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How to Write a Hook: 10 Ideas for Narrative, Expository, Persuasive/Argumentative Writing
A hook is a sentence or group of sentences that will capture or “hook” your reader’s interest and lure him or her to keep reading. The hook, also called the lead, will set the tone and mood for your essay and establish A hook can be a...
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How To Answer Multiple Choice Questions | Strategies for Finding the Correct Answer | Part 1
Multiple choice test items are found in most standardized tests and multiple choice items can be quite difficult because they are constructed in such a manner that all choices will seem plausible, reasonable, or probable. And there’s a...
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Surface Level Features of Expository Text | Improve Your Reading Comprehension
Effective readers use the characteristics of text to their advantage. Whether consciously or subconsciously, knowing how to use these cues to your advantage will help you to strategically read and engage with text at a more effective...
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How To Answer Multiple Choice Questions | Strategies for Finding the Correct Answer Part 2
Multiple-choice questions can be tricky because they test your ability to think critically. There are strategies, however, to increase your chances of finding the best answer when taking multiple-choice tests. In this lesson, you'll...
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All About Conditionals: Zero, First, Second, Third, Mixed, & Reduced
In this lesson, you will learn about the zero, first, second, and third conditionals. You will also learn about mixed conditionals and inverted, or reduced, conditionals. You'll also learn how the subjunctive mood is triggered by the...
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Double Words: That That | Conjunction, Determiner, Pronoun, or Adverb?
Today we continue our lesson on double words in a sentence. Double words in a sentence look weird at first glance and may even confuse the reader. This certainly is an awkward construction, but today we’ll tackle another pair of double...
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Summer Idioms:Figurative Language to Enrich Your Expressions
Idioms are a form of figurative language that require a critical understanding of the expressions. Not to be taken literally, idioms are analogous to the literal representation they evoke. These eleven summer idioms relate to summer...
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Analytical and Expository Thesis Statements
In this video, we take a look at the analytical and expository thesis statements and compare them to the argumentative thesis statement. The purpose of your paper will determine your thesis statement. Examples are given.
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ADVANCED LESSON PART 1: How to Reduce the Adverb Clause
In today’s video we’ll continue with our lesson on Reduced Adverb or Adverbial Clauses. This is an advanced lesson so students will need to be familiar with the present and past participle as well as the perfect aspect of verbs. This...
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6 Types of Subjects: More than a Noun or a Pronoun
When you think of the subject in the sentence, you usually think of a noun or a pronoun. This is because the subject represents what or whom the sentence is about. Understanding and recognizing the subject of the sentence will help you...
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Conjunctive Adverbs: Transition Words, Connectors, Linkers and Interrupters
You probably already know that adverbs are words that modify adjectives, verbs, other adverbs, phrases, and entire sentences. And conjunctive adverbs, also called adverbial conjunctions, connectors, connective adverbs, linkers, linking...
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Structural Features of Text | Literary & Expository | Improve Your Reading Comprehension Skills
Recognizing text structure will help you be a better reader. Once you are familiar with the text's organizational pattern, you can make predictions as you read and form a mental map. In this lesson, we cover eight elements or structure...
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Indefinite and Definite English Articles: A, AN, & THE
An article is a word that defines a noun. Therefore, an article is technically an adjective. Without articles, we wouldn’t be able to refer to specific or particular nouns or to non-specific or non-particular nouns. This is because...
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How Authors Describe Characters: Direct vs Indirect Characterization
When taking a reading comprehension test, have you ever been stumped by a question asking about how the author or another character feels about a specific character? Or perhaps when reading a novel or story, you’re somewhat confused...
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How To Reduce the Adverb Clause (free PDF)
This lesson is an introduction to reducing adverb or adverbial clauses. There may be times when you will want to reduce the adverb clause. The reduced adverb clause is especially used in formal writing by adding variety to your sentence...
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How to Reduce the Adjective Clause: Relative Clause Reduction
An adjective clause, also known as an adjectival, or relative clause is a dependent clause that modifies a noun or a pronoun. In effect, this clause functions as one part of speech: the adjective. Why would you want or need to reduce the...
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Catenative Verbs | A Chain of Verbs
Catenative verbs are verbs that connect to other verb forms and form a chain; thus their name catenative because in Latin, catena means chain. A catenative verb will link or connect to other verbs to form a chain of verbs. And in theory,...
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The BE Verb: Be, To Be, Being, Been~All About Be
The BE verb is the most important verb in the English language. It communicates a state of being, or existence. The verb BE is used as a main verb as well as an auxiliary verb. It is a most irregular verb and has eight forms: be am are...
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Passive Causative Verbs ~ Advanced English Grammar Lesson
In today's lesson, you'll learn about passive causative construction. This is an advanced lesson, so please watch the previous lesson on the active causative. • Causative Verbs ~... There are times when the passive causative is...
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Introduction to Conditionals | English Grammar | Verb Mood | Zero, First, Second, Third Conditionals
Conditional Sentences have two clauses: the conditional clause and the results clause. The conditional clause is a subordinate adverbial clause usually known as the “IF” clause. The IF clause expresses the condition. The results clause...
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Finding Implied Main Idea | Reading Strategies for Better Comprehension Skills
The implied main idea is not clearly stated in any one sentence in the passage, but it is always there. You just can't take your finger and point at it or take a highlighter and highlight it. The implied main idea comes together in your...
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Possessive Pronouns & Possessive Adjectives
Possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives can be easily confused as both refer to possession. But their usage is quite different. Possessive pronouns are also called absolute possessive pronouns because they do not need to be used...
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When to Use the Gerund (-ing) and Infinitive (to): Is There a Difference in Meaning?
In today’s lesson we are going to compare two verbals: the gerund and the infinitive. From previous lessons, you learned that a gerund is a verb form that acts like a noun. And an infinitive is also a verb form that can take the form of...
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What is a Gerund? How Can a Noun be Derived from a Verb?
A gerund is a type of verbal that has the form of a verb but acts as a noun. In fact, because a gerund looks identical to the present participle some grammarians refer to it as the gerund-participle. This is because both the gerund and...