Scholars Online Practical Grammar

Develop a disciplined approach to drafting, reviewing, and proof-reading your own compositions for common grammatical mistakes. Each lesson will include a pre-chat evaluation to help you identify your own particular writing problems. During chat, we'll focus on ways to recognize and avoid these problems so that you can write more clearly and precisely.

During this eight-week course we will learn to

• write complete sentences and avoid sentence fragments and run-on sentences
• make verbs and subjects agree, avoid tense shifts, and use passive voice appropriately
• use adverbs and adjectives properly, and avoid squinting or dangling modifies, split infinitives, and incomplete comparisons
• provide matching antecedents for pronouns and use pronouns in relative clauses
• recognize situations where similar words are misused
• use commas properly to set off interrupter phrases and mark lists
• use apostrophes properly for possession and contractions
• proofread final drafts and correct these common errors

Prerequisite: Students should be comfortable using a text editor or word processor and recent browser.

Meetings: The course meets once a week for 90 minutes. See the 2020 Schedule for topics.

Required Texts:

There is no text for this course. Materials will be available from the teacher's website.

Required Software:

Only a current version of one of the standard browsers is required.

© 2005 - 2021 This course is offered through Scholars Online, a non-profit organization supporting classical Christian education through online courses. Permission to copy course content (lessons and labs) for personal study is granted to students currently or formerly enrolled in the course through Scholars Online. Reproduction for any other purpose, without the express written consent of the author, is prohibited.