Basic Grammar & Academic Conventions

1. Do NOT use an apostrophe to make words plural. 2. Do NOT end a sentence with a preposition or a linking verb. 3. Do NOT use 1st or 2nd person. 4. Do NOT use Contractions, Questions, or Exclamation points. 5. Do NOT use Passive Voice. 6. Do NOT use a semicolon (;) in place of a comma. Semicolons join two independent clauses that are working together. 7. Do NOT Start a Sentence with What, How, Why, Where, Who or Which. 8. Do NOT Place What or How in the middle of a sentence. 9. Use a comma when discussing a series of more than 2 items. 10. Put all structures within a sentence in the same grammatical form. 11. Do NOT confuse the nominative form of the pronoun with the objective form. 12. Know the difference between Lie and Lay and use them correctly. 13. Do NOT use Of as a substitution for Have. 14. Do NOT use Now in Day or Nowadays. 15. Do NOT confuse these words: Loose & Lose Its & Its Well & Good Further & Farther Then & Than Too, Two, & To Theyre, Their, There