The Nuts and Bolts of Writing
Event Information
About this Event
These workshops, to be held each Tuesday evening in February, will cover some of the nuts and bolts of English, including basic grammatical rules that are often forgotten, and common errors.
Outline:
Week One (2nd February): Who are we all? Meeting the group. What is Grammar? What are the pros and cons of following rules of grammar? Whose language is it, anyway? What is a sentence? Simple sentences and complex ones. How to build a sentence from scratch. Things to avoid.
Week Two (9th February): Parts of speech. Learn the names and functions of the words in a sentence and when to use them: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions. What is a participle? What happens when it dangles? Learn the correct use of personal pronouns (You and I or You and me?)
Week Three (16th February): Punctuation. Learn when to use commas; know the difference between a colon and a semi-colon; meet the Three Dashes, and find out when to use them; solve the great mystery of the apostrophe — it ain’t so hard.
Week Four (23rd February): Finding the right word. Forget catch-all words with no meaning, and find new or different words to replace the ones you use all the time. Improve your active vocabulary. Meet pairs of words that are often confused, and stop confusing them. Go home a better writer.
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The sessions will be interactive, and participants will be invited to express their own opinions and preferences for discussion. Some writing exercises will be given, so bring pen or pencil and a special notebook you will be able to refer to later, when you think you have forgotten everything.
Although enrolment in individual sessions is possible, each week will build on the one before, so attendance at all four workshops is encouraged. All workshops will run from 5-6.30pm and light refreshments will be provided.
About your facilitator:
Pat Lowe is a grammarian and chief editor at Backroom Press Inc. She has written more than a dozen books and conducted numerous writing workshops over many decades, helping many to improve their craft.
