Grammar & Punctuation – active or passive?
Using the passive voice has a number of disadvantages. It tends to sound rather formal and remote: Volunteers were sought to set up the tables. It can lead to rather…
Grammar & Punctuation – active voice.
TRANSITIVE VERBS (verbs that take an object) can be used in two ways, or ‘voices’: active and passive: ACTIVE: The dog bit him. PASSIVE: He was bitten by the dog.…
Grammar & Punctuation – acronym.
An ABBREVIATION composed of the first letters of other words so that the abbreviation itself forms a word. For example: CRASH: Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and…
Grammar & punctuation – abstract noun.
Noun can be divided into two groups: concrete and abstract. Concrete nouns refer to people, places, and things that can be experienced using our five senses. Abstract nouns refer to…
Grammar & Punctuation – abbreviations.
The presentation of abbreviations in writing raises two questions:  Should I use full stops?  Do I use capital or small letters? Full stops  Normally if you use…
Grammar & Punctuation – Complex Sentences.
There is a limit to the meaning you can express with the conjunction and. If someone says She has not been very successful and she is looking for another career,…
Grammar & Punctuation – Compound Sentences.
Multiple sentences are made by combining clauses. The simplest way of doing this is to use the grammatical equivalent of a plus sign: She has not been very successful +…
Grammar & Punctuation – Simple and multiple sentences.
If a sentence consists of one clause it is described as a simple sentence. Each of the following is a simple sentence: Mary writes books. She has not been very…