From the grammar quizzes
First, even as a joke, PLEASE don't ever spell it "grammer"! There were several entries in the dropbox with that spelling. (One of the quizzes has that spelling in a heading. Maybe that's there to make sure you don't trust anyone -- or to show that mistakes happen.) Be careful!
I have a long-standing list of grammar texts and tips on an older page of Grammar, Search and Research Links; let me know if any of those sites have gone out of business -- or if you find them especially helpful.
Pronoun agreement: It can get tricky, as the Grammar Girl and Daily Writing Tips essays on "taller than him" vs. "taller than he" illustrate. In your professional life, it will be easy to resolve these "close call" decisions by employing the Golden Rule: "Whoever has the gold (your editor) makes the rules."
Semicolons vs. commas: A sentence is a full subject-verb or subject-verb-object statement, usually with a period at the end. If two S-V or S-V-O statements are so closely related that you don't want the reader to stop and breathe between them, we call them "independent clauses" and join them with a semicolon. You may want to join two complete statements to emphasize their relationship without using a conjunction like and or but:
"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."
You DO use a comma with and or but:
"It was the best of times, but it was also the worst of times."
Otherwise, use commas to separate introductory phrases and things in a list, to add modifiers, or to introduce dependent clauses, but not to join complete thoughts. ("We had snow, sleet, rain and a flood. It was February, which has always been my favorite month.") See the chapter 6 quiz for more examples. Also see the punctuation section of the stylebook for more about all of your favorite punctuation marks.
Of course, some prefer hairy-knuckled examples with ice cream truck drivers and cartoon gorillas.
The textbook company is downright mean, making the first question on the first grammar quiz a choice between "none... were..." and "none... was..."
See this discussion and the first item in this grammar guide page to understand why. "None"can be singular OR plural, but I don't think the "None of the students was/were on time for class." question gives you enough evidence to decide.
"Anyone can have a problem getting to school. I don't mind it when one or two are late, but today none (emphasizing "not even one" of the students was on time for class."
"We had a blizzard. It affected everyone. None (emphasizing "not any") of the students were on time for class."
Most common comma problem: "Apposition"
For spring break we went to Washington, D.C., to see the cherry blossoms.
You can think of this as a mechanical rule: "Use commas before and after a state name or abbreviation that comes after a city name." Or you can think of it as a broader punctuation rule: "Appositives" should be set off with commas. An appositive completes an idea. In this case, "D.C." completes "Washington." Similarly, a description placed after a name completes the identification of a person: "Bob Stepno, a journalism teacher, has tired eyes." (A title in front of a name doesn't need commas.)
Related: A "nonessential" phrase or clause also must be set off by a pair of commas. See the entries under "essential" in the stylebook. What crime is being implied by the incorrect punctuation in this sentence?
Julie and her husband David went to the dinner.
Sometimes, grammar is just about doing the math -- to make sure that plural nouns go with plural verbs or plural pronouns.
On the first day of school, each of the little girls stood in the hall clutching her/their backpack.
How many girls? How many backpacks? "Each..." clutched "her backpack." If it said "All of the girls... clutched their backpacks," that would be correct.
Don't let modifying phrases slip away from the things they modify. In this case from chapter 10's quiz, "having waited" has to connect to someone capable of waiting and breathing.
(A) Having waited with bated breath, the twins were disappointed by the delayed delivery of their new plasma TV.
(B) Having waited with bated breath, the delayed delivery of their new plasma TV was a great disappointment to the twins.
A delivery can't breathe, so the introductory phrase needs to be followed by "the twins," not "the delivery..."
Here's another bad example: "Running across campus, Porterfield Hall was Tom's destination." (Stop that runaway building!)
"Who vs. whom" questions are covered pretty well by the "try substituting 'he' and 'him'" exercise on the grammar guide's 'pronouns' page.
The trickier choices are cases where a whole "who..." clause is used as an object: "Don't forget who assigned this homework." ("Don't forget he assigned this homework.")Plurals and possessives: Some words are irregular and the stylebook has individual entries for them. Some can be puzzled out with logic.Sometimes both things are true: An attorney general is a government legal official, not a military officer with stars on his or her shoulders. So the plural is "attorneys general."
Only use the apostrophe with possessives and contractions (to replace a missing letter or numeral, like "back in the '60s" or "don't say that") , not with simple plurals. The one exception: Forming the plural of a single letter. ("They all got A's on the test.")
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073378917/student_view0/chapter1/grammar_quiz.html
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073378917/student_view0/chapter2/grammar_quiz.html
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073378917/student_view0/chapter3/grammar_quiz.html
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073378917/student_view0/chapter4/grammar_quiz.html
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073378917/student_view0/chapter5/grammar_quiz.html
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073378917/student_view0/chapter6/grammar_quiz.html
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073378917/student_view0/chapter7/grammar_quiz.html
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073378917/student_view0/chapter8/grammar_quiz.html
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073378917/student_view0/chapter9/grammar_quiz.html
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073378917/student_view0/chapter10/grammar_quiz.html