Moulton English

A sentence fragment is an  incomplete sentence . Some fragments are incomplete because they lack either a subject or a verb, or both. The fragments that most students have trouble with, however, are  dependent clauses —they have a subject and a verb, so they look like complete sentences, but they don’t express a complete thought. They’re called “dependent” because they can’t stand on their own (just like some people you might know who are SO dependent!). Look at these dependent clauses. They’re just begging for more information to make the thoughts complete: Because his car was in the shop (…What did he do?) After the rain stops (…What then?) When you finally take the test (…What will happen?) Since you asked (…Will you get the answer?) If you want to go with me (…What should you do?) Does each of these examples have a subject? Yes. Does each have a verb? Yes. So what makes the thought incomplete? It’s the first word ( Because, After, When, Since, If ). These word...

In-text citations: Author-page style MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example: Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263). Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263). Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263). Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of...

New writers often struggle to properly format dialogue. The rules are strict and different than prose, but easily mastered. Whether you are writing a short story, full novel or anything in between, the way you format dialogue is the same. The examples below demonstrate how to properly format dialogue in various situations. However, writing dialogue in the proper format and composing effective dialogue are two different things. Be sure to check out my tips and examples on  how to write engaging dialogue . Rules to Format Dialogue 1. Enclose the spoken words with double quotation marks. “I love it when that happens.” Note: The British use single quotation marks. 2. Dialogue tags (the he asked/she said portions) stay outside the quotes and get separated by a comma. Sam said, “I’ll never do that again.” “Don’t be a sissy,” said Bill. “Let’s get back in line and ride this beast again.” Note: When dialogue ends in a question or exclamation mark, tags that f...