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LANGUAGE ARTS, LESSON II

The following is a brief outline of the skills that the Language Arts section focuses on. Each of these should be in the mental checklist that you review when going over the texts and individual sentences in the exam. Understanding the tips in the following grammar sections should help you spot any errors in the questions on the GED. Each of these lessons should be helpful in the four categories that the test makers use as criteria for grading. Remember that these four criteria are, in order of frequency: Sentence Structure, Usage, Mechanics, and Organization.

WORD CONFUSION

A common word that is often misused is “which”. “Which” should only be used in reference to things. For example:

Correct Usage: “Nikki's car, which is bright canary yellow, is both reliable and cool.”

Incorrect Usage: “Is Christy the girl which you are going to the prom with?

Another term commonly used in place of "which" is “that.” “That” can be used to refer to either things or people. For example:

“Is this the only candy that you sell at this store?”

or

“Is Christy the girl that you are going to the prom with?”

Another mistake that is common in word confusion is that “who" should only refer to persons, never places or things. For example:

“Prince was an amazing artist who (or that) wrote the song 'Purple Rain'.”

COMMAS

The most basic use of commas is to create a pause and break the flow of a text. An easy way to determine whether a comma is necessary in a certain passage is to first read through the text and pause at each place where a comma has been inserted. If the pause feels natural, the comma is probably in the right place. If the pause feels unnatural, then the comma has probably been misplaced, and you must remove it and possibly re-insert it in a place that feels more natural. The test writers often use run-ons and comma splices as errors that need to be fixed. With some practice, you will be able to recognize these fairly easily and fix them when necessary.

     1. Nonessential Clauses and Phrases

Commas are used to set apart nonessential clauses and nonessential participle phrases from the rest of the sentence. Using the method described above, it is fairly easy to determine if a comma is the appropriate form of punctuation for a sentence. Remember that commas are used to set apart nonessential parts of the text. In other words, if the sentence can make sense on its own, without the phrase set apart by the comma, then the phrase is nonessential and a comma is appropriate. To discover whether or not a clause is essential, simply remove it from the sentence. If the removal of the clause changes the meaning of the sentence, then the clause is essential. An example follows:

Mick Jagger, who recently celebrated his fiftieth birthday, is the lead singer of the Rolling Stones.

In the example above, the focal point of the sentence is that Mick Jagger is the singer of the Rolling Stones. The fact that he recently celebrated his birthday is not essential to the rest of the sentence and is therefore not a necessary part of it. As a result, separating the clause “who recently celebrated his fiftieth birthday” with commas is correct. You should not use a comma to separate a phrase or clause that is necessary in understanding the meaning of the sentence. An example is below:

Everyone who is obsessed with rock and roll knows Keith Moon played drums for the Who.

If the phrase “who loves rock and roll” was removed from the sentence the sentence would imply that everyone knows Keith Moon played in the Who, not just those who are obsessed with rock and roll. This statement would of course be false, so the inclusion of "who is obsessed with rock and roll” is necessary to the meaning of the sentence. The phrase is essential, and therefore does not need a comma to set it apart.

Another way to determine whether or not a clause is essential to the sentence is to see if the comma appears at the beginning or if it appears at the end of the sentence. In standard written English, it is essential that parallel, consistent punctuation is utilized. Therefore, if you determine that a comma should be included at one side of the clause, then you can be certain that another parallel comma should exist on the other side of the clause.

     2. Independent Clauses

When any of the words listed below join independent clauses, a comma should be placed in front of the joining word. Familiarize yourself with these joining words - they often signal independent clauses and are clues that a sentence may need a comma. In the Language Arts Writing Part One Section, errors that include commas are very common, so be aware of the differences between dependent and independent clauses and when and where commas should be used to indicate them. This list of words will help you recognize when a sentence may be joining two independent clauses and when a comma is necessary. The words are:

And

But

Or

Nor

For

Yet

So

To determine whether two clauses are independent (and therefore require a comma), simply remove the word that is joining the two clauses. If the two clauses are able to stand on their own as independent sentences, then they are independent clauses and must have a comma separating them (along with one of the above joining words.) An example of two independent clauses joined with a connecting word and a comma is below:

Kate bought some ice cream, and then she bought some chocolate syrup to make a sundae.

Both of these clauses could stand as sentences on their own: “Kate bought some ice cream” is a complete sentence that includes the three components you should always remember to look for in a complete sentence: S, P, and C (Subject, Predicate and Complete Thought.) The second independent participle can also stand on its own: “Then she bought some chocolate syrup to make a sundae.” This sentence also contains an S, P, and C. Because both of these clauses can stand as independent sentences, we know that there must be a comma before the joining word “and.”

However, if one of the two clauses that are joined in the sentence is a fragment when separated from the other clause, then no comma is needed between the two phrases. The general rule is that if one of the phrases cannot be separated into an independent sentence, then it is dependent on the rest of the sentence and therefore does not require a comma to set it apart. An example of a situation in which there is one independent clause joined with a fragment is below:

Kate bought some ice cream and some chocolate syrup to make a sundae.

Look at the two parts of the sentence when separated without the joining word “and”:

Kate bought some ice cream.

Some chocolate syrup to make a sundae.

While the first part of the sentence is an independent clause and can stand as an independent sentence, the second clause is a sentence fragment and is not capable of being a sentence on its own. As a result, no comma is needed to join the sentence: “Kate bought some ice cream and some chocolate syrup to make a sundae.”

One should note, however, that commas are also used to separate lists of items in a series with the joining word “and.” An example would be, “I like birds, cats, dogs, and rabbits.” In sentences such as this one, a comma is not always necessary between the last two items in the list (this is technically optional), but should be used to separate all of the other items.

For example: “Yesterday, Jennifer went to school the store Jane's house her sister's house and the park.

This sentence is incorrect because there should be a comma separating each place that Jennifer went. The only place where a comma is not absolutely necessary is between “house” and “and” at the end of the sentence.

     3. Parenthetical Expressions and the Use of Commas

A comma should always separate sentences that include parenthetical expressions. A parenthetical expression can occur either at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence. These are often easy to spot as “asides” in a paragraph. They are not essential to meaning, and they can often be recognized because they require a natural pause or break in the sentence to occur. Some common parenthetical expressions that require commas are:

By the way,

After all,

In fact,

For example,

On the other hand,

When a parenthetical expression is at the beginning of a sentence, a comma should immediately follow it. This would look something like this:

In fact, I've always been interested in ice-skating.

When a parenthetical expression is in the middle of a sentence, a comma separates the entire clause - there will be a comma both before the parenthetical clause and after it. This type of parenthetical clause looks like this:

He is, after all, one of my favorite dancers.

It is important to remember that the above expressions (by the way, after all, in fact, for example, on the other hand) are not always used parenthetically. If you run across a sentence in which you feel the clause is not being used parenthetically, commas are not needed. It is fairly easy to determine whether or not a clause is being used parenthetically by using the same "natural pause” technique that was discussed above. Simply read through the sentence and see if the pause in the sentence where the expression is placed feels natural. If the pause sounds natural, the sentence is most likely parenthetical, and you will need commas. An example in which one of the common parenthetical phrases is not used parenthetically is below:

I can always tell by the way she laughs if she is really amused or if she is merely pretending.

In the above sentence, there is no pause necessary. This becomes extremely apparent if you read the sentence and try to add a pause at “by the way.” In this way, you can tell that commas are not necessary around the phrase since it is not being used as an aside or parenthetically.

Another common punctuation trick you may see involves items in a series. Several items in a series will contain commas in between them, but additional items in the series will not have the necessary commas. Punctuation should always be consistent and should never be alternated. For example, if there is a dash in the beginning of a sentence, there should not be a parenthesis at the end of the sentence. This would be inconsistent with the punctuation at the beginning of the sentence and should be easy to spot as an error. Never alternate punctuation. Remember this rule for the writing section of the Language Arts Exam as well. If there is a dash at the beginning of a statement, a parenthesis should not follow.

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