PART 1: GRAMMAR

Section One: Nouns

1.1 Singular and Plural Nouns
1.2 More Singular and Plural Nouns
1.3 Nouns as Subjects and Subject Complements
1.4 Nouns as Objects and Object Complements
1.5 Appositives
1.6 Possessive Nouns
     Noun Review
     Noun Challenge

1.1 Singular and Plural Nouns
Anounis a name word. Asingular nounnames one person, place, thing, or idea. Aplural nounnames more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Add-sto most nouns to form the plurals.

SINGULAR     PLURAL
artifact            artifacts
minute           minutes

Add-esto form the plural of a noun ending ins,x,z,ch, orsh.

SINGULAR     PLURAL
guess             guesses
crash               crashes

Form the plural of a noun ending in y preceded by a vowel by adding-s.

SINGULAR     PLURAL
monkey          monkeys
birthday          birthdays

Form the plural of a noun ending inypreceded by a consonant by changing theytoiand adding-es.

SINGULAR     PLURAL
baby                babies
victory              victories

Some plural nouns are not formed by adding-sor-es. Check a dictionary for the correct plural form.

SINGULAR     PLURAL
ox                    oxen
oasis              oases
goose             geese
medium         media

The plural forms of some nouns are the same as the singular forms.

SINGULAR     PLURAL
series             series
sheep             sheep
corps              corps
Portuguese   Portuguese

EXERCISE 1:Some of the nouns in the list below are singular, and some are plural. Use a dictionary to help you write the correct singular or plural form of each one.

EXERCISE 2:Complete each sentence with the plural form of the noun or nouns in parentheses.

APPLY IT NOW
Look up each singular noun in a dictionary and write the plural form. Then use either the singular or plural form in a sentence.

PART 2

WRITTEN AND ORAL COMMUNICATION

Chapters

1 Personal Narratives
2 How-to Articles
3 Business Letters
4 Descriptions
5 Expository Writing
6 Persuasive Writing
7 Creative Writing: Plays
8 Research Reports

Personal Narratives

The Story of My Life
by Helen Keller
    I had now the key to all language, and I was eager to learn to use it. Children who hear acquire language without any particular effort; the words that fall from others’ lips they catch on the wing, as it were, delightedly, while the little deaf child must trap them by a slow and often painful process. . . .
    At first, when my teacher told me about a new thing I asked very few questions. My ideas were vague, and my vocabulary was inadequate; but as my knowledge of things grew, and I learned more and more words, my field of inquiry broadened, and I would return again and again to the same subject, eager for further information. Sometimes a new word revived an image that some earlier experience had engraved on my brain.
    I remember the morning that I first asked the meaning of the word, “love.” This was before I knew many words. I had found a few early violets in the garden and brought them to my teacher . . . Miss Sullivan put her arm gently around me and spelled in my hand, “I love Helen.”
This excerpt by Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing as a young child, is a good example of a personal narrative.

Name: Kerrie Knight    Room: 123
Tossed by a Twister
A certain pressure or scent in the air will remind me instantly of the afternoon of April 3, 1974. My Weimaraner, Tucker, and I had been strolling in the fields near our house in Elmira, Oklahoma, when the air became strangely still. It smelled peculiar, like it was heavy with gases, and breathing was difficult. Then bam! A sudden thunderstorm drenched us. As I was charging back to the house, soaked and shivering, an alarming sound told me that nature wasn’t through with us yet. The sound was like a million bees streaming from a giant hive. Living as I do in a tornado alley, I knew what was happening. A mean tornado was approaching, and it was coming fast.
I was petrified and a little awestruck as I looked up at the sky. I saw a vast dark reddish-gray funnel cloud, perhaps a quarter mile high, coming towards me. The deafening sounds seemed to originate from its tail, which had a circular opening at least 50 feet wide. I threw myself down to the ground on top of Tucker to protect him. The wind was so strong that Tucker was pulled from under me. There was nothing I could do to get him back.
As quickly as it had hit, the twister passed over us. I stood up carefully, brushed off my arms and legs, and took a cautious look around. A narrow path of trees was down, but everything else seemed untouched. My first thoughts were of Tucker. What had the tornado done to my dog? I finally heard a muffled bark. There was Tucker, hiding in a hole just his size, under the limb of a fallen oak tree. He was trapped by branches but uninjured. Had he dug the hole for protection, or had the twister done it for him? I never found out. Whatever the case, I was relieved to find that Tucker and I had survived the most frightening experience of our lives.

Lesson 1: Personal Narratives

What Makes a Good Personal Narrative?
A personal narrative is a first-person account of an event in a writer’s life. It invites readers to share the writer’s experiences and his or her reactions to them.
Following are some points to keep in mind when you write a personal narrative. How closely did the writer of the personal narrative on page 223 follow these suggestions?

Topic
A good personal narrative relates an event that was unusual, memorable, or significant to the author’s life. The best narratives use the incident to illustrate an idea, or theme, that many people could relate to.

Audience
Know the audience of your narrative. Is it your teacher and classmates, a close friend, or the readers of a favorite magazine? How do you want your audience to react: with smiles, tears, nods of recognition, or all three? How will you relate the events that occurred? The tone, or overall feeling, of your personal narrative depends on your answers to these questions.

Structure
A good personal narrative has a definite structure. It begins with an introduction that lures the reader in and hints at the story to come. The body, or main section, of the narrative tells what happened step-by-step. The conclusion tells the outcome of the incident and may show why the incident was significant.

Coherence
A personal narrative should maintain coherence, which means that each part of the narrative builds on what came before it. The story should be told in a logical way, usually in chronological order. Any details that aren’t important to the story being told should be left out.

Title
Don’t underestimate the power of a title. A title is like a snapshot of your personal narrative—it creates a first impression. If the title is short, creative, and focused on the subject or theme, the first impression will be positive.

The Story of My Life
“What is love?” I asked. She drew me closer to her and said, “It is here,” pointing to my heart, whose beats I was conscious of for the first time. Her words puzzled me very much because I did not then understand anything unless I touched it.
    I smelt the violets in her hand and asked . . .
    “Is love the sweetness of flowers?”
Helen Keller

ACTIVITY A:Explain why each topic below could or could not be used for a personal narrative.

My Summer Vacation
Summer camp
The fireworks show on July 4
Trips to the beach
Growing an inch taller
Cookout with my family
Visiting Uncle Bart in the city

Tech Tip
Use a computer program to map out your ideas.

WRITER’S CORNER
Use a web like the one shown to brainstorm possible topics for a personal narrative. A travel adventure or a weird dream can generate many further ideas. Write your starting topic in the center of the web. Link related thoughts to your topic, expanding your web outward.

ACTIVITY B:Read this personal narrative. Then answer the questions that follow.

My Favorite Disaster
It took a force of nature to bring your grandpa and me together. Ray had been delivering groceries to my house for months, and I’m certain he noticed me. I surely noticed him, with his turquoise eyes and curly blond hair. But we two pitifully shy people had never muttered more than a few words to each other.
One stormy autumn evening, more than 40 years ago now, Ray delivered the groceries as usual. The wind was howling like a lonely wolf. As he put the last cardboard box of groceries on the kitchen table, we heard a sharp crack. The lights went out, and the room went dark. As I looked up, heavy drops of rain fell onto my face.
An oak had gouged a huge hole in the roof. During the time it took to find and light candles, assess the damage, and figure out what to do, Ray and I overcame our shyness. That was the beginning of our romance—a day, I sometimes say, when an ill wind brought some good.

ACTIVITY C:Read each title for a personal narrative. Tell why you think it is or isn’t effective.

ACTIVITY D:Read the following paragraphs for coherence. Do the events flow logically? Are only relevant details included? Edit each paragraph to make it more coherent.

1. Because I live in Hawaii, I’d seen snow in movies and on TV, but I’d never seen it firsthand. I live right near the beach, which is wonderful. Nevertheless, two months ago, armed with parka and boots, I flew from Waikiki to Minneapolis. We had to switch planes in Chicago. Three feet of snow was on the ground in Minneapolis, and more was on the way. My heart was racing. I didn’t know how snow felt, tasted, or even smelled. But I was going to find out.
2. My three-year-old son Danny was screaming. People in the crowd were looking either sympathetic, annoyed, or amused—and I was sweating. How was I going to get Danny’s blankie back from that innocent-looking but criminal baby elephant? Eventually, we did get it back. Dangling a bag of peanuts over the fence at the animal had accomplished nothing. So I dug our lunch out of my backpack, unwrapped a sandwich of corned beef on rye, and waved it back and forth. I still had a piece of fruit and a drink saved for later. The elephant exchanged the blanket for the sandwich, and my friend May pulled the blanket through the fence with a stick. Teamwork and ingenuity saved the day.

The Story of My Life
Again I thought. e warm sun was shining on us. “Is this not love?” I asked, pointing in the direction from which the heat came. “Is this not love?” It seemed to me there could be nothing more beautiful than the sun, whose warmth makes all things grow. But Miss Sullivan shook her head . . .
Helen Keller

WRITER’S CORNER
Choose at least three favorite topics from the web of subjects you brainstormed on page 225. Think of some catchy titles for each possible topic.