College Composition (Abridged)

College Composition Abridged Study Guide Specific versus general dicti n: General terms describe groups or classes of things. Specific terms describe particulars within that group. Book is a general term but dictionary and thesaurus are specific terms. These specific terms can be made even more specific. The dictionary could be a French/English dictionary or a dictionary of literary terms. In most cases, the best choice is to use the most specific term. Use of specific terms gives the reader more relevant information about the subject. Denotation versus connotation: Denotation refers to the definition of the word. Connotation is the emotion or feeling caused by the word. Saying someone is “a mean man” just says that the man is not nice. However, saying that the man is sinister implies that he is evil. A risk is something to be concerned about, but a threat is scary. Idioms: An idiom is a phrase whose meaning cannot be deduced from the combined meaning of its words. Idioms may seem illogical, but the expression is the common way of expressing the idea. • Burn the midnight oil • Crash course • Bent out of shape • Jump the gun • Rubs me the wrong way 1.4 Punctuation Punctuation marks are used to organize writing. They are clues to the reader regarding the meaning of words and how they relate to each other. There are many rules for punctuation in Standard Written English. Key Punctuation Rules Individual words: • Items in a series: A series of similar words are separated by commas. o The books every student should have are a dictionary, thesaurus, and atlas. o The kitten is tiny, furry, and gray. • Distinguishing the plural from the possessive: The possessive form uses an apostrophe before the –s. The plural form adds an –s with no apostrophe. o The kitten’s fur is gray. o The books are valuable.  The placement of the apostrophe when a word is plural can be confusing. • Note: Different rules exist for forming the plural of compound words.  If both words are of equal importance, the –s is added to the second word. • Station wagons • Boys means more than one boy. • Boys’ means belongs to the boys.

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