Syntax Errors to Avoid SECONDARY 5 ENRICHED ENGLISH

Part 1 Wordiness

Eliminate Wordiness: Be Concise Wordy: There is a need for more careful inspection of all welds. Concise: You must inspect all welds more carefully. Inspect all welds more carefully. Wordy: I will now make a few observations about the fact that charities have low funds. Concise: I will now make a few observations about charities’ scarce resources.

Choose the Best Transition Word Instead of Use the reason for for the reason that due to the fact that owing to the fact that in light of the fact that considering the fact that on the grounds that this is why because, since, why

Choose the Best Transition Word Instead of Use despite the fact that regardless of the fact that although, even, though

Eliminate Wordiness: Nominalization Bad- Verbs Good When we turn a verb or adjective into a noun, we have to add useless words to make our sentence logical. Action verbs make sentences concise and easy to understand. Faulty Our request is that on your return, you conduct a review of the data and provide an immediate report. Revised We request that when you return, you review the date and report immediately.

Ratios of Non-Action Words to Verbs Mary is aware of her inheritance of her money as the reason for John's love for her. [1 verb / 17 words] Mary knows that John loves her because she inherited money. [3 verbs 10 words] The smaller the ratio of verbs to other words in a sentence, the harder the sentence is to understand.

Part 2 Modifiers

What is a modifier? An optional element in a phrase or a clause structure It modifies (changes the meaning of) an other element of in the structure, on which it is dependent. Now clauses is where we start to run into problems…. Adjectives: This is a ball. This is a red ball. Adverbs He walked to school. He walked quickly to school.

Dangling Modifiers The following sentence has an incorrect usage: Having finished the assignment, the TV was turned on. "Having finished" is a participle expressing action, but the doer is not the TV set (the subject of the main clause): TV sets don't finish assignments. Thus we ask ourselves: Who finished the assignment?

Work on Clarity: Dangling Modifiers A dangling modifier is a word or phrase that modifies a word not clearly stated in the sentence. A modifier describes, clarifies, or gives more detail about a concept. Having finished the assignment, Jill turned on the TV. "Having finished" states an action but does not name the doer of that action. In English sentences, the doer must be the subject of the main clause that follows. In this sentence, it is Jill.

ERRORS > SOLUTIONS Hungry, the leftover pizza was devoured. (X) Was “the leftover pizza” hungry? Rummaging in her giant handbag, the sunglasses escaped detection. (X) Who was rummaging in her giant handbag? Can “sunglasses” escape detection? With a sigh of disappointment, the expensive dress was returned to the rack. (X) Was “the expensive dress” disappointed? Hungry, we devoured the leftover pizza. Rummaging in her giant handbag, Sara failed to find her sunglasses. With a sigh of disappointment, Katie returned the expensive dress to the rack.

Squinting/Misplaced Modifiers A squinting modifier is a modifier (usually an adverb) which could feasibly modify the words before it or the words after it. Students who study rarely get bad grades. This structure leaves the reader unsure about which type of student gets bad grades: the one who studies or the one who studies rarely. Correction Students who rarely study get bad grades.

Part 3 Punctuation

Using commas correctly Run-on Sentences This type of error comes from joining clauses that could each stand alone as a sentence with no punctuation or words to link them. Fused (or run-on) sentences must be either divided into separate sentences or joined by adding words or punctuation.

Run-on Sentences The barn was very large it smelled of hay and horses. You can only be young once you can be immature forever.

Comma splice Do not link two independent clauses with a comma (unless you also use a coordinating conjunction and, or, but, for, nor, so yet). Instead use a period or semicolon, or rewrite the sentence. Incorrect: The barn was very large, it smelled of hay and horses. Revised: The barn was very large and it smelled of hay and horses. Incorrect: You can only be young once, you can be immature forever. Revised: You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever.

Faulty Parallelism Use grammatically equal sentence elements to express two or more matching ideas or items in a series. Incorrect: The candidateʼs goals include winning the election, a health program, and education. Revised: The candidateʼs goals include winning the election, enacting a national health program, and improving the educational system

Part 4 Verb Tense

Unnecessary Shift in Verb Tense Verbs that shift from one tense to another with no clear reason can confuse readers. Martin searched for a great horned owl. He takes photographs of all the birds he sights. Revised: Martin searched for a great horned owl. He took photographs of all the birds he sighted.

Part 5 Dead Words

Dead Words They are vague or overused and they do not convey a powerful meaning. E.g: funny = amusing, comical, laughable, jovial, strange, peculiar, unusual Said = acknowledged, added, admitted, advised, agreed, announced, answered, approved, argued, asked, assumed , assured ,babbled, bargained, babbled, boasted, bragged, called nice= pleasant, charming, fascinating, captivating, delightful , pleasurable, pleasing *Be careful of the context in which you are using these synonyms. Your choice of vocabulary conveys the tone of your text.