Rule #1, #2, #3, and #4 of 22.

• Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's
  except hers its theirs yours ours. 
  Its vs. it's. 

• In a series of 3 or more, each item gets a comma except the last:  the last hurrah, the last goodbye, and the last laugh. 

• Parenthetical comments go inside commas:  e.g., Sociology today, as a discipline or as a point of view, still needs a lucid sociological imagination. 

• Put a comma before a conjunction [and, but, or, though] that introduces a second independent clause.  This is like getting to string together two sentences.  For example:  C. Wright Mills called for sociology to ask the big questions way back then, and the call remains unanswered.

• Do not join independent clauses with a comma. [use ;] Sociology is vast; it contains the study of many groups and strata of society and looks at them with many conceptual schemas.

• Do not break sentences in two. [or get a fragment] Sociology divides into conflict perspectives and consensus perspectives.  Neither one being complete.

• Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list of particulars, an appositive, amplification, or an illustrative quotation. 
  Example:
  Wrong: Your dedicated whittler requires: a knife, a piece of wood, and a back porch.
  Correct: Your dedicated whittler requires three props: a knife, a piece of wood, and a back porch.

• Use a dash to set off an abrupt break or interruption and to announce a long appositive or summary.
  Example:
  Wrong: Her father’s suspicions proved well-founded-it was not Edward she cared for--it was San Francisco.
  Correct: Her father’s suspicions proved well-founded. It was not Edward she cared for, it was San Francisco.

  9. The number of the subject determines the number of the verb.

  Example:

  The bittersweet flavor of youth-its trials, its joys, its adventures, its challenges-are not soon forgotten.

  The bittersweet flavor of youth-its trials, its joys, its adventures, its challenges-is not soon forgotten.

  Examples from the book:

  Those in the grip of the methodological inhibition often refuse to say anything about modern society unless it has been through the fine little mill of The Statistical Ritual. It is to say that what they produce are true if unimportant. (71-72)

   Those in the grip of the methodological inhibition often refuse to say anything about modern society unless it has been through the fine little mill of The Statistical Ritual. It is to say that what they produce is true if unimportant. (71-72)

  10. Use the proper case of pronoun.

  Example:

  Virgil Soames is the candidate whom we think will win

   Virgil Soames is the candidate who we think will win

  Example from the text:

  From after the Civil War until only a generation or so ago, the urban middle class of America was, in part, composed of men with expanding business, whom were taking over instruments of production and gaining political power as well as social prestige.(89)

  From after the Civil War until only a generation or so ago, the urban middle class of America was, in part, composed of men with expanding business, who were taking over instruments of production and gaining political power as well as social prestige.(89)

   

  PA Style

  • 1 page - or worth it

  • typed

  • no Elements of Style errors

  • Title that captures

  • Beginning, Middle, End

  • Strong finish

  • Adequate and compelling opening

  • Lack of outright Value Judgments (I think.  It's better.  We should.)

  • A level "above" personal trouble - imaginatively see social structure

  • Responds to question

  • See structure of consensus and conflict, awareness and manipulation, in situational detail