BASIC ENGLISH GRAMMAR RULE 6 – There and here are never subjects.

In sentences
Subject Verb Agreement that begin with these words, the subject is usually found
later on in the sentence.
RULE 1 – A verb agrees with its subject in number.
Singular subjects take singular verbs:  There were five books on the shelf. (were,
agrees with the subject book)
 The car stays in the garage.
 Here is the report you wanted. (Is agrees with
 The flower smells good.
subject report)
There is an old saying: “Opposites attract.” The rule for
singular and plural verbs is just the opposite of the rule RULE 7 – Collective nouns may be singular or plural,
for singular and plural nouns. Remember this when you depending on their use in the sentence. A collective noun
match subjects and verbs. You might guess that stays and is a noun used to name a whole group. Following are
smells are plural verbs because they end in s. They aren’t. some common examples:
Both stays and smells are singular verbs.
army crowd orchestra audience flock
RULE 2 – The number of the subject (singular or plural) is public class group swarm club
not changed by words that come between the subject herd team committee jury troop
and the verb.
 “The orchestra is playing a hit song.”
 “One of the eggs is broken.” (Orchestra is considered as one unit—singular.)
Of the eggs is a prepositional phrase. The subject one  “The orchestra were asked to give their musical
and the verb is are both singular. Mentally omit the backgrounds.”
prepositional phrase to make the subject verb- (Orchestra is considered as separate individuals—plural)
agreement easier to make.
RULE 8 – Expressions of time, money, measurement, and
RULE 3 – Some subjects always take a singular verb even weight are usually singular when the amount is
though the meaning may seem plural. considered one unit.
These subjects always take singular verbs:  Five dollars is (not are) too much to ask.
 Ten days is (not are) not nearly enough time.
each someone one somebody
either anyone no one anybody On occasion, however these terms are used in the plural
neither nobody everyone everybody sense:
 There were thirty minutes to countdown.
 “Someone in the game was (not were) hurt.”
RULE 9 – Some nouns, while plural in form, are actually
 “Neither of the men is (not are) working.”
singular in meaning.
RULE 4 – The following words may be singular or plural,
depending upon their use in a sentence, some, any, all,  “Mathematics is (not are) an easy subject for
most. some people.”
 “Physics is (not are) taught by Prof, Baldwin.”
 Most of the news is good. (singular)
 Most of the flowers were yellow. (plural) Mumps home economics social studies
 All of the pizza was gone. (singular) economic measles calisthenics statistics
 All of the children were late. (plural) civics physics gymnastics phonics news
acrobatics aesthetics thesis mathematics
RULE 5 – Subjects joined by and are plural. Subjects
joined by or or nor take a verb that agrees with the last
subject. RULE 10 – Don’t and Doesn’t must agree with the
subject. Use doesn’t after he, she, it.
 Bob and George are leaving.  Doesn’t he (not don’t) know how to sail?
 Neither Bob nor George is leaving.  They don’t (not doesn’t) make movies like that
 Neither Bob nor his friends are leaving. anymore.
 TENSES
 Simple Past Tense
- This action ended in the past
 Simple Present Tense
- This action is a habit or repeated now
 Simple Future Tense
- This action will happen in the future
 Past Progressive Tense
- This action happened over time in the past.
- Most common use: to show this action was
happening over time when something
happened.
 Present Progressive Tense
- This action is happening right now
 Future progressive tense
- This action will happen over time in the future.
 Past perfect tense
- We use past perfect when we want to make it
clear that this action happened before
something in the past.
 Present perfect tense
- With a length of time, present perfect usually
means this action started in the past and has
continued until now.
- With no time phrase, present perfect usually
means the action ended in the past, but the
time is not clear.
 Future perfect tense
- We use future perfect when we want to make it
clear that this action will happen before
something in the future.
 Past perfect progressive tense
- We use past perfect progressive when we want
to make it clear that this action was happening
over time before something in the past.
 Present perfect progressive tense
- This action started in the past and has continued
until now.
 Future perfect progressive tense
- This action will happen over time before
something in the future.
READING ACADEMIC TEXTS
Academic writing
is a process that starts with posing a question,
problematizing a concept, evaluating an opinion, and
ends in answering the question/questions posed,
clarifying the problem, and/or arguing for a stand.
 Purpose
• To inform
• To argue a specific point
• To persuade
 Audience
• Your teacher
• Your peers who will read and evaluate your work
• Academic community
The assumption is that your audience is
composed of people who are knowledgeable on the
subject that you are writing about; thus you have to
demonstrate a thorough understanding of your subject at
hand
This makes academic writing different in which
the knowledge of the writer is assumed to be greater
than that of the readers
“Academic writing is thinking.”
- You cannot just write anything that comes to your
mind
- You have to abide by the set of rules and practices in
writing (referencing, grammar, etc.)
- You have to consider the background of your
audience
- Make sure you can back up your statement with a
strong and valid evidence
- You are expected to engage the readers in a
conversation by giving them clear ideas and points to
evaluate and question
 Structure
 Introduction
- Gains the reader’s attention
- Identifies the focus, or thesis, that is developed
in the main part of the essay
 Body
- Heart of an essay
- paragraphs must be clearly written and be
arranged in a logical order, like chronologically
or in order of importance
 - Each initial sentence links the preceding
paragraph and the whole section flows
smoothly
 Conclusion
- consists of one paragraph which shows the
final conclusion to the reader
- re-emphasize the thesis and summarize all the
main points
 Tone
 Formal
 Objective
 Third Person Point of View
Writing without consideration of personal
feelings or not biased to personal feelings
 Formal vs Informal Language
 Formal
- Is a type of language that you use in more
formal or serious situations
- At school, at a business, in a court, in essays
and academic papers, when talking with
someone important
 Informal
- It is a type of language you use in more laid
back and casual situations. It’s everyday
language
- At home, on the sports field, with your
friends, with family
Things to Avoid:
 Contractions
• The improvements can’t be introduced due
to funding restrictions.
• I don’t believe that the results are accurate.
• The research project won’t continue next
year.
 Phrasal verbs
• The balloon was blown up for the
experiment.
• The patient got over his illness.
• The results of the study were mixed up.
The balloon was inflated for the experiment.
The patient recovered from his illness.
The results of the study were confused.
 Slang
• The mob was very rowdy during the protest
against cuts to university funding.
• Lecturers still count on students to use correct
grammar and punctuation in essays.
• It was raining cats and dogs.
The crowd was very rowdy during the protest against
the cuts to university funding.
Lecturers expect students to use correct grammar and
punctuation in essays.
It was raining very heavily
 First person pronouns
• I considered various research methods for the
study.
• We believe the practice is unsustainable.
• During the interview I asked students about their
experiences.
Various research methods were considered for the
study.
It is believed the practice is unsustainable.
During the interview students were asked about their
experiences.
 Passive voice
• Our technician repaired the fault on 12th June.
Now it’s your turn to pay us.
Although the fault was repaired on 12th June, payment
for this intervention has still not been received.
 Acronyms
• TAFE - Technical and Further Education
• ANZAC - Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
• QANTAS - Queensland and Northern Territory
Aerial Services
What is Critical Reading?
• Involves scrutinizing any information that you
read and hear
• Is an active process of discovery
Means not easily believing information offered to
you by a text
When you read critically, you are not just receiving
information but also making an interaction with the
writer. The interaction happens when you question the
writer’s claims and assertions and when you comment on
the writer’s ideas
“Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and
take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to
weigh and consider”
Francis bacon, the essays

Requirements in Critical Thinking
• The ability to pose problematic questions
• The ability to analyze a problem in all its dimensions
• The ability to find, gather, and interpret data, facts and
other information relevant to the problem
• The ability to imagine alternative solutions to the
problem
• The ability to analyze competing approaches and
answers
• The ability to write an effective argument justifying
your choice while acknowledging counter-arguments
Techniques in Critical Reading
 Annotate what you read
• To write on the text
• You can underline, circle or highlight words,
phrases or sentences that contain important
details, or you can write marginal notes asking
questions or commenting on the ideas of the
writer
 Outline the text
• Identify the main points of the writer and list
them down so you can also identify that the
writer has raised to support his/her stand
 Summarize the text
• Get the main points of the text you are reading
and write its gist in your own words
 Evaluate the text
• You question the author’s purpose and
intentions, as well as his/her assumptions in the
claims
SUMMARIZING AND PARAPHRASING
What is summarizing?
 Summarizing is a technique used to obtain the
essential part of an original source.
 It is a concise statement of the most important
points taken from another text.
 It is a good technique to use when writing a
research paper.
 A summary is defined as a brief statement
covering all the main points within a text
What is paraphrasing?
 Paraphrasing is the process of presenting
information from an original source in your own
words
 In writing an academic text, it is inevitable that
you would have to include various ideas from
various sources as supporting evidences
 You must appropriately recognize the original
source to avoid violation of copyright laws
Common Types of Plagiarism
 Word-for-Word (verbatim) Plagiarism
 Word Order Plagiarism
 Idea Plagiarism
Things to remember:
 Read the text until the meaning or main idea of
the passage is clear
 Put the original text away to discourage any
similarities between the summary and the
source. Use your own words!
 Be concise. Use only the central points of the
source, anything that is not relevant to the main
point should not be considered
 Avoid being repetitive.
 It helps to use a highlighter or red pen to indicate
the most important points of the article
 Juxtapose your summary with the original text. If
they look the same then it’s not really a
summary.
Example:
Unfortunately, many people don’t take notes
effectively. Some try to write down everything a
speaker says. They view note taking as a race, pitting
their handwriting agility against the speaker’s rate of
speech. As the speaker starts to talk, the note taker
starts to write. But soon the speaker is winning the
race. In a desperate effort to keep up, the note taker
slips into a scribbled writing style with incomplete
sentences and abbreviated words. Even this is not
enough. The speaker pulls so far ahead that the note
taker can never catch up. Finally, the note taker
concedes defeat and spends the rest of the speech
grumbling in frustration.
Ineffective note taking becomes a problem
during a speech. Often it leads to confusion and writing
verbatim what the speaker is stating. This may result in a
lack of sufficient information recorded on page (Lucas,
1998).
 REACTION PAPER
HOW TO WRITE A REACTION PAPER
 Pre-writing Process
1. Choosing your topic
• Brainstorming
- When you respond with ideas and concepts
related to the broad concept generating
possible topics for your paper.
• Freewriting
- Is similar to brainstorming in that you just
write any idea that comes to your mind
- The catch is to put down into writing the
ideas that you think of so that later on you
will be able to generate ideas and narrow
them down into a single topic for your
paper.
• Clustering
- Ballooning or mapping
- A graphic representation of your ideas ,
allowing you to visualize the connections
and/or relationships of your ideas
2. Focus on one idea
- Make sure that you focus on one idea that
you are going to discuss thoroughly in your
paper
- Ponder on the reason why you are writing
3. Knowing your purpose and identifying your
audience
- Determining your purpose will help you
communicate clearly your ideas to your
readers
- The knowledge, interests, attitudes, and
needs of your reader will give you an idea
as to how you will organize your points and
claims in such a way that you can establish
a common ground with your readers
 Writing Process
Thesis Statement
- Is the claim or stand that you will develop in
your paper. It is the controlling idea of your
essay
- a strong thesis statement usually contains
an element of uncertainty, risk, or challenge
- Your thesis statement should not merely
announce something or state a fact
This means that your thesis statement should offer a
debatable claim that you can prove and disprove in your
essay, to let your readers agree or disagree with you
Example:
Women and men are born to perform specific roles.
(Non-debatable claim, there is nothing to contest in the
statement)
Although there seem to be specific roles assigned to
women and men, those roles should never dictate nor
limit women and men to do other things that are beyond
their assigned roles (Debatable claim, challenges the
stereotypical roles assigned to women and men)
Organizing Your Paper
Finding the connections of one point to another
and establishing a link from one idea to another
• Avoid the obvious content
• Take the less usual side
Explore on topics, take the side that would
engage your reader into an argument or that would
make him/her think twice about her side.
• Slip out of abstraction
Be specific with your ideas, give specific examples
like specific person; ex. Miriam Santiago’s towering
role as a woman.
• Call a fool a fool
Don’t be scared to show what you feel, but in a
formal way.
Reaction Paper
DEFINITION
A reaction paper is a response, or reaction, to
some sort of prompt. The prompt may be a question, a
current, event, or a form of media, including movies or
video clips.
Reaction paper help us in our everyday decisions:
from what movie we should watch (movie reviews),
clothing we should wear, and causes that we should
believe in
Modern iterations of the reaction paper are
movie reviews, gadget review, trip advisor post, travel,
restaurant, social phenomenon or common experience
Ex. In social media wherein we like sharing everything we
want to experience or see.
 TIPS ON WRITING
 Understand the purpose of a reaction paper.
• think carefully about what you feel or think
about the text
• evaluate the text's strengths and weaknesses,
along with if and how well the text accomplishes
its objective
Back up your ideas with evidences from the
prompt itself. It is not a summary.
• these papers require a close reading of the text
that goes beyond the surface meaning. You must
respond to implied ideas, and elaborate,
evaluate, and analyze the author's purpose and
main points

 Read the text you are assigned right after it is

assigned
• A reaction paper synthesizes the texts, which
means you take the information you read and
bring it together so you can analyze and evaluate
• One of the biggest mistakes that students make
is waiting until the last minute to read and react.
A reaction is a thoughtful consideration after
reading and rereading several times

 Annotate the text as you read

As you read through the text again, annotate it.
Annotating in the margins of the text allows you to easily
locate quotations, plot lines, character development, or
reactions to the text

 Question as you read

As you read the text, you have to start
questioning the text. This is where your evaluation of the
material and your reaction begins. Some questions to
consider include:

 What issues or problems does the author address?

 What is the author's main point?
 What points or assumptions does the author make,
and how does she back that up?
 What are strengths and weaknesses? Where are
problems with the argument?
 How do the texts relate? (if multiple texts)
 How do these ideas connect to the overall ideas of
the class/unit/etc.?