Employability Skills II: Writing skills and basic English grammar

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. One small comma can change a whole sentence. Today we will learn basic writing skills, parts of speech, sentences, punctuation and how to write a good paragraph.

Read the first line, lets eat grandma. Now look at the second line with one comma, let's eat, grandma. That one comma saved grandma.

First, why do writing skills matter? At work, emails, reports and job applications are all written. Written words stay as a record, so people can read them again and again. Grammar mistakes can change the meaning or make you look careless to an employer.

Grammar is the set of rules for using a language correctly. Words are grouped into parts of speech by the job they do. A noun names a person, place or thing, like Riya or school. A pronoun replaces a noun, like she, it or they. A verb shows an action or a state, like run, is or write. An adjective describes a noun, like tall or blue.

There are four more parts of speech. An adverb describes a verb, an adjective or another adverb, like slowly or very. A preposition shows position or relation, like in, on or under. A conjunction joins words or sentences, like and, but or or. An interjection shows sudden emotion, like wow or oh.

Let us label the words in one sentence. Riya quickly wrote a long email. Riya is a noun, and quickly is an adverb because it describes how she wrote. Wrote is the verb, and long is an adjective that describes the email. Email is a noun.

A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought. It has two parts. The subject tells who or what the sentence is about. The predicate tells what the subject does or is. In Riya writes a letter, Riya is the subject, and writes a letter is the predicate.

Sentences are of four types by purpose. A statement, also called a declarative sentence, gives information and ends with a full stop. A question, or interrogative sentence, asks something and ends with a question mark. A command, or imperative sentence, gives an order or request, like close the door. An exclamation, or exclamatory sentence, shows strong feeling and ends with an exclamation mark.

Punctuation marks are signs that make writing clear. A full stop ends a sentence. A comma shows a short pause, and separates items in a list. A question mark ends a question. An apostrophe shows ownership, like Riya's bag, or a short form, like it's for it is. Capital letters start a sentence and begin names, and the pronoun meaning myself is always capital.

Voice tells us who does the action. In active voice, the subject does the action. Riya wrote the report is active. In passive voice, the action is done to the subject. The report was written by Riya is passive. At work, prefer active voice, because it is shorter and clearer.

Now let us join sentences into a paragraph. A paragraph is a group of sentences about one main idea. It begins with a topic sentence that states the main idea. Supporting sentences follow, giving facts, reasons or examples. A concluding sentence at the end sums up the idea.

Here are mistakes that employers often notice. Its without an apostrophe means belonging to it, while it's means it is. Your means belonging to you, while you're means you are. There is a place, their means belonging to them, and they're means they are. Finally, the verb must agree with the subject, so we say he writes, but they write.

Pause and predict whether each sentence is correct. She go to school is wrong, because she needs goes. It wagged its tail is correct, because its means belonging to it. Your welcome is wrong, and the correct form is you're welcome.

Finally, four tips for clear writing. Know who will read it and why you are writing. Use short sentences and simple words. Keep one main idea in each paragraph. And always read your writing again, and correct mistakes before you send it.

Let us revise what we learned today. There are eight parts of speech, from noun to interjection. A sentence has a subject and a predicate. The four types of sentences are statement, question, command and exclamation. Punctuation and capital letters make meaning clear. A paragraph has a topic sentence, supporting sentences and a concluding sentence.