Grammar 1: The Basics is an Intensive, meaning it happens in a short time span (1 day in NYC, or 2 days on Zoom). It’s open to writers of any level. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
If you feel you’re solid with the basics of grammar, you may go straight to Grammar 2. If you’re in doubt about this, start with Grammar 1; it will be valuable even if some of it is review.
For companies interested in our Grammar program, see our Grammar brochure or visit our Corporate Classes page.
We teach grammar in a way that is intuitive and fun, rather than relying on terminology and rigid rules.
Do you panic when you punctuate? Does grammar make you say, “grrr!”
Grammar 1 teaches the basics of grammar, just enough so you won’t make errors that show you in a bad light. You’ll be amazed at how quick quickly your competence and confidence will grow.
Do you aspire to be a grammar aficionado? The one everyone turns to for grammatical advice?
Grammar 2 teaches the picky (but important) details of grammar, and will show you how to manipulate your sentences and punctuation not just correctly, but artfully.
Both courses come with an invaluable reference guide created exclusively for Gotham students.
This course gives an overview of the basics of good grammar. Course components:
- Brief lectures
- Writing exercises
Topics:
Nouns, Pronouns, and Verbs
- Nouns
- Pronouns
- Pronoun Agreement
- Verbs
- Sentences
- Subject/Verb Agreement
Parts of Speech
- Parts of Speech
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Modifier Problems
- Prepositions
- Conjunctions
- Interjections
- Subject and Predicate
- Objects
Punctuation!
- End Punctuation—period, exclamation, question mark
- Pause Punctuation—comma, semicolon
- More Pause Punctuation—parenthesis, dash, ellipsis
- Apostrophes—possessives, contractions
- Colons
- Hyphens
- Quotation Marks
Trouble Spots and Tricky Devils
- Commonly Confused Words
- Abbreviation, Capitalization
- Titles, Numbers
About
- Zoom classes happen in real time.
- The Zoom classes unite students from all over the world at Gotham—New York City’s most well-established writing school.
- The Zoom classes happen on videoconference, in “real time.” Very much like an in-person class except everyone is on a computer or device in their own space. The Zoom software is free and simple to use.
- You can take a Zoom writing class from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. The majority of our Zoom students are located in the U.S. but we also draw students from practically every country in the world.
- Tech support will be available. Out of respect for everyone’s privacy, the Zoom sessions are not recorded.