Essential Grammar Patterns for Writing

I solved hundreds of grammar practice questions, and I found 10 repeating patterns that helped me score perfectly in the standard English conventions section, where it asks which choice logically completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of standard English. In this video, I'll be covering those 10 rules with examples. Standard English conventions are made up of two sections, form, structure, and sense, and boundaries. Form, structure, and sense have multiple meanings. choices with different word styling. The first form structure and sense is single and plural. So let's look at an example for this one. We always look at the multiple choices first for standard English convention questions. We see that here some of the multiple choices are plural and some are single. The way I found the way I find out if one of them is single or plural is I use the they it test. So let's look at an example. For choice A, it says occurs. Occurs doesn't work with they. You cannot say they occurs, but you can say it occurs. So this means it is singular. Choice B, you say they have occurred. So it's plural. Choice C, they occur. So it is also plural. Choice D. they are occurring. So it's also plural. Since choice A is the only singular one, this is the correct answer. The second rule is verb tense. This can be identified by looking at the multiple choices and seeing that there are verbs with different tenses. Here's how you solve these questions. We need to first read the passage. Bonnie Borati of NASA's Jet propulsion laboratory blank data about saturn's rings collected by the cassini spacecraft when she made an interesting discovery so look at their mate is an mate is a very important keyword this tells us that she had previously made the discovery which means it happened in the past so the answer from the multiple choices must be from the past choice a studies This is a verb that is continuous which means that verb doesn't stop happening. Choice B, has been studying. This shows that she had been studying in the past and she's still studying. Choice C, will study. This shows that she'll study in the future. And choice D, was studying. This shows that she studied before. Therefore, choice D is the right answer. The third rule is defining noun sentences. This can easily be identified by seeing a long sentence with different words. The reason I call these defining noun sentences is because in the line before the blank, something is being defined or explained. And the thing that is being defined is the first noun after the comma. Let's read the line before the blank for this question. Alright. Despite being cheap, versatile, and easy to produce, Blank. So, here we see the noun or noun phrase has to be cheap, versatile, and easy to produce. Choice A. There are two problems associated with commercial plastics. As we can see, the first word is there. There is not a name, and there is not cheap, versatile, and easy to produce. So, it is wrong. Choice B. Two problems are associated with commercial plastics. The first word is not the name, and the phrase two problems is not cheap, versatile, and easy to produce. Choice C. Commercial plastics'two associated problems are that Commercial plastics'two associated problems is not cheap, versatile, and easy to produce. Choice D. Commercial plastics have two associated problems. So, commercial plastics is a noun phrase and commercial plastics are cheap, versatile, and easy to produce. Rule 4 is possessive nouns. The first thing you should know is where you should put your apostrophe. To form a possessive noun, you first need to identify whether or not your word is single or plural. If it is single, add apostrophe s to the noun. If it is plural, add just the apostrophe to the noun. But when do you add the punctuations? You add them when you see the word after that is a part of it. Let's see an example. Mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz used the metaphor of the butterfly effect to explain how seemingly minor events can have a major impact on future weather. According to Lorenz's metaphor, the wind from a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil might eventually grow into a storm elsewhere across the globe. If we look at choices C and D, it shows that it is followed by has or is. So that would mean it is wings or it has wings. So we can straight away cancel these two choices. And in this case, we use the plural noun wings. So we check to see if the word after wings belongs to it. It says wings in Brazil. This shows that wings does not possess in Brazil. So there has to be no apostrophe and in this case choice A is correct. Let's look at another example. And Death Valley National Park's racetrack. Playa, a flat, dry lake bed, or 162 rocks. Some weighing less than a pound, but others almost 700 pounds. That moved periodically from place to place, seemingly of their own volition. Racetrack-like trails in the Playa sediment mark the rock's mysterious migration. We can see that Playa possesses sediment, so there has to be an apostrophe, so choice A is wrong. text it says Playa so it is a singular word so it cannot be choice D we're left with choice B and C and if we look at the words rocks we can see that one of them is with apostrophe and the other is not in the text it says rocks mysterious migration mysterious migration is possessed by rocks so there should be an apostrophe therefore choice C is right We're done for the form structure and sense, now let's do boundaries. If you see the multiple choices that all have the same word but they have different punctuation or conjunctions, they're boundaries. Conjunctions are the words for, and, nor, but, are, yet, so. People memorize them with the acronym FANBOYS. Let's look at an example. The multiple choices are all the same words. but they have different punctuation and conjunctions. Let's read the passage. The Mission 66 initiative, which was approved by Congress in 1956, represented a major investment in the infrastructure of overburdened national parks. This sentence makes complete sense on its own without having another sentence with it. It prioritized physical improvements to the parks, roads, utilities, employee housing, and visitor facilities while also establishing educational programming for the public. This sentence also makes sense on its own and it doesn't require any additional words or sentences to make sense. So this is an independent-independent boundary. Independent-independent boundary is the fifth rule and it is where the lines before and after the blank both make sense on their own. When we have an independent-independent boundary, We can choose one of the following options. So we can have a word plus a period, word plus semicolon, and a word plus comma plus conjunctions or fanboys. So pause the video and think which of these multiple choices from A to D is the same as one of those options. It is choice C since it is a word and there is a semicolon right after it. What about this question right here? The text is in the independent independent boundary format. Since there is a period right after the word percent, choice C is correct. Also look at this one. The text is in the independent independent boundary format. Since there is a word value, then a comma, and then a conjunction, this is correct. A small note that can save you a lot of time is, if you see in the multiple choices, we have a period and a semicolon in another option both of them have the same style so same words so in that case we can cancel both of those multiple choices out all right this one is a little different let's read the text from afar african-american fiber artist bisa butler's portraits look like paintings their depictions of human faces bodies and clothing so intricate that it seems only a fine brush could have rendered them. When viewed up close, however, the portraits reveal themselves to be quilts. These lines make sense on their own. Let's see the line after the blank. The stitching barely visible among the thousands of pieces of printed micro-cut fabric. This sentence doesn't make sense on its own. So this is an independent-dependent boundary, which is also the sixth rule. Independent-dependent boundaries show that one of the sentences are incomplete without the other sentence. For these types of questions, You will not select anything that works for the independent independent boundaries. So none of these. Word plus period, word plus semicolon, word plus comma, plus conjunctions or fanboys. So let's look at the multiple choices. We see the only one that is not one of those is choice B. The seventh rule is when you have a noun like a job and the name after it. You will choose the answer without any punctuation. For example, we can say Biologist Yuri Lee. Compound carbon dioxide. For this question we have entomologist Heather Grabb. Entomologist is the job and Heather Grabb is the person that does that job. Choice C is the right answer for this question since there is no punctuation. Alright, here's another example. We can see in that there is a dash in the sentence and rule 8 says there always has to be two dashes. But we can only see one dash here. So we'll pick the multiple choice that contains the dash which is multiple choice C. Let's look at this example. We will immediately cancel choice C and D because they both are a part of the independent-independent format. Choice B is the right answer and the reason it is correct is because it follows rule 9. When there is a colon, there must be a noun or noun phrase after the colon. The sentence before the colon must be related to the sentence before the colon. In this case, geological structures are the noun phrase after the colon, and geological structures is related to the sentence before it. Since in the line before the blank, it says that there is a new explanation for the origin of Earth's continents, and in the line after the blank, it explains it. Rule 10. Rule 10 is the same as rule 3. Defining noun sentences. The only difference here is it has been applied to the boundaries questions. This example says while one requires oxygen and one does not. This is clearly defining a noun. After that, it says aerobic and anaerobic respiration are both forms of cellular respiration. The line before the blank is defining or explaining the words after the blank. So we need to have a comma in between them. So choice C is the right answer.

Form, structure, and sense have multiple meanings. choices with different word styling. The first form structure and sense is single and plural. So let's look at an example for this one. We always look at the multiple choices first for standard English convention questions.

We see that here some of the multiple choices are plural and some are single. The way I found the way I find out if one of them is single or plural is I use the they it test. So let's look at an example. For choice A, it says occurs.

Occurs doesn't work with they. You cannot say they occurs, but you can say it occurs. So this means it is singular. Choice B, you say they have occurred. So it's plural.

Choice C, they occur. So it is also plural. Choice D. they are occurring. So it's also plural.

Since choice A is the only singular one, this is the correct answer. The second rule is verb tense. This can be identified by looking at the multiple choices and seeing that there are verbs with different tenses.

Here's how you solve these questions. We need to first read the passage. Bonnie Borati of NASA's Jet propulsion laboratory blank data about saturn's rings collected by the cassini spacecraft when she made an interesting discovery so look at their mate is an mate is a very important keyword this tells us that she had previously made the discovery which means it happened in the past so the answer from the multiple choices must be from the past choice a studies This is a verb that is continuous which means that verb doesn't stop happening. Choice B, has been studying.

This shows that she had been studying in the past and she's still studying. Choice C, will study. This shows that she'll study in the future.

And choice D, was studying. This shows that she studied before. Therefore, choice D is the right answer. The third rule is defining noun sentences.

This can easily be identified by seeing a long sentence with different words. The reason I call these defining noun sentences is because in the line before the blank, something is being defined or explained. And the thing that is being defined is the first noun after the comma. Let's read the line before the blank for this question. Alright.

Despite being cheap, versatile, and easy to produce, Blank. So, here we see the noun or noun phrase has to be cheap, versatile, and easy to produce. Choice A. There are two problems associated with commercial plastics. As we can see, the first word is there. There is not a name, and there is not cheap, versatile, and easy to produce.

So, it is wrong. Choice B. Two problems are associated with commercial plastics. The first word is not the name, and the phrase two problems is not cheap, versatile, and easy to produce. Choice C. Commercial plastics'two associated problems are that Commercial plastics'two associated problems is not cheap, versatile, and easy to produce.

Choice D. Commercial plastics have two associated problems. So, commercial plastics is a noun phrase and commercial plastics are cheap, versatile, and easy to produce. Rule 4 is possessive nouns.

The first thing you should know is where you should put your apostrophe. To form a possessive noun, you first need to identify whether or not your word is single or plural. If it is single, add apostrophe s to the noun. If it is plural, add just the apostrophe to the noun. But when do you add the punctuations?

You add them when you see the word after that is a part of it. Let's see an example. Mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz used the metaphor of the butterfly effect to explain how seemingly minor events can have a major impact on future weather.

According to Lorenz's metaphor, the wind from a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil might eventually grow into a storm elsewhere across the globe. If we look at choices C and D, it shows that it is followed by has or is. So that would mean it is wings or it has wings. So we can straight away cancel these two choices. And in this case, we use the plural noun wings.

So we check to see if the word after wings belongs to it. It says wings in Brazil. This shows that wings does not possess in Brazil.

So there has to be no apostrophe and in this case choice A is correct. Let's look at another example. And Death Valley National Park's racetrack.

Playa, a flat, dry lake bed, or 162 rocks. Some weighing less than a pound, but others almost 700 pounds. That moved periodically from place to place, seemingly of their own volition. Racetrack-like trails in the Playa sediment mark the rock's mysterious migration.

We can see that Playa possesses sediment, so there has to be an apostrophe, so choice A is wrong. text it says Playa so it is a singular word so it cannot be choice D we're left with choice B and C and if we look at the words rocks we can see that one of them is with apostrophe and the other is not in the text it says rocks mysterious migration mysterious migration is possessed by rocks so there should be an apostrophe therefore choice C is right We're done for the form structure and sense, now let's do boundaries. If you see the multiple choices that all have the same word but they have different punctuation or conjunctions, they're boundaries.

Conjunctions are the words for, and, nor, but, are, yet, so. People memorize them with the acronym FANBOYS. Let's look at an example.

The multiple choices are all the same words. but they have different punctuation and conjunctions. Let's read the passage. The Mission 66 initiative, which was approved by Congress in 1956, represented a major investment in the infrastructure of overburdened national parks. This sentence makes complete sense on its own without having another sentence with it.

It prioritized physical improvements to the parks, roads, utilities, employee housing, and visitor facilities while also establishing educational programming for the public. This sentence also makes sense on its own and it doesn't require any additional words or sentences to make sense. So this is an independent-independent boundary.

Independent-independent boundary is the fifth rule and it is where the lines before and after the blank both make sense on their own. When we have an independent-independent boundary, We can choose one of the following options. So we can have a word plus a period, word plus semicolon, and a word plus comma plus conjunctions or fanboys.

So pause the video and think which of these multiple choices from A to D is the same as one of those options. It is choice C since it is a word and there is a semicolon right after it. What about this question right here? The text is in the independent independent boundary format. Since there is a period right after the word percent, choice C is correct.

Also look at this one. The text is in the independent independent boundary format. Since there is a word value, then a comma, and then a conjunction, this is correct.

A small note that can save you a lot of time is, if you see in the multiple choices, we have a period and a semicolon in another option both of them have the same style so same words so in that case we can cancel both of those multiple choices out all right this one is a little different let's read the text from afar african-american fiber artist bisa butler's portraits look like paintings their depictions of human faces bodies and clothing so intricate that it seems only a fine brush could have rendered them. When viewed up close, however, the portraits reveal themselves to be quilts. These lines make sense on their own. Let's see the line after the blank. The stitching barely visible among the thousands of pieces of printed micro-cut fabric.

This sentence doesn't make sense on its own. So this is an independent-dependent boundary, which is also the sixth rule. Independent-dependent boundaries show that one of the sentences are incomplete without the other sentence.

For these types of questions, You will not select anything that works for the independent independent boundaries. So none of these. Word plus period, word plus semicolon, word plus comma, plus conjunctions or fanboys.

So let's look at the multiple choices. We see the only one that is not one of those is choice B. The seventh rule is when you have a noun like a job and the name after it. You will choose the answer without any punctuation.

For example, we can say Biologist Yuri Lee. Compound carbon dioxide. For this question we have entomologist Heather Grabb. Entomologist is the job and Heather Grabb is the person that does that job. Choice C is the right answer for this question since there is no punctuation.

Alright, here's another example. We can see in that there is a dash in the sentence and rule 8 says there always has to be two dashes. But we can only see one dash here.

So we'll pick the multiple choice that contains the dash which is multiple choice C. Let's look at this example. We will immediately cancel choice C and D because they both are a part of the independent-independent format.

Choice B is the right answer and the reason it is correct is because it follows rule 9. When there is a colon, there must be a noun or noun phrase after the colon. The sentence before the colon must be related to the sentence before the colon. In this case, geological structures are the noun phrase after the colon, and geological structures is related to the sentence before it.

Since in the line before the blank, it says that there is a new explanation for the origin of Earth's continents, and in the line after the blank, it explains it. Rule 10. Rule 10 is the same as rule 3. Defining noun sentences. The only difference here is it has been applied to the boundaries questions. This example says while one requires oxygen and one does not.

This is clearly defining a noun. After that, it says aerobic and anaerobic respiration are both forms of cellular respiration. The line before the blank is defining or explaining the words after the blank. So we need to have a comma in between them.

So choice C is the right answer.

Transcript for:Essential Grammar Patterns for Writing

Transcript for:
Essential Grammar Patterns for Writing