Many of the grad students I work with struggle with grammar and usage issues. In some cases it’s because the students are English learners, and in others it’s simply that the students’ undergrad education didn’t prepare them well enough for the rigors and high standards of graduate level writing. In other cases still, the students may have simply become “rusty” or forgotten important grammar knowledge, often as a result of being out of school for years.
Whatever the reasons, students need help. That’s why I put together the “Grammar for Grad Students” workshop series.
NOTE: To see upcoming “live” workshops being offered at the CSULB Graduate Studies Resource Center, visit this page.
Full Workshop Video: Grammar 4 Grad Students – A Crash Course (72 min)
Below is a video of my new (2022) workshop, “Grammar for Grad Students: A Crash Course,” which is my attempt at combining the best features of the older crash course video and the full workshop slides (both of which you can find further down on this page). To see whether I was successful in this attempt, you can watch the video or download the slides below:
Note: The browser plays a 1-hour preview. For videos longer than 1 hour, download the file and watch it from your computer (Steps: 1. Click on the video to open the Dropbox video page. 2. Use the “download” button, usually located on the top left of the page).
Download the slides here:
Video: Crash course in grammar, usage, & style (49 min)
This is my slightly older (2020) grammar crash course video. Here’s what I wrote about it in 20202:
As a supplement to my workshop materials (that are posted further down on this page), I recorded the video below as a brief overview of some of the most common problems I encounter in student writing. If you’re short on time, or just need a simple starting point, watch the video here or by clicking on the image below:
You can also view/download the PowerPoint slides here:
Video: Addendum on Apostrophes (11 min)
A helpful student pointed out an error, or overstatement, that I made in the previous “Crash Course on Grammar” video–specifically, an error regarding apostrophes. So, in the following video, I remedy the error and set the record straight.
You can also view/download the PowerPoint slides here:
Grammar for Grad Students
Grammar for Grad Students (or, affectionately, “G4GS”) is a series of workshops that, with a nod to Thomas A. Garrity, offer a rapid review of “all the grammar you forgot, but need to know for graduate school.” The PowerPoint slides, available below, were designed to work as self-teaching tools, so they should be pretty self-explanatory. Below each presentation I include a link to some sample exercises and, if applicable, other good sites that offer further exercises and/or instruction.
G4GS Session 1: “In the beginning was the word… and later there were some problems with agreement.”
Topics covered: The 8 parts of speech; subject-verb agreement; pronoun-antecedent agreement; gender neutral pronoun use.
Exercises:
Other useful sites:
Purdue Owl: Making Subjects and Verbs Agree.
APA: Welcome Singular “They”.
Khan Academy: Subject-verb agreement and Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
G4GS Session 2: “The verb’s the thing: Everything you ever wanted to know about verbs but were afraid to ask”
Topics covered: Verb tense (past, present, past perfect); voice (passive vs. active); perfective aspect; mood (e.g. subjunctive, imperative).
Exercises: No file for download – all exercises for Session 2 are included in the PowerPoint.
Other useful sites:
USC: Tightening Passive Sentences
USC: Verb Tenses
The Duke Graduate School Scientific Writing Resource does a great job summarizing some of the GOOD uses of the passive voice for maintaining cohesion. (scroll down or use CTRL+F and search for “passive”)
Finally, here’s an introductory handout I designed on the passive voice:
G4GS Session 3: “Punctuation and its Discontents”
Topics covered: Who cares about punctuation?; comma rules; the semi-colon; forming possessives (apostrophes).
Exercises:
Other useful sites:
Business Insider: 17 rules for using commas correctly without looking like a fool
Kristen Stieffel: Taming those pesky commas
The Oatmeal: How to use an apostrophe
ColonSemicolon.com: http://www.colonsemicolon.com/
And here’s an introductory handout I made on forming possessives:
G4GS SESSION 4: “Finishing Your Sentences: If You Can’t Do the Time, Don’t Do the (Word) Crime”
Topics covered: sentence completeness; sentence fragments; run-on sentences.
Exercises:
Other useful sites:
Grammarly: Comma Splice
USC: Writing and punctuating complete sentences
Purdue OWL: Sentence Fragments
G4GS Session 5: “Game of Sentence Elements: A Song of Parallelism and Modifiers”
Topics covered: faulty parallelism; misplaced modifiers
Exercises:
Other useful sites:
USC Writing Center: Parallel Structure
Hamilton: The Fifth Deadly Sin: Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
Purdue OWL: Dangling Modifiers and Parallel Structure
The Graduate Writing Guy :: Writing Tips for Grad School 