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My notes of the lesson. 👇

In this course you will learn the basic structure of a sentence.

How to put all your sentences together to form a paragraph and how to combine your paragraphs to create a complete text.

#NeverStopLearnig 🚀

Capitalization, Abbreviation, and Indentation.

Capitalization

Is when you write the first letter of a word in upper case and the remaining letters in lowercase. There are some basic rules for that. Let’s see the first one:

• The first letter of a sentence

My name is Fernanda

• The pronoun “I”

My sister and I watch TV.

• Names and Titles

This is Mr. Jones.

• Cities and Countries

I live in Bogotá, Colombia.

• Nationalities and languages

I am Colombian, and I speak Spanish.

• Days/Months/Holidays

Today is Sunday, February 14th. It’s Valentine’s Day!

Abbreviation

Abbreviations are the shortened form of a word, and we are going to start seeing two different types.

Acronym

We can form an acronym using the first letter of different words. You can say an acronym as a word. Examples:

• PIN (Personal Identification Number)
• Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
• LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation)

Initialism

It is similar to an acronym. We also form an initialism using the first letter of other words. But the difference here is you cannot say an initialism as a word. In this case, you have to say a letter by letter like:

• DIY (Do It Yourself)
• USA (United States of America)
• DVD (Digital Versatile Disk)

You can also form some abbreviations by removing some letters of one single word.

• Titles

Mr. Jones.

Dr. Gonzalez.

• Places

5th Ave.

Main St.

• Times/Dates

10 am.

Jan.

Mon.

• Units of measurement

20 g.

80 oz.

In American English 🇺🇸

You normally put a period in the end of the abbreviation, like:

• Mr.
• Dr.
• Mon.

In British English 🇬🇧

You only use the period in the end of the abbreviation if the last letter of the abbreviation is different from the original word.

• Mr
• Dr
• Mon.

Paragraph Format

First-line Indent:

In this format, you have to leave a small space between the edge and the beginning of your text. You use this kind of format to write biographies, narratives and academic publications. This kind of format makes your reader read your text in a linear way.

Block

As the name says, we write our paragraphs in blocks, and instead of leaving a blank space in the edge of the paper, you are going to leave a blank space between paragraphs. This type of format gives the idea to your reader that all the information is inside each paragraph. Very common when you are writing guides or manuals.

Writing process

• What do you want to communicate?
• Why is it important?
• Who is your audience?

1. Prewriting: You are going to all the possible topics and ideas.
2. Drafting: You are going to use all the ideas you had during prewriting and put them down on pape.
3. Revising:  You are going to look for your format and content. You can go back to drafting and revising as many times as you need.
4. Editing:  You are going to fix grammar errors, capitalization, and punctuation errors.
5. Publishing: You are going to share the writing with your audience.

PARTS OF SPEECH

• VERB: Can you please close the door?
• NOUN: It came to a close.
• ADJECTIVE: We are close friends.
• ADVERB: Don’t be so close to each other.

Types of sentences

A group of words, usually containing a verb, that expresses a thought in the form of a statement, question, instruction, or exclamation and starts with a capital letter when written

GO!

The shortest grammatically correct sentence in English. Is an example of a sentence using only one word.

I am

The shortest complete sentence in English. It is complete because contains a subject, “I”, and the verb “am”.

• Declarative (statement)

I like chocolate.

I don’t like chocolate.

• Imperative (command)

Eat

Don’t eat!

• Interrogative (question)

Don’t you like chocolate?

Where is your house?

• Exclamative (exclamation)

What a surprise!

How nice!

Structure

• Simple
• Compound
• Complex
• Compound-complex

Simple:

Independent clause

Compound:

Independent clause + Independent clause

Clauses

A clause is a group of words containing a verb, a subject and an idea.

Independent Clause

Contains a subject

• Contains a SUBJECT, a VERB, and a complete idea.

I drink coffe.

Mary and Ana study English.

Run-on sentence

We have a new student He is from Italy.

Combining sentences.

• Period

We have a new student. He is from Italy.

• Semicolon

We have a new student; he is from Italy.

• Coordinating conjunction

We have a new student, and he is from Italy.

Coordinating Conjuction

• Join two elements
• Make the idea sound more fluent
• FANBOYS: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yer, and So
• Comma beffore the conjuction

Combining sentences

• I live in Colombia.
• You live in Mexico.

I live in Colombia, and you live in Mexico.

• John wants to play soccer.
• John is sick.

John wants to play soccer, but he is sick.

Connectors

Connectors are linking words, we can use to connect other words, phrases and paragraphs.

• Addition: And.
• Cause and effect: Because.
• Comparison: In the same way.
• Conclusion: In conclusion.
• Contrast: However.
• Emphasis: Actually.
• Illustration: For example.
• Time and sequence: First, Next.

Parallel structure

Is used when we write something in a series. The idea is to balance all the elements in this series, and we can use the parallel structure in different situations.

Verbs

• WRONG: I like eating pizza, listening to music, and to play soccer.
• CORRECT: I like eating pizza, listening to music, and playing soccer.

Verbs + nouns

• WRONG: They read books and music.
• CORRECT: They read books and listen to music.

Noun + number

• WRONG: They sell pineapples, oranges, and an apple in the supermarket.
• CORRECT: They sell pineapples, oranges, and apples in the supermarket.

Subject matter

• WRONG: I finished my project, and I ate cake.
• CORRECT: I finished my project, and I ate cake to celebrate.

Punctuation

• WRONG: My cousin traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, New York, USA; and Barcelona, Spain
• CORRECT: My cousin traveled to Bogotá, Colombia; New York, USA; and Barcelona, Spain.

Paragraph Structure

We can compare a paragraph to a sandwick. It has different layers, but in the paragraph, these layers are the sentences. In a basic paragraph, there are three different types of a sentences.

• Topic sentence
• Supporting sentences
• Concluding sentence

Clear topic + Main idea

I love bananas because they are convenient, delicious, and nutritious.

What to avoid

• Facts: One out of ten people doesn’t eat fruits.
• Too general idea: Fruits are good.
• Announcing the topic: In this paragraph I am going to talk about fruits.

Supporting Sentences

Can be examples of your topic. Can be a reason why you think like that; a description; some arguments; an they can be cause and effects, and so on. Remember, when you are going to start writing, you have to go through some stages.

The first one is the prewriting. In this stage, you should gather all the ideas about your main topic, and put them down on paper.

• Examples
• Reasons
• Descriptions
• Arguments
• Causes & Effects
• Details

Bananas are convenient, delicious, and nutritious.

Concluding sentence

Can be the summary of your paragraph, your final thoughts, your personal opinion.

• Summary
• Final thoughts
• Personal opinion
• Transition

Checklist:

• Clear topic sentence
• Supporting sentences relate to the topic
• Sentences connect
• Concluding without new information

Personal Profile

• What is your name / last name?
• Do you have a nickname? What is it?
• Where are you from?
• Where do you live?
• How old are you?
• When is your birthday?
• What do you study?
• What is your occupation?
• What languages do you speak?
• What is your favorite color?
• Are you single or married?
• Do you have kids? How many?
• Do you have pets? How many?
• Do you have brothers or sisters? How many?
• What are your hobbies?
• What do you usually do in your free time?
• What is your favorite food? Why?

Informal Email

• Beginning: (greeting and opening)
• Middle: (giving news and talking about plans)
• End: (closing and name)

Formal Email

• Beginning: the greeting (using titles) and your opening statement.
• Middle: explain the reason for your email.
• End: the closing message and your first and last name.

Review

• Genre
• Characters
• Plot
• Positives
• Negatives
• Rating

Biography

• Occupation
• Nationality
• Birthday
• Family
• Specific information
• Favorites