignments, using examples, dialogue becomes easy.

Do you believe plural's need apostrophe's?
There are very few that do. Wait to find which in part 2.


Do you feel secure with verb tenses, regular and irregular,
News CTV, "...if only he had arrived sooner, he may have saved her"
Wrong. 'may' means a
future possibility; 'might' is the past of 'may' and
obviously since he could not save her, it is already in the past.

"...a ticket to a Leaf 's game" Michael Moore in his Newsletter Typo?
Maple Leafs is a team name and does not need an apostrophe.
(No one is safe anymore, so we are in good company.)


Hearty thanks if you can spot some good examples!


NEED MORE DETAILS?


Challenge-answers
and more information

It's time to give the dog its supper. (It's means it is. Pronoun possessives have no apostrophe.
. . . . . . . . . . . . Remember, in "He found his wallet," we do not put an apostrophe in "his" either.)
You're right if your answers match these. (means you are. Pronoun possessive).

The dog
lay all day on the floor. (Yesterday it lay there. Past of verb "lie." )
The dog will
lie all day on the floor. ( Future of verb "lie.")
Please
lay the books on that table. ( The present form (now) of verb "lay" must have an object.). . . . . . . .
He
lied where he laid the documents. ( Past of "to lie", tell untruths, Past of verb "to lay")
Chickens
lay eggs which lie in the nest, truthfully.( "lay" must have an object, eggs, to lie is to rest.. . . . .
Two boys went to play ball too (Two, number, to play, infinitive of verb, to is a preposition,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "too" means also, remember it has "too many o's")
.
Who's going to find whose coat was left? ( Who's means who is. whose Pronoun possessive
He got a ticket to a
Leafs game.( This is the name of a hockey team, and does not take an an. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . apostrophe).
Give it to
me and him. ( It means to me and to him. ) More polite, Give it to him. and me.
The flock of geese
flies south.( The flock flies. of geese tells us that sheep have not sprouted wings.. . .
All have their own way. ( A plural subject needs a plural possessive, One is singular, his, her.).
She will not forgive
my having to go. ( "having" acts as a noun, and needs possessive my )
The difference between
us Liberals and the others... ( between us and the others ).
If only he had arrived sooner, he
might have saved her ( May is present, might is past--
. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . because he did not get there in time, the past is needed,)
 

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who

. . .. ..

About the Author

Terry Gibson, BA, M.Ed, is a long-retired teacher living in Ontario, Canada. Author, poet, very concerned scholar, worried about the decline, a sad level of loss in both written and spoken English.

 

Author . . . ?
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TABITHA'S SECRET
(Tabby Disease)

Series of three short books for Pre-Teens

http://www.mattaweb.ca/archive0/tabmenu.htm
G

The Poetry Group: Kaleidoscope

http://www.mattaweb.ca/archive5/kaleimenu.htm
plus 200 + in AP and SP--some duplicates

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Copyright Terry Gibson,  Updated Oct 2007