Chevron Left
Back to Grammar and Punctuation

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Grammar and Punctuation by University of California, Irvine

4.7
stars
19,258 ratings

About the Course

Course 1: Grammar and Punctuation Do you need to review English grammar? Have you forgotten the grammar you once studied? If so, this course is perfect for you. The first course in this specialization is a refresher on some tools needed for good writing. It will help prepare you for the other courses. You will need about 10 hours to complete this first course. Writing is a skill and to learn a skill well, you need to practice. In this course, you will watch short video lectures and then practice and discuss what you have learned. Make sure you take good notes and use the peer discussions to ask questions. Then you'll be able to remember the rules you learn in this course when you start writing essays in the next course. After completing this course, you will be able to: - identify the correct verb tenses to use - use commas effectively - utilize several different sentence types - write more effectively in English Please note that the free version of this class gives you access to all of the instructional videos and handouts. The peer feedback and quizzes are only available in the paid version....

Top reviews

MH

Nov 5, 2020

The course was so fascinating and it deserves everybody's time and effort. I have really enjoyed it and will confidently recommend it to anyone who is looking for a course on grammar and punctuations.

OI

Jul 2, 2020

This course was very helpful. It refreshed my memories and made me go back to so many things I thought I would never remember. It helped my writing skills a lot to. A big thank you to the instructors.

Filter by:

4926 - 4950 of 5,798 Reviews for Grammar and Punctuation

By Inas K

•

Oct 2, 2020

i

By Nazrin B

•

Sep 22, 2020

.

By jumaa a a a

•

Aug 19, 2020

g

By Saeed M A

•

Aug 18, 2020

g

By Majed D S A

•

Aug 17, 2020

g

By hamdan a a

•

Jul 19, 2020

g

By SAEED A M D A

•

Jul 17, 2020

g

By Shahad A

•

May 28, 2020

.

By PAKALAPATI G C

•

May 6, 2020

5

By Lavanya T

•

May 3, 2020

5

By Yerikuly Y

•

Apr 25, 2020

t

By Subhasmita D

•

Apr 8, 2020

s

By Safaa M M B

•

Aug 14, 2018

5

By Madhumeeta S

•

Jul 12, 2018

T

By Rakesh K

•

May 18, 2018

.

By GERMAIN M

•

Jan 25, 2018

i

By Roman I

•

Jan 9, 2017

A

By Andrey K

•

Jul 4, 2016

!

By Izeldin M A E

•

Jun 14, 2016

V

By Soichiro S

•

Mar 16, 2016

G

By Katherine

•

Feb 16, 2016

G

By Juliana B

•

Jan 30, 2016

v

By Cristiane F

•

Jan 19, 2016

I

By LaCisha I

•

Oct 20, 2015

R

By Renato P

•

May 6, 2020

First of all, thank you very much for putting this course together. I have just finished it, and I decided to leave this assignment for last since I wanted to share some general comments.Overall, I have learned a few new details here and there, including certain new ways of explaining the use of some structures and punctuation rules. It was very good for me to review the notion of "sentence compound" and "verb compound".My general observations about this course are:(1) It offers a very basic notion of verb tenses without any in-depth analysis of certain special or more complex situations. I guess I was expecting the chance to explore some more details in this course.(2) There were different moments where I disagreed about the use of commas recommended by the instructor. My disagreement was based on the writing guidelines I have learned throughout my life while attending courses/workshops offered by professional editors and university professors as well as while studying different materials (grammar books and writing handbooks. (Please see a list with some titles below.)(2.1) One case refers to the use or not of commas with Relative Clauses. As you may be well aware, commas should only be used with nonrestrictive clauses whereas restrictive clauses are never separated by commas. However, some sentences shown in the video "More Uses of Commas" as well as in the quizzes failed to make such distinction.Two examples from the video:(A) "My roommate, who hates seafood, doesn't want me to cook shrimp." [In this example, the use of commas is correct if I assume that there is only one roommate in this situation, which is clearly identified. Therefore, the relative clause is nonrestrictive as it is just adding extra information about the roommate.](B) "The dress, which I bought for tonight, is too tight for me to wear."[Here we have a very general subject "the dress", and we need the relative clause to help us identify which dress the speaker is talking about. Therefore, the relative clause is clearly a restrictive clause and should not be separated by commas.](2.2) Another situation that I somewhat disagreed with was with the rule about adding a comma before "and" in a series of three or more things/people/phrases etc. This last comma (aka "series comma", "serial comma", or even "Oxford comma") is actually "debatable" among many different authors. In general, it is considered an optional case, not a mandatory one.(3) In the video about Present Perfect and Simple Past, we were shown a table divided into two columns/sides: on the left, there were words normally used with Present Perfect, and on the right, words that were used with only Simple Past.(3.1) Among the words normally used with Present Perfect, we had already, ever, yet, never.However, as we all know, we can perfectly use either Present Perfect or Simple Past for new or recent happenings, especially in North America and in informal situations.For example:- I've lost my keys. Have you seen them? OR I lost my keys. Did you see them?The same applies to the words previously mentioned in bold as well as always, just, before:- I have already called Martha. OR I already called Martha.- Have you contacted Martha yet? OR Did you contact Martha yet?- I've never spoken to him. OR I never spoke to him.- Have you ever seen anything like that before? OR DId you ever see anything like that before?There would be some other things to say, but I believe that is enough for now.Thank you very much for this course in any case. I am sure most of my peers are learning a lot from it. :)