Practice Strategies

If your instructor marks an error code on your paper, you can use one or more of these strategies to correct the error:

1. Check the blue Handbook pages at the back of your text for a general explanation and some examples.
2. Visit Exercise Central.
   Match the error code to a practice exercise. For example, P1 indicates that the mistake is a punctuation error. Any Exercise Central activity coded P1 will help you correct the error. Click on Student Scorecard to get your score.
3. Explore the online resources.
   These resources include more detailed explanations and interactive quizzes. The resources at the beginning of the list are the easiest.
4. If you run across too many unfamiliar words or concepts, the Review section of this site can help. (Many resources on the Practice page are written for people who know the parts of speech and basic grammatical terms like subject and predicate.)

S1 Comma splices

S1

Run-on Sentences

Fixing Comma Splices

Summary of Solutions

Avoiding Comma Splices, Fused Sentences, and Run-ons

Sentence Sense (tutorial)

Comma Splices

Fused Sentences (how to fix)

Avoiding Comma Splices, Fused Sentences, and Run-ons

Sentence Fragments

Common Causes of Fragments

Sentence Fragments (tutorial)

Stylistic Fragments

Sentence Fragments: Exercise 1

Grammatical Sentences (G)

G1 Pronoun Reference

G1

Pronouns

To Search for Problems with Pronoun Agreement or Reference

Pronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement (Darling)

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement (LEO)

Pronoun Cases

Incorrect Pronoun Case

Verbs and Verbals

Active and Passive Verbs

Subject-Verb Agreement (Darling)

Subject-Verb Agreement (UW Madison)

Identifying Verbs and Their Subjects

Making Subjects and Verbs Agree

Subject and Verb Agreement (LEO)

To Search for Problems with Subject-Verb Agreement

Subject-Verb Agreement (tutorial)

Modifying Phrases or Clauses Between Subject and Verb (tutorial)

Adjectives

Adverbs

Punctuation (P)

P1 Commas

P1

Comma Errors

Comma/Period

Commas (restrictive/nonrestrictive modifiers)

Omitted Commas

Using Commas: Exercise 1

Capitalization and Punctuation: Comma (tutorial)

Punctuating Independent Clauses and Dependent Clauses
(see "disruptive commas")

Superfluous Commas

Semicolon Rules

Using Semicolons

Uses of the Semicolon

Commas vs. Semicolons: Exercise 1

Semicolon (tutorial)

Colon Rules

Semicolon and Colon

Punctuating Quotations: Colon

The Dash

When to Use the Dash

Quotation Marks

Gallery of "Misused" Quotation Marks

The Apostrophe

Apostrophe Rules

Apostrophe Errors

Apostrophes: Exercise 1

Apostrophes: Exercise 2

Abused Apostrophes

Parentheses (Darling)

Parentheses (tutorial)

Brackets (Darling)

Brackets (LEO)

P10 Ellipsis Marks

Ellipses (Darling)

Ellipses (LEO)

Punctuating Quotations: Ellipses

The Slash or Virgule

Slash Mark

P12 Periods

Periods

Period (scroll to "Period")

Punctuating Quotations: Period

Question Marks

Punctuating Quotations: Question Mark

Punctuating Quotations: Exclamation Point

The Exclamation Mark

Exclamation Point (tutorial)

L1 Articles

L1

Articles

A or An

The Use and Nonuse of Articles

Verbs/Verbals

Tenses in English

Summary of Verb Tenses

Subject-Verb Inversion

Prepositions

English Online: Prepositions

Verbs and Prepositions

To Search for Omitted Words

Tricks of the Trade

Participles

Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers

Effective
Sentences (E)

E1 Missing Words

E1

Agreement

Consistency of Tense and Pronoun Reference

Verbs and Verbals (scroll to "Tense" or "Mood")

Verbs (scroll to "Sequence of Tenses")

Revise Subject-Verb Mismatches

Modifier Placement

Problem Modifiers

Sentence Variety (scroll to "Resumptive and Summative Modifiers")

Sentence and Predicate Modifiers

Sentence Variety

Sentence Clarity

Quotation (tutorial)

Uses of Reported Speech

Punctuating Quotations

"Quick and Dirty" Quoting and Documentation

Using Quotations (LEO)

Using Quotations (UToronto)

Some Vivid Verbs for Introducing Quotes and Paraphrases (Temple)

Integrating Sources into a Paper (outstanding)

Parallelism (OTW)

Coordinating Conjunctions

Using Conjunctive Adverbs

Coordination and Subordination

Expanding the Basic Pattern

Embedded Thoughts (tutorial)