College Writing

College Writing Study Guide • A comma should separate a long prepositional phrase that begins a sentence. For example, “with so many people going vegan, it’s best to consider whether we might alter our diet too.” • A comma should separate an introductory phrase that begins a sentence. For example, this sentence separates “for example” with a comma. • Commas should separate a non-essential adverbial or adjectival clauses. For example, “two people, walking in the woods, found a deer.” In this case, the author is indicating that “walking in the woods” is not essential to understanding the sentence. If the author removed the com- mas, s/he would be indicating that the adverbial clause is necessary to understanding the sen- tence. In this way, commas can be used stylistically to indicate where you want to put the emphasis in the sentence. • Commas separate appositives. For example, if you wrote, “I read Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, ” that would be incorrect because the comma indicates that Shakespeare only wrote one play, but the sentence, “My brother, John, read Shakespeare’s play Hamlet ,” indicates that the author only has one brother. • Commas separate independent clauses in if/then sentences. For example, if you have an inde- pendent clause preceded by “if,” then you should include a comma before “then.” Quotation marks indicate direct quotations either from a source or by a speaker. Usually, you will precede a quoted phrase with a comma. For example, he said, “I am completely sober.” Apostrophes indicate possession and should be combined with an S for all singular nouns. For ex- ample, that is James’s book, but it was originally Jeff’s. Apostrophes are used in contractions like “don’t” or “they’re.” Parentheses cordon off non-essential information or are used in citations. 2.5 Citation Styles and Source Integration The citation style used on the exam is MLA . The Modern Language Association popularized this cita- tion style, which is used in English studies and the humanities. While there are several other styles, like Chicago, APA, and AMA, similar rules apply to each even though the formatting will be slightly different. There are four elements to every MLA ci tation. Ensuring that you have each element for everything that you cite will prevent any accusations of plagiarism, which is a serious, career-threatening offense. 1. Introductory Comment – An introductory comment, or a signal phrase, indicates to your reader that your ideas have stopped and the source’s ideas have begun. Examples of popular introductory comments include “According to,” “As [author’s name] said,” and “[Author’s

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