HiAlmanacs are not usually used for extensive research , but are good for looking up specific facts,

statistics, tables
and lists about people, places, events, countries, organizations, zip codes, and popular culture such as sports and
entertainment. Generally, almanacs cover a broad period of time, whileYearbooks, which contain similar information,
only cover a given year.

Atlases contain an organized group of pictorial or illustrated political, cultural, physical, road, and/or thematic maps.
Atlases may be organized around a specific subject, theme, or geographic area.

Standard dictionaries give an alphabetical list of words and their definitions, but there are several useful variations
also classified as dictionaries. Thesauri contain synonyms and antonyms (opposites) but usually don't define the
words. There are also dialect and slang dictionaries, dictionaries of abbreviations and acronyms, dictionaries of
quotations, and picture dictionaries. Dictionaries can be unabridged (general) or can be thematically organized in
some way.

Encyclopedias contain full coverage of information about an area of knowledge. They can be either general or can
cover a specific subject, and contain alphabetically organized entries (with varying detail). Encyclopedias are good for
fact-finding, getting general background information about a subject or starting a research project.

a book that lists words in groups of synonyms and related concepts.

Misplaced Modifiers

A misplaced modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that is improperly separated from the
word it modifies / describes.

Because of the separation, sentences with this error often sound awkward, ridiculous, or
confusing. Furthermore, they can be downright illogical.

Example wordfind
er, word
book, syn
onym

The example above suggests that a gold manowns a watch.

Misplaced modifiers can usually be corrected by moving the modifier to a more sensible
place in the sentence, generally next to the word it modifies.

Order of adjectives

When more than one adjective comes before a noun, the adjectives are normally in a
particular order. Adjectives which describe opinions or attitudes (e.g. amazing) usually
come first, before more neutral, factual ones (e.g. red):

She was wearing an amazing red coat.

Not: … red amazing coat

If we don’t want to emphasise any one of the adjectives, the most usual sequence of
adjectives is:

orderrelating to examples
1 opinion unusual, lovely, beautiful
2 size big, small, tall
physical
3 thin, rough, untidy
quality
4 shape round, square, rectangular
5 age young, old, youthful
6 colour blue, red, pink
7 origin Dutch, Japanese, Turkish
8 material metal, wood, plastic
general-purpose, four-sided, U-
9 type
shaped
10 purpose cleaning, hammering, cooking
It was made of a 1strange, 6green, 8metallicmaterial.

It’s a 2long, 4narrow, 8plastic brush.

Panettone is a 4round, 7Italian, 9bread-likeChristmas cake.

Here are some invented examples of longer adjective phrases. A noun phrase which
included all these types would be extremely rare.

She was a 1beautiful, 2tall, 3thin, 5young, 6black-haired, 7Scottish woman.

What an 1amazing, 2little, 5old, 7Chinese cup and saucer!

Adjectives joined by and

When more than one adjective occurs after a verb such as be (a linking verb), the
second last adjective is normally connected to the last adjective by and:
Home was always a warm, welcoming place. Now it is sad, dark and cold.

And is less common when more than one adjective comes before the noun (e.g. a
warm, welcoming place). However, we can use and when there are two or more
adjectives of the same type, or when the adjectives refer to different parts of the same
thing:

It was a blue and green cotton shirt.

Dangling & Misplaced Modifiers

A modifier is a phrase or word meant to describe or explain part of a sentence. When modifiers are used
correctly, the meaning of the sentence is clear. When modifiers are used incorrectly the meaning of the
sentence can change drastically. Using modifiers correctly will improve the clarity of your work. Watch
out for the two modifier mistakes:

 Dangling Modifiers
 Misplaced Modifiers

Dangling Modifiers

“A dangling modifier is a word or word group that refers to (or modifies) a word or phrase that has not
been clearly stated in the sentence” (Harris 118). When a sentence begins with a phrase that is not
directly connected to the subject that it refers to, that phrase is “dangling.” The following are examples of
incorrect modifiers and how to correct a dangling modifier:

Examples:

Incorrect: Driving past The Bread Box Café, the sun peeked through the clouds.

This sentence implies that the sun was the “doer of the action”, that the sun was driving past The Break
Box Café.

Correct: Driving past The Bread Box Café, Suzanne saw the sun peek through the clouds.

Incorrect: Having just met the new roommates, it was certain that this year would come down to survival
of the fittest.

In this sentence the subject “it” takes on the action of “having just met the new roommates.”

Correct: Having just met the new roommates, Joey was certain that this year would come down to
survival of the fittest.

Misplaced Modifiers

“A misplaced modifier is a word or word group placed so far away from what it refers to (or modifies) that the reader
may be confused. Modifiers should be placed as closely as possible to the words they modify in order to keep the
meaning clear” (Harris 120). The following are examples of incorrect modifiers and how to correct a misplaced
modifier:
 Examples:

Incorrect: The Girl Scouts went wild when they were told that they had raised one million dollars by selling cookies at
the troop meeting.

The way this sentence is written means that during the troop meeting the Girl Scouts raised one million
dollars. However, “at the troop meeting” should actually refer to where “they were told.”

Correct: The Girl Scouts went wild when they were told at the troop meeting that they had raised one million dollars
by selling cookies.

Misplaced modifiers can also be just one word. These are some of the frequently misplaced one-word modifiers:
almost, even, hardly, just merely, nearly, only (Harris 121). Changing the location of these individual words changes
the meaning of the sentence.

Example: The student passed almost all of her classes.

This sentence means that she passed most of her classes, but not all of them.

The student almost passed all of her classes.

This sentence means that she came close to passing all of her classes but didn’t actually pass any of them.

As you work on avoiding dangling and misplaced modifiers, you might want to have a peer tutor read over your
essays. If they mention that a sentence is unclear or awkward, check for a dangling or misplaced modifier.

with adjectives and adverbs

Select ratingPoorOkayGoodGreatAwesome

P
oor

O
kay

G
ood

G
reat

A
wesome
Average: 3.3 (110 votes)

Thu, 07/30/2009 - 00:36 — Chris McCarthy

 Grammar

 Vocabulary
 Adjective – a word used to modify or describe a noun or pronoun.
Adverb – a word that is used to modify an adjective, verb, or adverb.

There are three forms of adjectives and adverbs used to show varying degrees of comparison: the
positive, the comparative, and the superlative.

The positive form is used when there is no direct comparison being made to anything specific, but is
used to offer a broad or general comparison.

The comparative form is used when two things are being compared with each other.

The superlative form is used when more than two things are being compared with one another.

Regular forms for one and two syllable words.

positive – no change (big, strong, long, etc.)

comparative – words end in "er" (bigger, stronger, longer, etc.)
superlative – words end in "est" (biggest, strongest, longest, etc.)

Regular forms for three or more syllable words.

positive – no change (understandable, comfortable, etc.)

comparative – use "more" (more understandable, more comfortable, etc.)
superlative – use "most" (most understandable, most comfortable, etc.)

Adverbs that end in "ly" always use "more" or "most", such as "more quickly" or "most quickly"..

Remember that these are general rules and many adjectives and adverbs have irregular forms.

Have a go and see how you do!

By Thomas Williams

Thomas Williams is a teacher at EC San Diego

Link: Adjective Word Order

 1. I am the ___ speaker in the class.

better
bestest
best
 2. Our teacher writes very ___.

good
well
best

 3. Of all the people I know, you study the ___.

least
leastest
less

 4. We think John is ___ than Bill.

nervouser
more nervous
most nervous

 5. Who is the ___ person you have ever spoken to?

more intelligent
most intelligent
intelligentest

 6. If I had to choose between Greg and Dan, Dan is ___

the funniest
funnier
funny

 7. This is ___

most harder
harder
more harder

 8. Of all three of you, she swims ___

 better
best
worse

 9. Who is the ___ to succeed?

likely
most like
least likely

 10. Now I understand English ___

the better
much better
best

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