No excuses, just factual, I have started college this fall which is why it took me so long to post. My class load has doubled and that has made my schedule more hectic. Enough with the jabber and let's get down to our mini lesson. In this lesson, we will talk about pronouns. A pronoun is any word that replaces a noun in a sentence. Whenever we use pronouns they allow us to write a sentence without repeating the same noun. Antecedents are the nouns that used to replace the pronoun. Antecedents must agree with the pronoun in number, gender, and person.

If it takes the place of a person, it is a personal pronoun. i/we/you

If it shows ownership it is possessive. our/your/his/her

If the same noun is both the subject and object of the sentence, it is reflexive. myself/himself/herself

A relative pronoun takes the place of a person, place, thing, or idea, and it begins a clause that relates some additional information about its antecedent. who/whom/this/that

example: Alfred and John are betting in the casino, they are too busy right now for sightseeing here in Vegas.

The word 'they' in that sentence is the antecedent.

Basically, identifying the pronoun in your sentence is imperative whenever you tend to have complex sentences. It is best to make sure you clearly establish the proper noun to antecedent combination within your writing as well. Salutations.

"Writing Styles -Be the Bright!"

Gerunds are verbs that are joined by adding '-ing' to the end it. This is a very simple lesson, but knowing the term and being familiar with how they come about is very imperative. Gerunds come in forms as well. They come in active and passive forms. Each form has a present or perfect tense.  
         

               Active              Passive
   (Present) Helping             Being Helped
   (Perfect)  Having Helped   Having Been Helped

• I stopped borrowing books from that library.
• I am afraid she is complaining about your work.
• Look at the bee buzzing around the sunflower.
• He is avoiding pain by taking three aspirins.

Overall, gerunds are used daily. We use them in our speech and when we write. The next time you use a gerund take the time to find out if you are using it in a active or passive form. At this time I am (writing) this sentence using the active form of a gerund. Voila!

"Writing Styles - Be the Bright!"

Infinitives. Well, what are infinitives? They are verbs joined with the word 'to'. Funny thing about the infinitives though. They can also act as a noun, adjective, or adverb in the sentence. Let us look at some examples of sentences that have infinitives.

• I wish to go home. (verb)
• "To boldly go where no man has gone before." (adverb)
• That sound was deafening to my ears. (adjective)

Generally, the infinitive is used with the word 'to' as well. 

• It is common to use action verbs when writing fight scenes.
• It is appropriate to use your best etiquette when visiting someone's home.
• It was great to ride in your luxury car past the beach.

Infinitives were a little tricky to work with, but I enjoyed the challenge. It made me more aware of how important the word 'to' is. From now on when I use the word 'to', I will make sure that I take a look at the type of words I am surrounding it with. Maybe we should all take the time to (verb) look at words we are nestling around this word.

"Writing Styles - Be the Bright!"

Perfect Progressive Tense are actions replicated over time. The time frame can be in the future or will be, in the past, and lastly it is in the present.
There are three perfect progressive tenses - present, past, and future. Present perfect progressive tense demonstrates that some type of action began in the past and it is actually continuing now. This tense is usually associated with the word 'just'. 

• I have been writing all day long.
• It has just been sleeting and snowing for over an hour.

Past perfect tense demonstrates that an action was completed in the past right before another event. This tense usually uses the words 'to have or had'.

• She had skated around the rink twice when she fell and hurt her head.
• He had shot the deer in the head after he charged him.

Future perfect tense demonstrates that an action will have been finished in the future. This tense is usually formed using the words 'will have'. 

• She will have walked two miles when she turns this curve.
• I will have walked one mile after this lap.

Basically, it will make a quite a difference in your writing when you use the correct tense forms in your sentences. Be careful to read your text out loud when you are editing as this will aid you in creating 'tight text'. 

"Writing styles - Be the Bright!"

Well, let us begin. We will talk about action verbs. They are the words that express to the reader that some type of activity is taking place. It relates to the reader that there is movement happening in the scene. Slap! Wham! Kick! Chop! These action words remind me of some type of movement you would see in the average comic book with exploding text and graphics. I can see the hero with his foot very close to the face of the character he is about to kick. I can even see the eyes of the unfortunate face on the other end of that shoe! When do you think it is best to use an action verb in your text? I think it is probably best used by someone writing a short story or some suspense filled novel. But that doesn't mean that we as everyday writers of content for pay can't slip one in. We can slip one in to wake up our intended audience when we send text messages to someone on our phones or try to sneak one in on a Facebook comment. Ha-ha. If you happen to take my advice on this word play, please share with me in a comment. Thanks for reading my first blog post and keep coming back for more "Writing Styles - Be the Bright!"