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Agee, James A Death in the Family Story of loss and heartbreak felt when a young father dies.   Anderson, Sherwood Winesburg, Ohio A collection of short stories lays bare the life of a small town in the Midwest.   Baldwin, James Go Tell It On the Mountain Semi-autobiographical novel about a 14-year-old black youth's religious conversion.   Bellamy, Edward Looking Backward: 2000-1887 Written in 1887 about a young man who travels in time to a utopian year 2000, where economic security and a healthy moral environment have reduced crime.   Bellow, Saul Seize the Day A son grapples with his love and hate for an unworthy father.   Bradbury, Ray Fahrenheit 451 Reading is a crime and firemen burn books in this futuristic society.   Cather, Willa My Antonia Immigrant pioneers strive to adapt to the Nebraska prairies.   Chopin, Kate The Awakening The story of a New Orleans woman who abandons her husband and children to search for love and self-understanding. ...

3 Problems of Parallel Structure Faulty combination of elements in sentences is a common syntactical flaw. Here are three examples of this type of organizational error. 1. “She is bright, creative, and has much to share.” This sentence, in which the predicate includes two adjectives following a verb, then a conjunction and a verb phrase, is out of balance. The subject is credited with three attributes, and they must share one verb, or each must have its own verb. The sentence initially appears to follow the former rule, but then another verb appears. The only way to maintain this structure is to combine  bright  and  creative  into a single item: “She is bright and creative and has much to share.” (Note that the comma after creative is no longer necessary.) Alternatively,  creative  could be assigned its own verb, but it — and the final phrase — would require a proprietary repetition of the pronoun as well: “She is bright, she is creative, and she ...

40 Idioms with First Many expressions include the word  first , often referring to beginnings or initial experiences. Here is a list of idiomatic phrases featuring the word, and their meanings. 1.  First aid : medical care for minor injuries such as mild abrasions, cuts, bruises, and burns 2.  First among equals : the sentiment that a leader is merely the premier person among his or her colleagues 3.  First base : the first step or stage in a process or procedure, from baseball terminology 4.  First blood : referring to the rite of passage of a hunter making a first kill 5.  (At) first blush : referring to reconsideration of one’s initial thought 6.  First call : the right to priority in use of something 7.  First cause : the philosophical concept of the original self-created cause of which all other causes are by-products 8.  First chair : the lead musician among those playing a particular instrument in an orchestra (such as f...