Communicating at Berkeley
Grammar Grams
Many thanks to Steve Tollefson, Lecturer in College Writing and Director of the Office of Educational Development, and the campus's premier grammar expert, for his generosity in sharing Grammar Grams. These entertaining and educational mini-essays cover almost everything you need to know about clear, concise, and accurate writing.
About the format of Grammar Grams
Grammar Grams were originally published in two bound editions, meant to look like telegrams, with each page covering a single topic. Because they were never available electronically, they have been scanned from the original books. (Steve has begun a project to convert the PDFs back to text so that we can offer a more usable and accessible format.)
The topics are grouped into categories, so you will find several related pages (Grams) at each of the links below.
The second edition of Grammar Grams included some new topics and others that provided more advanced advice on topics that appeared in the first edition. For this communication toolkit, we have combined related topics from the two editions.
You will need Adobe Reader to access the Grammar Grams from this website. If you don't already have Adobe Reader installed on your computer, you can download it (free of charge) from the Adobe website.
One more thing
Grammar Grams (I and II) are copyrighted by Stephen K. Tollefson and no part may be reproduced without his permission.
Grammar Grams Table of Contents
Background
Grams I: Introduction to Grammar Grams, history, differences between writing and speaking, simplicy, grammar myths and misconceptions
Grams II: Origins of English words, critiquing others' work, and a quick test
Sentence Structure
Grams I: How to look at sentences, fragments, run-together sentences, subjects, pacing
Grams I: Modifiers, neither/nor and either/or, infinitives, parallel structure, not only/but also
Grams II: Subordinate or dependent clauses, structure of "because", conjunctions
Grams II: Sentences structured as questions
Grams II: Periodic and cumulative sentences, repetition, powerful word choices
Verbs
Grams I: False starts, weak starts, "to be", tense, passive voice, conditional and subjunctive
Grams II: Two-word verbs, adverbs and adjectives, strong verbs, tense
Nouns and Pronouns
Grams I: Collective nouns, mass/count nouns, that/who, that/which, everybody/everyone
Grams II: You/your, possessives, refexives, and agreement
More Word Tips
Grams I: Articles, prepositions, hearing words incorrectly, use of "and", "hopefully"
Grams I: As/since/for/because, so/very, needless gender references, you/one/we/people, frequently confused words
Grams II: This/that, agreement, possessive apostrophes
Grams II: Words from other languages and cultures
Grams II: Well/good, also/too, changes in meaning, specific/specified
Punctuation
Grams I: Commas, colons and semicolons, quotation marks, double punctuation, apostrophes
Grams II: Commas, parentheses, dashes, brackets, hyphens, spacing
Style
Grams I: Contractions, hyperurbanisms, stuffiness, words to avoid, "et cetera"
Grams II: Organizing with beginnings, middles, and endings
Grams II: Pacing, too much detail, concessions, concrete or abstract
Special Types of Writing
Grams I: Essay checklist, student essays, examples, use of "I", quotations
Grams I: Letter and memo organization, greetings and salutations, closings, research papers
Potpourri
Grams I: How to increase your vocabulary, find joy in the dictionary, capitalize, write like a bureaucrat
Grams I: Memory devices, beginnings that don't work well, pet peeves, plagiarism, editing your own work
Grams II: Games, tests, and trivia