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• Possessive—(1) With object: my, your, his, her, its, their, our. (2) Without
object:
mine, yours, his, hers, its, theirs, ours.
• Demonstrative—This, that, these, those. (With no object, these are pro-
nouns; with an object, these become demonstrative adjectives.)
• Interrogative—(1) With people (
who, whom [Br.E. in initial position]),
whose. (2) With things (what, which).
Pronoun-antecedent agreement—The agreement in the person of the pro-
noun used and the noun it renames. Ex:
He left his coat.
Prose—In general, anything written that is not poetry.
Protagonist—The main character in a story, usually the good guy.
Relative—The headword that must agree with what it describes or refers
to (e.g., a person or an inanimate object). Ex:
Which refers to things
unless it refers to a specific human (e.g.,
which girl?); The man, who you
pointed out . . .
). The relative headword is controlled by agreement.
Regional color—The use of colloquial expressions in a written work to
give the writing an authenticity and the reader a feeling of being there.
Ex: “He shore do have a good car!”
Relative clause—See above. The relative headword plus verb construction,
in agreement with the headword and that which it modifies.
Satire—The use of humor to bite and tear down something or someone a
writer wants to comment against; can be vicious or benign.
Semicolon—The symbol ; that is used to separate independent clauses
without the presence of a coordinating conjunction. Ex:

reader infers from your work due to the method with which it was writ-
ten, specifically the diction used.
Transitional—A word, multiword phrase, sentence, or short paragraph that
links ideas, examples, or paragraphs.
Transitive verb—A verb that requires a direct object.
Abbreviations
V1—Base form of a verb
V2—Simple past tense
V3—Perfect form of a verb
S—Subject
DO—Direct object
IO—Indirect object
DOc—Direct object complement
IOc—Indirect object complement
Aux.—Auxiliary verb
HV—Helping verb (same as aux.)
MV—Main verb
LV—Linking verb
PP—Prepositional phrase
SC—Subject complement
Inf.—Infinitive
G or ger.—Gerund
DC—Dependent clause
IC—Independent clause
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Index
AAABBB method, 4, 7
ABAB method, 4–7
active voice, 130–131, 194–195,

apostrophes, 44–45
plural phrases and, 45
possesives and, 44
appositives, 36–37
articles, 116–117
audience, 15–17, 29, 41, 62
causative constructions, verbs and,
142–145
cause, effect, significance, 62–63, 64
cause-effect pod, 10–14
diagram, 11–12
sample, 11–12
clauses, 133–135.
See also specific
clause types
relative, 138–139
time relationships and, 265,
268
coherence, 14
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colons, 41–43
commas
afterthoughts and, 36, 45
appositives and, 36–37
descriptive phrases and, 39
formal rule, 33–34
gut rule, 34–36
ICs and, 35–36, 38

introduction, 22
sample, 24–26
either, neither, nor, 77–78
ellipsis, 164
embedding constructions, 147, 280
categories of, 153–154
essay elements, 3
evidentiary statements (ESs), 3–4
example/illustration pod, 27–28
diagrams, 27
exercises
4.1 noun types, 83–84
4.1 noun types: answers,
96–98
4.2 verb tenses, 92–93
4.2 verb tenses: answers,
99–100
4.3 verb types, 93–94
4.3 verb types: answers,
100–101
4.4 modal verbs, 96
4.4 modal verbs: answers,
101
4.5 comparatives and
superlatives, 115–116
4.5 comparatives and
superlatives: answers,
118–120
7.1 punctuation, 183–185
7.1 punctuation: answers, 205