Midterm review

Class Period

Room Number

Teacher

1 519 Flanigan

6 517 Maria

8 228 Fangio

On the day of the midterm:

Be on time!

Bring a sharpened #2 pencil!

MLA Formatting

Spacing (text)

Margins

Header or Heading?!!

Works cited page citations

In-text/parenthetical citations

Common writing errors

Passive and active voice

Dropped quotes

Misplaced or dangling modifier

Passive and active voice

Passive voice: subject receives the action of the verb(s): Example: The ball was thrown by the pitcher.

Active voice: The subject is doing the action: Example: The pitcher threw the ball.

Which is preferable and why?

Why use active voice?promotes conciseness.promotes clarity.promotes strong verb usage.

Why use passive voice?When the focus is on the action OR the agent is unknown

Decide what voice each sentence uses (passive or active)

1. Retailers nationwide and around the world carry many types of snowboards, and the consumers possess an immense choice in specially made snowboarding gear.

2. In 1965, the Snurfer (a word play on snow and surfer) was developed by inventors as a child’s toy.

3. A collection of snowboarding tricks and stunts was released on video in 1996.

4. From the first crudely built snowboards to the advanced and specialized models available today, snowboarders have carried a bad boy image.

The 3 I’s of quoting and paraphrasing

Introduce

Incorporate

Interpret

Dropped or introduced?

Harriet Jacobs, a former slave from North Carolina, published an autobiographical slave narrative in 1861. She exposed the hardships of both male and female slaves but ultimately concluded that "slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women” (Smith 83).

Dropped or introduced?Holden gets frustrated and decides to leave.  "People are always ruining things for you" (Salinger 88). Thus, Holden reveals his pessimistic nature.

What’s missing?

Gatsby is not to be regarded as a personal failure. "Gatsby turned out all right at the end" (Fitzgerald 176).

What’s missing?

Holden gets frustrated and decides to leave.  "People are always ruining things for you.” Thus, Holden reveals his pessimistic nature.

Misplaced ModifierWord, phrase or clause that seems to refer to an object in the sentence that it is not meant to refer to because of its placement in a sentence.

Example: I had to take down the shutters painting the house yesterday.

Question: What, according to the above sentence, is painting the house?

Corrected

Painting the house yesterday, I had to take down the shutters.