Thingamajigs and More Great Grammar Tips

For anyone who missed Writers Unite this past Friday, here is the agenda and an overview of what you missed. Who knew nouns could be so exciting?

Agenda                Writers Unite   

February 3rd, 2012

1.                 Welcome & Prayer

2.                 Get snacks, etc. Thank you Rosemary – snacks

3.                 Introduce any new members (sign clipboard) and outline what we do

4.                 Collection ($2) and update – treasurer’s report

5.                 Anyone had anything published or pending publication since last month?

6.                 Computer/blogging - Amanda - worksheets. Logo?

7.                 Homework sharing ( - bring a piece of work [WIP] along with the following: Working Title; audience; where you are submitting with details about the publisher/editor or periodical OR an idea of where you would like to submit. You have to tell us why it fits this particular market or publisher. This can be poetry, a chapter or portion of a chapter from a novel, an article, a short story, devotion, photograph with appropriate caption or story; song [must be played/sung after reading!] 

8.                 We will wait until next meeting to talk about INSCRIBE and other writing organizations

9.                  Grammatically speaking -  Round 2 (below) 8 Parts of Speech – focus on Nouns!

10.            CD presentation. Commando Reconstructing of Non-Fiction Manuscripts – Don Bastien (No time)

11.            Next meeting date?  _13th - April ? NOT Good Friday_____________

12.            Snacks?         Amanda - April

Eight Parts of Speech

1. Nouns are words that name people, places, things, or ideas.

2. Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns.

3. Verbs are words that show an action or a state of being.

4. Adjectives are words that describe nouns or pronouns.

5. Adverbs are words that describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

6. Prepositions are words that describe the relationship between a noun or pronoun and some other word or element in the rest of the sentence.

7. Conjunctions are words that join two or more words, phrases, or clauses.

8. Interjections are words that show emotion

Noun Notes!

What Is a Noun?

Everything You Wanted to Know

Look around you.

Everything that you see, you can name.

What do you see? A computer, the living room, Amanda, Bev, desk, chair, keys, etc

Nouns are words that name people, places, things, or ideas.

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Types of Noun

COMMON:

These name general, nonspecific people, places, things, or ideas. They start with a lowercase letter unless they begin a sentence.

For example: writer, city, class, religion, book, shoe

PROPER: These name specific people, places, things, or ideas. They always start with a capital letter.

For example: Victor Hugo, Paris, Disneyland, Christianity, Janet Martin,

ABSTRACT: These are the opposite of concrete. They name something that you cannot perceive with your five senses - something that does not physically exist.

For example: happiness, freedom, Christianity

CONCRETE: These name something that you can perceive with your five senses - something that physically exists.

For example: cat, chocolate, Martha

COUNTABLE: Yep. You guessed it. These can be counted, and they use both the singular and the plural forms. Anything that you can make plural is a countable noun.

For example: clock/clocks, David/Davids, poem/poems

UNCOUNTABLE: These cannot be counted. Since they cannot be counted, they only use the singular form. For example: milk, rice, water

*Note that you would never ask for milks, rices, or waters!

COMPOUND: These are made up of two or more smaller words.

For example: tablecloth, haircut, applesauce, baseball

COLLECTIVE: These are singular nouns that refer to a group of things as one whole.

For example: class, audience, family

SINGULAR: These refer to one person, place, thing, or idea.

For example: box, face, road, ball

PLURAL: These refer to more than one person, place, thing, or idea. They generally end in with an s.

For example: boxes, faces, roads, balls

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NOUN 'Jobs'

Out of all eight of the parts of speech, the noun performs the most jobs in a sentence.

SUBJECT: whom or what the sentence is about

e.g. Mary kicked the ball.

DIRECT OBJECT: - receives the action of the verb

e.g. Mary kicked the ball.

INDIRECT OBJECT:- receives the direct object

e.g. Mary kicked Jimmy the ball.

OBJECT OF THE PREPOSITION: the noun or pronoun after a preposition

e.g. Mary kicked the ball at Jimmy.

PREDICATE NOMINATIVE: renames the subject, always after a linking verb

e.g. Mary is a soccer player.

OBJECT COMPLEMENT: completes the direct object

e.g. They named the baby Becky.