atw: ASTC VIC: A grammar and punctuation refresher (15.11.03)
- From: "Fiona Gologranc" <fionamg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Austechwriter" <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 20:06:45 +1000
ASTC VIC Presents:
Grey Areas and Gremlins:
A grammar and punctuation refresher
With Deb Doyle
As a writer, you can choose to make peace or war with your readers: is your
message pleasant, effective, alive, clear and enduring, or waffly, ambiguous
and ridiculous? It all gets down to your grammar and punctuation skills. You
use Deb's self-published book of the same name to launder your grey areas,
exterminate the gremlins in your kitchen, and face your fears about the subject
you weren't taught properly at school or uni.
You learn the nine parts of speech, the four elements for constructing English,
the 17 punctuation marks, the four registers of English, and the differences
between speech and writing. Deb defines each aspect, presents examples of the
most common grammatical problems encountered by writers and editors, and shares
ways to solve the problems once and for all.
You apply the learning immediately by responding to questions and editing out
the problems in sample sentences. Empower yourself by knowing how or when to:
a.. avoid reverting to reification and nominalisation
b.. include an antecedent for the pronouns you choose
c.. hyphenate or reword compound adjectives as necessary
d.. write in the active voice
e.. use the conjunctions 'while', 'as' and 'since' in the correct context
f.. punctuate the adverb or connective 'however'
g.. choose the right preposition
h.. recognise the four types of sentence
i.. identify the subject, verb and predicate of a clause or sentence
j.. separate two or more independent clauses by using the best punctuation
mark
k.. use 'that' or 'which' as the relative pronoun
l.. avoid settling for 'dangling modifiers'
m.. un-split the infinitive
n.. add the second 's' after the apostrophe in possessive nouns ending in 's'
o.. use the en dash as both a textual dash and a linking device
p.. create parallel structure in bulleted lists
q.. write succinct paragraphs.
Deb is a self-employed editor, writer and editorial-training consultant for a
wide range of publishers, authors, corporations, government departments and
professional associations.
Date: Saturday, 15 November
Time: 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
Location: CAE Business Education Centre, 253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Course fee: $225 ASTC Vic, ASTC NSW or SOCEDS Members; $300 non-member; $155
concession
Includes cost of Deb's recently published course booklet, Grey Areas and
Gremlins: A Grammar and Punctuation Refresher
Enrolment deadline: Monday, 3 November
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