What Is a Coordinating Conjunction?

A coordinating conjunction is a word that joins two elements of equal grammatical rank and syntactic importance. They can join two verbs, two nouns, two adjectives, two phrases, or two independent clauses. The seven coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.

Meet the Key Players: FANBOYS

The best way to remember the seven coordinating conjunctions is by using the acronym FANBOYS:

For And Nor But Or Yet So

Of these seven, so can be used as both a coordinating conjunction and a subordinating conjunction. As a coordinating conjunction, so can link two independent clauses in a manner similar to therefore, and as a subordinating conjunction, it can link two unequal clauses (one independent clause and one dependent clause) in the sense of so that.

Coordinating conjunction:

We were out of milk, so I went to the store to buy some.

Subordinating conjunction:

Grace is saving money so she can buy her own horse.

Conjunctions That Connect Two Words

Coordinating conjunctions can join two verbs…

The children ran and jumped all over the playground.

…two nouns…

Would you like cereal or toast for breakfast?

…two adjectives…

The old castle seemed grand yet mysterious.

…two adverbs…

Slowly but surely, the turtle finished the race.

…or any two words with the same syntactical value. And and or can also be used to join the final two elements in a series, with commas separating the rest of the elements.

What I consume the most are candy bars, chips, spicy burritos, red wine, and antacid tablets.

Whether or not you place a comma before the and or or is a matter of stylistic choice. When you do put a comma before the final conjunction in a series, it is referred to as a “serial comma” or an “Oxford comma.” Despite the fact that it is recommended by the Oxford University Press style manual, most writers of British English do not use it. In the United States, however, it is quite common. It is arguable that when writing in American English, using the serial comma is the best choice because it eliminates any possibility of ambiguity and creates order for the reader. If your English teacher was of a certain age, you may believe that it is not acceptable to place a comma before words like and, but this has no true grammatical basis.

Conjunctions That Connect Two Phrases

The rules for using coordinating conjunctions to join grammatically equal phrases are the same.

He seemed poorly groomed yet well mannered.

By covering my past-due bills with a brick, I can put them out of sight and out of mind.

Conjunctions That Connect Two Clauses

Coordinating conjunctions, a.k.a. the FANBOYS, can connect two independent clauses. Independent clauses are so called because each of them can stand on its own as a sentence. We connect them with FANBOYS, however, so that we don’t spit out all our sentences like robots.

I love candy bars.

I know they are not good for me.

My doctor has told me this.

I don’t want to listen.

Coordinating conjunctions make these ideas sound more fluent.

I love candy bars, yet I know they are not good for me. My doctor has told me this, but I don’t want to listen.

When joining two clauses with a coordinating conjunction, always place a comma before the conjunction.

I don’t want to throw away my candy bars, nor do I wish to listen to my doctor.

I adore candy factories, and I want to own one someday.

Starting a Sentence with a Coordinating Conjunction

Perhaps your teacher taught you that you should never start a sentence with the FANBOYS. But the truth is, you can. (I just did.) The reason your teacher may have taught you this was to discourage you from writing sentence fragments. Once you are past that developmental stage, however, there is no reason why you can’t start a sentence with a conjunction. Let’s vary the examples above.

I don’t want to throw away my candy bars, nor do I wish to listen to my doctor. But I adore candy bar factories. And I want to own one someday.

Just remember not to overuse these kinds of sentences, because too many of them can sound punchy.

Conjunctive Adverbs

You might be thinking, “Wait! I know I’ve seen words other than the FANBOYS joining two independent clauses before. When will these words be given the grammatical recognition that they deserve?” Don’t worry, because that moment is now. The words you are thinking of do function similar to coordinating conjunctions, but they are classified as conjunctive adverbs. Some examples of conjunctive adverbs are however, moreover, namely, nevertheless, meanwhile, subsequently, and furthermore.

Off the beaten path: NaNoWriMo Writing Tips

Guest post from Matthew Quinn

It’s been said that everybody has got a book in them, but in these days of the big publishers consolidating, the small presses overwhelmed with submissions, and truly vast offerings available via self-publishing platforms like Kindle Direct and Smashwords, it’s more important than ever that people’s work stand out.

So here are some tips to make your NaNoWriMo project pop:

Draw your reader in. Noted science fiction author Ben Bova had a friend who edited movies for late-night television. In one episode, Bova had the hero throw a punch and then went to a commercial break; the film resumed with the bad guy being hit. This is how chapters should end, since the end of a chapter is often where the reader gives up on the book. Remember the Hardy Boys novels? Each chapter ends on a cliffhanger — and although this may be overkill, when used in moderation it can help maintain reader interest.

Funnel time. Consider writing early chapters in your novel to cover longer periods of time, while later chapters may cover progressively shorter periods. Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain is a great example. It’s last fifty pages cover a race against time to defuse a complex’s nuclear self-destruct device.

Be descriptive. Stephen Hunter’s Dirty White Boys is a great example of detailed writing. Passages such as, “a large dragonfly flashed in the sun” or “a starburst had fractured the left lens of Ted’s Ray-Bans; blood ran in a snaky little line from down the obscured eye” are descriptive examples of how an author can bring text to life. Be sure to use all five of your senses — authors tend to rely heavily on visual. Rather than repeat, “It’s cold,” describe many different things associated with the cold — including a character’s breath steaming on the air, the crunch of snow beneath his boots, etc.

Avoid characterizations. Villains should not be mindlessly evil, but have distinct motivations and personalities. Remember the credo, “Everyone is the hero of their own story.” For example, General Zod in the film Man of Steel wants to save the Kryptonian race, while in the musical Les Miserables, Inspector Javert believes himself to be enforcing law and order (both by hunting the fugitive Jean Valjean and infiltrating the student rebels to spy on them).

Engage the environment. In the novel, The Killer’s Game, the hero accidentally shoots a nearby electrical transformer. This leads to lots of sparks, dangerous loose cables, the lights going out, etc. that complicate an already-tense situation. Whether you’re writing a fight scene or a love scene, make sure that you think about the unique environmental complications that can make your story more vibrant.

All of these things will help your NaNoWriMo project shine. But don’t forget the most important thing of all — write! It’s better to write and revise later than write so slowly that you don’t get the project done.

About the Author

Matthew W. Quinn blogs at The World According to Quinn and has several stories available on his Amazon author page. Those interested in free samples can check out his Viking horror tale “Nicor.”

Spotlight: How Khan Academy Is Transforming Education

In mathematical language, a transformation changes a form without changing its value. If that doesn’t mean much to you, let Sal explain it to you in a short video complete with examples and diagrams. Salman (Sal) Khan is the founder of Khan Academy, an online academy that offers math, science, art, and other courses free of charge. Though there are no English grammar classes yet, students seeking to sharpen their skills can still benefit from the academy’s offerings.

Test Prep

Khan Academy helps prepare students to take many of the standardized exams required for higher education in the United States. One of these exams, the SAT, assesses “academic readiness for college” and tests students’ reading and writing skills. Anyone, even those not taking the test, can benefit from the videos, exercises, and full-length practice exams offered by Khan Academy in partnership with the College Board, the creators of the SAT. In one video, Sal addresses a sample question from the grammar section of the writing exam. In less than two minutes, he shows how to pick out the essential information to decide if the sentence is grammatically correct or requires modification. Students are no longer limited to preparing for the SAT by taking a paper sample exam and checking their answers with a key. With Sal’s videos, they learn why a particular answer is the correct one and the process that Sal followed to arrive at the right conclusion.

Admissions Essays

One of the most intimidating aspects of applying to a college can be the admissions essay. Khan Academy features a twelve-video series to help students write essays with confidence. The series opens with videos about how to write compelling essays, mistakes to avoid, how to brainstorm, and how to “take your college essay to the next level.” Actual admissions officers give feedback on sample essays in two videos. The series closes with writing tips and real-life stories from student applicants. One student commented, “This really helped. I was working on an essay as I read it. I made some changes based on this article.” For this student, Khan Academy was like a writing coach that guided him during the creative process.

Language Advocates

One of Khan Academy’s missions is to offer free education “for everyone.” Language advocates are a huge part of making this possible. Advocates are volunteers who translate Sal’s videos into their native languages or caption the videos with subtitles so that people the world over can enjoy the valuable lessons. Translators gain professional experience while helping an important cause. Rumor has it that Khan Academy plans to add English to its course catalog. Volunteers to review new grammar content, such as articles, quizzes, and videos, are signing up now.

Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization focused on making education accessible to all students. Did you learn what a transformation means in mathematical language from Sal’s video? Video technology and the Internet are now making it possible to share quality education with a wider scope of students. Like Room to Read, Khan Academy is changing how students in poor or remote areas receive their education. What other noteworthy nonprofit is impacting the educational community? Please check back next month to find out.

Benefited or Benefitted—Which Is Right?

• Benefited and benefitted are both acceptable spellings.
• Benefited is more common in the United States.

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When you make a verb past tense, sometimes all you have to do is add -ed. Other times, you double the final consonant before adding it. What about the verb benefit? Is the past tense benefited or benefitted?

Benefited vs. Benefitted

The quick answer is that both of them are acceptable. However, you might wonder why the double T version exists in the first place. What’s the rule for doubling the final consonant for the simple past? For regular verbs, you double the last consonant when a one-syllable verb ends in a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. If a verb has more than one syllable, you double the last consonant if it is in a stressed syllable. Does benefit fit the rule?

Is the ending in a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern? Yes, F-I-T are the last three letters. Is the verb one syllable? No, benefit is three syllables. So now, you would only double the last consonant if it’s stressed. Is it stressed? That answer is not so cut-and-dried. Benefit sounds a little different in British and American English. Some say that the final F-I-T is unstresssed in American English. By that criterion, you can write the past tense of benefit as benefited. In the United States, this is the most common way to spell it.

Why would anyone spell benefitted with a double T? Well, even native English speakers might not know all the rules that govern the language. Another verb, fit, does double the T in the past tense because it is one syllable. So it’s easy to see why people might think benefit is like fit in the past tense. Others say the final syllable of benefit receives a secondary stress, so perhaps that’s reason enough to apply the stressed last syllable rule.

Examples

Would you like to see benefited and benefitted in context? Let’s look at some examples from books and online. Which way of writing it seems right to you?

Four situations were measured: when lying benefitted both people, when lying benefitted only the partner, when lying benefitted only the participant, and when lying hurt them both.

Bustle.com

With plentiful oil and gas reserves, one would hope Alberta benefitted from the rise in energy prices, just as Hawaii should benefit from warm weather that fosters its tourism industry.

CalgaryHerald.com

I count as blessings things I could have benefited from, even if I neglected to utilize them. A gift is still a gift, even if left wrapped and unopened.”

Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not for Sale

Consumer spending also clearly benefited from the weakened pound encouraging spending by overseas visitors to the UK.

Independent

If you are in favor of spelling the past tense of benefit with one T, you are part of the majority in the United States. However, if you think that the final T should be doubled, you are definitely not alone. You can spell it either way, but be prepared; your choice might result in a friendly debate!

5 Best Children’s Books of All Time

Every child grows up with a certain book that resonates with him or her, but there are some books that have a reached a level of such popularity that they become staples in the childhoods of people everywhere. Reading is an important experience as a kid; it fuels the imagination and implants moral suggestions for how to deal with the world from a young age. That makes children’s books powerfully suggestive and entirely important in the life of a child.

Take a look at this list of some of the all-time best children’s books and reminisce about some of your old favorites.

Charlotte’s Web

Readers cherished E.B White for his elegant style and the beautiful creations of different, interesting characters that mirrored real themes of life without frightening away children. Charlotte’s Web is about an altruistic spider that befriends a pig and saves his life through the friendship. This book tip-toes around the themes of mortality without being overtly terrifying or too complex for a child to understand. Those are just a couple reasons why Charlotte’s Web remains one of the greatest children’s books of all time.

The Giving Tree

The works of Shel Silverstein are commonly a child’s introduction to poetry. Silverstein’s poetry is captivating and real. His illustrations are realistic and detailed, yet they maintain a playfully animated style that keeps them fun and engaging. The Giving Tree is about a tree that gives a child everything it has until that child is a man and the tree is no longer a tree. The themes in this children’s book stretch from the simple — like kindness — to the more complex — like man’s relation to nature — making it an excellent choice for any child.

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

It’s safe to say that there is no way that any essential list of children’s books would be complete without at least one Dr. Seuss creation. In fact, it’s quite a difficult task to choose just one out of the impressive body of work Mr. Geisel put out in his lifetime. Oh, the Places You’ll Go is a heartfelt, inspirational story that reinforces for children the concept of limitless human potential. It’s hard to read this book and not feel that anything is possible.

The Giver

The science-fiction novel by Lois Lowry paints a dystopian image that removes emotion, free will, and all sense of empathy from the human equation in order to show how important these virtues are in life. It implores children to hold onto emotions and to remember the importance of history. The themes in the book encourage children to embrace and appreciate life.

Where the Wild Things Are

There are many ways to try to Where the Wild Things Are; however, perhaps the best way to think of it is as a traditional coming-of-age narrative that flips everything on its ear. This monstrous, imaginative adventure takes an excellent look at the anger of a child and puts a unique perspective on it. This book has been significant in the lives of children worldwide for many years, and based on the craftmanship of the book, it will likely remain so for many years to come.

Stories will always be important in the lives of people because they grant a point of reference that’s outside of our day-to-day situations; they essentially test-drive the emotions and morality of children in a safe but significant way. Plus, they offer thrills beyond the ordinary.

What special books do you fondly remember from your childhood?

7 Books Every Student Should Read Before Entering the Workforce

Unless you’re really lucky, you’ll have some time between taking your last step out of your college and your first step into a new job. You can spend that time trying to have as much fun as you can, basically prolonging the college experience as long as possible. You can spend that time trying to figure things out, yourself included. You can travel, paint, or volunteer. You can do a lot of things, but what you can’t do is escape the fact that, unless you have a trust fund, you’ll have to join the workforce (cue Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine”). It will be a big change, and it might be tough. Luckily, there’s a tool we humans use to extend our knowledge to others and pass it down to coming generations: books. The right book at the right time can give you guidance, advice, inspiration, or words of warning for this transition.

1 This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace David Foster Wallace, a writer (and the world’s foremost bandana wearer, aside from Tupac), gave a commencement speech at Kenyon College back in 2005. This speech, titled “This is Water,” was posthumously published in the form of a book, and if you can read only one book on this list, it should be this one. In a very smart and thoroughly human way, Wallace captures the post-college human condition experienced by people who are a part of the workforce, and gives thoughtful advice about making the most out of it.

2 How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie A self-help book from the 1930s that’s still as influential as it’s ever been, Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People is a must-read for everyone whose work will include any form of contact with people. The book will teach you how to win friends and influence people, just as the title says, and you can imagine how helpful that might be with coworkers, clients, and customers. Previous editions had sections about writing effective business letters and marital satisfaction, but those were dropped in more recent editions. You have this blog to help you with business writing; for the marital thing, you’re on your own.

3 A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf There’s more than one reason you should read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. The sheer guts she displayed by giving lectures about lesbianism, feminism, and gender inequalities is one reason. The fact that women are still paid less than men to do the same jobs around the world is another one. And it also carries the lesson that, no matter your gender or occupation or the hardships you face, you should fight to carve out a room of your own, a place for your passions.

4 Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain Those who aren’t particularly outgoing and tend to keep to themselves might think they won’t have a nice time joining the workforce. According to Susan Cain, they might be onto something, because it seems that today’s culture prefers extroverts. In Quiet, Cain aims to show the folly of such an approach while also giving introverts plenty of tips on how to find their way in this culture. This book aims to change minds, so extroverted college graduates should read it as well.

5 Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson Starting to earn money is one thing; learning how to manage it is a completely different thing. What to do and what not to do with your personal finances is something that’s best learned before you actually have personal finances, and Eric Tyson’s book will provide plenty of good advice about what’s ahead of you in your professional and financial life.

6 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey Another self-help classic, Covey’s seven habits have been so influential that they garnered him an invitation from President Bill Clinton for a chat about ways to implement the seven habits in his presidency. What makes the book so influential is that it carefully balances independence and interdependence, giving advice on how to prioritize personal goals, but also how to use empathetic listening to understand others.

7 Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel The last book of the list is a book in which people talk about their work and how it makes them feel. Studs Terkel’s masterpiece is an oral history that delivers exactly what it promises—regular people with regular thoughts about their jobs. The jobs the people in the book have are widely varied, so you’ll read the thoughts of a piano tuner on one page and the musings of a tennis player on another. And even though it was written in 1974, it’s still a very valuable resource for you, the person about to join the workforce.

5 Reasons You Should Be Reading African American Literature

In the month of February, Americans place a special emphasis on the achievements and history of black Americans, or Americans of African descent. Each year, a theme promotes one facet of black heritage. This year, 2016, the theme is “Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African American Memories.” The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) website explains, “From port cities where Africans disembarked from slave ships to the battlefields where their descendants fought for freedom, from the colleges and universities where they pursued education to places where they created communities during centuries of migration, the imprint of Americans of African descent is deeply embedded in the narrative of the American past. These sites prompt us to remember and over time became hallowed grounds.” You might encounter descriptions of many of these important locations in African American literature, such as the books mentioned in the article “5 Inspiring Authors to Read During Black History Month.” But why should you be interested in the works of these African American writers?

A Complete Education

History helps you to understand the present. It also helps you to see the consequences of actions and attitudes. African American history is an integral part of American and world history. To appreciate historical events, you need to know more than just the names of people and places or the dates of events. Why did the people involved act in the way that they did? What were the prevailing attitudes of society? How did the social, environmental, political, and religious climate impact the people and events? African American historical novels reveal what was happening in the black community during significant world events. You won’t fully comprehend the past until you examine it from all possible angles.

Exposure to Different Perspectives

If you are not of African descent, you may view the world differently than someone who comes from that background. Of course, the best way to get to know people is to spend time with them in person. However, reading is another great way to consider the world from a perspective other than your own.

Development of Empathy

When you read any literature from another cultural standpoint, you will see differences in the way people of that culture think, speak, and behave. You might be surprised to learn how many similarities you notice. Emotions such as love, anger, curiosity, desire, sorrow, and fear are common to all people. Perceiving these similarities may help you to feel more connected to black Americans as a group. When black Americans read these books, they also feel more connected to their ancestors. Studies prove that reading positive stories about members of your ethnic group increases feelings of self-worth and belonging. Children, adults, blacks, and non-blacks benefit from reading multicultural literature.

Cool Culture

One of the best things about American culture is that it incorporates traditions, cuisine, art, and other facets of many world cultures. By reading literature rooted in African American culture, you may learn that some of the customs you already practice have African origins.

Everyone Loves a Good Book

Why do you read any book? Did you receive a recommendation from a friend or teacher? Does the title intrigue you? Are you looking for specific information? These same factors can move you to read African American literature.

You don’t have to limit your appreciation for black history to the month of February. African American literature is an enjoyable way to celebrate American culture all year round. Whether you do it to fill out your knowledge of world history, to challenge yourself to view things from another perspective, or just to find a good book, you won’t regret exploring this fascinating genre.