Thursday, March 22, 2012

Spelling, lit terms, grammar notes week 4, 5, 6, 7

Spelling, Literary Terms, Grammar notes for week 4:


Lit Term

Denouement – The final resolution or outcome of a play or a story.  “And they lived happily ever after.”

                Name the denouement

1.  Abbreviate - shorten

2.  Abscess – sore, inflamed skin

3.  Accede – to agree

4.  Accommodate – help out

5.  Accurate - right

6.  Ache – pain

7.  Acquaintance - friend

8.  Acquiesce – to give in

9.  Adjourn – to suspend, pause

10.  Admissible – allowable

Misplaced Modifiers – Add more info to a word

– modifiers that have been placed incorrectly; so the meaning of the sentence is not clear.  Modifiers should be placed as close as possible to the word they modify.

·         We have an assortment of combs for active people with unbreakable teeth.

·         Eagerly awaiting her birthday, Mary's presents were all picked up and admired by Mary many times throughout the course of the day.

·         Princess Beatrice was photographed running in the surf on the island of St Barts with her American boyfriend Dave Clark dressed in a blue bikini last month

·         They just said it's going to rain on the radio

·         You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian composers, artists, and writers are buried daily, except on Thursdays.

·         Her only full-time paid employee is a pleasant young woman with a nose ring named Rebecca, who sits at the front desk.

·         She handed out brownies to children wrapped in Tupperware.

Dangling Modifiers

A word or phrase that modifies a word not clearly stated in the sentence.  A modifier describes, clarifies, or gives more detail about a concept.

·         Having finished the assignment, the TV was turned on

·         Having arrived late for practice, a written excuse was needed

·         Without knowing his name, it was difficult to introduce him

·         To improve his results, the experiment was done again

·         The experiment was a failure, not having studied the lab manual carefully

Week 5
Diction – an author’s choice of words based on thier correctness, clearness, or effectiveness
·         Archaic – old fashioned phrases or words – Wherefore art thou?
·         Colloquialism – local speech patterns common to a certain area.  Very informal – I used to could.
·         Jargon – Technical, specific language used by specialty groups.  504, IEP, ELL, SIP, Mom and Dad
·         Profanity – disrespect for sacred things
·         Slang – very common, street language – take a chill pill, chillax!
·         Vulgarity – swearing, gross, crude language.  – used too often in movies to make it “Real.”
Spelling
1.  Aerial – In the sky
2.  Affect – the input  (Effect – the outcome)
3.  Agreeable
4.  Aisle – tiny passageway on planes
5.  Alcohol – Libations
6.  Alignment – how things line up
7.  All right – OK – NEVER one word!!!!!!!
8.  Anecdote – story with a point to it.
9.  Annihilate – completely destroy
10.  anonymous – secret identity
Antecedent – Always goes with a pronoun.  Identifies the pronoun in the sentence.  I went with Margaret to the dance.  She looked really pretty.
Bob is my best friend, although he can be a real jerk sometimes.
My cat is stupid – she refuses to drink out of anything but the toilet or the fish tank

Lit Terms                              Week 6
Epigram – a brief, witty saying or poem: 
·         “One bad apple spoils the barrel.” 
·         “There never was a good war or a bad peace.” ~ Ben Franklin
Epitaph – A short poem or verse written in memory of someone. 
·         Here lies Michael John Cotter, who I shot when he married my daughter.
Epithet – a word or phrase used in place of someone’s name.
·         “Hulk” Hogan
·         Alexander “The Great”
·         the “Material Girl”
·         Ivan “The Terrible”
·          “The Rock”
Epiphany – A sudden realization of something – the Lightbulb moment.  Eureka!
·         In Mary Poppins, the old banker has an ephiphany of understanding and laughs so hard at a joke about “A man with a wooden leg named Smith” that he actually dies.


Spelling – week 6
1.  Antarctic – The SOUTH pole
2.  Ascend – to go up
3.  Ascertain – To find out / figure out
4.  Assess – to judge / size up for quality
5.  Bankrupt – Broke
6.  Bouillon – a cube of meat extract used for making soup
                Bullion – A metal ingot or bar
                                Soup bouillon / gold bullion – pretty much the same pronunciation for both words
7.  Bouyant – Floats
8.  Bureau – Dresser / Government agency
9.  Capital – Money for projects
                Capitol – Chief city
10.  Carburetor – Engine part


Grammar – Gotta Love those verb forms!
·         Base form – Nothing added to the end.   The verb is in its natural state. 
o   Eat, Dance, Fly, Hike
·         Present Participle (Present progressive) – ING added to the end. 
o   Eating, Dancing, Flying, Hiking
·         Past – Usually ends with ED, but not always. 
o   Ate, Danced, Flew, Hiked
·         Past Participle (Past Progressive) – Similar to Past tense, but has a helping verb with it. 
o   Have flown, Have danced, Have eaten, Have hiked

Week 7:
·         Exposition – Writing that is intended to explain something that might otherwise be difficult to understand.  In a play or novel, it gives background information or the situation surrounding the story. 
·         Farce – Literature based on a humorous and improbable (unlikely) plot.
·         Motif – The term for an often repeated idea or theme in literature.  Conflict with nature, man, etc.

Cessation – to quit
Chauffeur – Driver
Circuit – Path for electricity
Clientele – customers
Coercion – Forcing
Collateral – Guarantee of payment
Colonel – Military rank – NOT Kernel (popcorn)
Commitment – promise to act
Committee – Group working on a common goal
Competitively – aggressively

Possessive Apostrophies – Warning:  May cause baldness or extreme frustration
To see if you need to make a possessive, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the..." phrase. For example:
the boy's hat = the hat of the boy
three days' journey = journey of three days
If the noun after "of" is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, then no apostrophe is needed!
room of the hotel = hotel room
door of the car = car door
leg of the table = table leg
Once you've determined whether you need to make a possessive, follow these rules to create one.
·         Add   ‘s  to the singular form of the word – even if it ends in s
o    The owner’s car
o    The man’s cat
·         Add   ‘s to the plural forms that do NOT end in s
o    the children’s game
o    The geese’s honking
·         Add      to the end of plural nouns that end in s
o    The cats’ toys
o    The boys’ clothes
o    The girls’ dolls
·         Add   ‘s  to the end of compound words
o    My brother-in-law’s apartment
o    The mousetrap’s victim
·         Add   ‘s to the last noun to show joint possession of an object
o    Buster and Dave’s restaurant