Final Exam Review

Because global writing issues like paragraph development, paragraph focus, and essay focus are evaluated through your essays, the final exam will focus mainly on sentence level issues.  To ensure thorough preparation, be sure you understand the following issues:

• Verb tense consistency
• "They" and "their" as plural pronouns
• Title format
• End punctuation with quotation marks (inside or outside)
• Passive voice versus active voice
• Wrong word errors: there/their, its/it's, everyday/every day, quote/quotation
• Indicating numbers (using numerals or text)
• Pronoun-antecedent agreement
• Vague pronoun reference
• Comma splices
• Run ons
• Independent versus subordinate (dependent) clauses
• Compound sentences with commas and coordinating conjunctions
• Compound sentences with semicolons
• Hyphens versus dashes
• Dashes, commas, or parentheses with non-restrictive elements
• Commas after introductory elements
• The serial comma 

You will have an opportunity to ask questions about any of these concepts during our final two meetings.  Furthermore, this week's online assignment will serve as a review of some of these concepts.

Keep in mind that you will be able to use your handbook during the final exam, so don't spend too much time memorizing every rule.

I'll have some practice questions for you in class.