Ladies and Gentlemen,

This . . . Is . . . Jeopardy! (1974)

It Pays To Be Perfectly

Punctuated

Kelsey’s Grammar

(and Usage)

Under A Spell

Who Says? To Err Is Human

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This punctuation mark, known in England as a full stop, indicates to the reader that a

sentence has come to an end.

When you read your paper aloud, these punctuation devices indicate where a short

vocal pause should be placed within a sentence.

This type of punctuation, to be used sparingly – if ever – in a formal essay,

indicate that two words (one of which is usually a verb) have been combined, and where either a letter has been omitted,

spelling has been altered or both.

This punctuation mark functions more like a “weak period” than a “strong comma.” One of its several writing uses joins two

complete parts within one sentence – where each part could actually stand alone as its own sentence, but are related closely

enough to each other to be “glued” together, thus forming a single sentence.

Named for the alphabetical letter whose typographical length it most closely approximates, these punctuation marks are used to indicate a parenthetical thought or

similar written digression, as shown in red in this example from author Nicholson Baker:

“At that age I once stabbed my best friend, Fred, with a pair of pinking shears in the base of the neck, enraged because he had been given the comprehensive sixty-four-crayon Crayola box — including the gold and

silver crayons — and would not let me look closely at the box to see how Crayola had stabilized the built-in

crayon sharpener under the tiers of crayons.”

Who’s is the contracted form of the words who is, as seen in the following sentence:

“Who’s the cute little dog sitting in your dad’s chair, Frasier?”

However, its homonym whose, as in:

“Gee, Dad, let me guess whose dog peed on my expensive rug!”

indicates this.

Spell the word, shown in the following sentence, that actually does not exist in

the English language:

“The current financial crisis has forced the government to allot money to alot of the large corporations for which Frasier

and Niles Crane had stock options.”

Niles Crane received an E-mail from Frasier. Within the message, Niles noticed

that his brother had confused the abbreviations “i.e.” and “e.g.” Niles replied to his brother, reminding him that i.e. was

short for id est in Latin, which, when translated to English, means “that is.” Niles went on to explain that e.g. was the Latin abbreviation for exemplia gratis, which

roughly translates to these words in English.

Dr. Frasier Crane, talking about his dad’s dog Eddie, told his brother, Niles, that

when used correctly, this word refers to a probability that still exists (such as the

possibility of Eddie barking at a bird on the balcony), whereas its closely related word cousin “might” refers to a probability or a possibility that existed in the past but did

not ultimately materialize (such as the possibility of the bird barking back).

What subjunctive verb best completes the following sentence?

“Ladies and gentlemen, if I ________ a rich man, I wouldn’t have to work so hard!”

Spell the following word correctly:

RECCOMMEND

Spell the following word correctly:

MISPELED

Which prefix belongs to the word that ends with[ ___sure ]

and means “to reassure someone or to promise.”

• in- (insure)

• as- (assure)

• en- (ensure)

Meaning “honor, glory, or acclaim,”you’ll get at least one if you can spell the

singular form of the following word:

KUDOS

Cats love them because they’re “tender,” but anyone who has seen the Lolcats of the

website “I Can Has Cheezburger?” knows that the little meowers probably can’t

properly spell them . . .can you? The word is:

VITTLES

Lolcats n Funny Pictures

Founded in 1883 by teachers and scholars,this organization, which promotes the study

and teaching of language and literature,first created a style manual in 1985 for

source documentation. In fact, the methodthey devised is commonly known by students

and writers today for its three initials.

A documentation system used by writers, it consists of a set of rules developed to assist

reading comprehension in the social and behavioral sciences. Two hallmarks of its

formatting schema are the inclusion of a title page and, since a great amount of importance

is placed on the relevancy of a source, the source’s publication date in in-text citations.

Following the numerical order shown below, in what format are each of the following

citations?

Okuda, Michael, and Denise Okuda. Star Trek Chronology:

The History of the Future. New York: Pocket, 1993.

Print.

Okuda, M., & Okuda, D. (1993). Star trek chronology: The

history of the future. New York, NY: Pocket Books.

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Originating from a Latin word meaning “kidnapper,”

this word is defined by Dictionary.com as“the unauthorized use or close imitation of

the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own

original work”

Op. cit., abbreviated Latin for opus citatum/opere citato, meaning

“the work cited/from the cited work,” and Ibid. the shortened Latin word for ibidem, which translates as "the same place” are

sometimes used as shortcuts when providing these “page-bottom” references in some

citation methods

This “sound bite” word makes fashionista Rachel Zoe’s reaction, said in reference to

Sir Paul McCartney, a physical impossibility.

Congress argued the issue of[1] capital punishment at the U.S.

[2] Capital building.

In the above news caption, this numbered instance of the word in red should have an

“o” in place of the second “a.”

The sentences below are examples of these “dangling” grammatical errors, where the opening phrase of the sentence does not

modify what immediately follows.

• After rotting in the cellar for weeks, my brother brought up some oranges.

• After being whipped fiercely, the cook boiled the egg.

(Hey, keep your stinky brother away from my oranges and stop flogging the chef!)

This word is used incorrectly in the following news item:

Referring to the deaths of three horses in the town of Maricopa, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said that “the results of the autopsies will be used as evidence for possible charges of

animal cruelty.”

Which one of the following words does notmean “combustible?”

• flammable

• inflammable

• inflammatory

• incendiary

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