Practical Grammar Workplace Guide ENG/230

Introduction In grammar, there are rules and then there are guidelines. Rules may sometimes be broken, but usually breaking the rules of grammar leads to prose that sounds awkward and is indisputably incorrect. On the other hand, a guideline is a best practice. It’s not a rule; it’s a rule of thumb. It’s important to understand that grammar, in general, is a form of consensus. When we all agree on how language should be structured, it’s much easier to communicate clearly and effectively.

Comma splice You can use a comma (three or more things), including the last two. "He hit the ball, dropped the bat, and ran to first base." You may have learned that the comma before the "and" is unnecessary. Easiest way to fix this type of error is to substitute a period or semicolon for the comma. comma splice refers to two independent clauses separated by a comma instead of a period or semicolon. Comma splices, also known as comma faults, are often regarded as errors, especially if they're likely to confuse or distract readers.

Subject verb agreement Basic Rule. A singular subject (she, Bill, car) takes a singular verb (is, goes, shines), whereas a plural subject takes a plural verb. Example: The list of items is/are on the desk. If you know that list is the subject, then you will choose is for the verb. A subject will come before a phrase beginning with of. This is a key rule for understanding subjects. The word of is the culprit in many, perhaps most, subject-verb mistakes. The rule is simple: singular subjects take singular verbs and plural subjects take plural verbs. But sometimes it’s difficult to tell whether a subject is singular or plural. That’s why subject-verb agreement errors crop up in so many pieces of writing. We don’t see a lot of mistakes with basic subject-verb agreement. In fact, such mistakes are rare for native English speakers. Kids and people who are learning English often have trouble with subject-verb agreement. And these mistakes aren’t limited to English.

Fragments A SENTENCE FRAGMENT fails to be a sentence in the sense that it cannot stand by itself. It does not contain even one independent clause. There are several reasons why a group of words may seem to act like a sentence but not have the wherewithal to make it as a complete thought. Fragments are incomplete sentences. Usually, fragments are pieces of sentences that have become disconnected from the main clause. One of the easiest ways to correct them is to remove the period between the fragment and the main clause. Other kinds of punctuation may be needed for the newly combined sentence.

Run on sentences Run-on sentence occurs when two independent clauses that join together without an appropriate conjunction or mark of punctuation between them. Correct a run on sentence: Join the two clauses with a comma and a coordinating conjunction Break the run-on sentence into two separate sentences Join the clauses with a semi-colon and a conjunctive adverb followed by a comma; however, Join the clauses with a semi-colon Run-on sentences aren't always excessively long sentences, but they can be confusing to readers because they tend to express more than one main idea without making clear connections between the two.

sentences A sentence is a set of words that is complete in itself, typically containing a subject and predicate, conveying a statement, question, exclamation, or command, and consisting of a main clause and sometimes one or more subordinate clauses. Correcting Sentences you must eliminate and understand comma splices and Correcting and spotting sentence fragments: A sentence can consist of a single clause or several clauses. When a sentence is a single clause, it is called a simple sentence (and the clause is called an independent clause). A sentence must contain at least one independent clause. Sentence fragment is a group of words that may act like a sentence but can’t actually be an independent sentence on its own. The term splice refers generally to things such as wires and film and it is basically about putting things together.

pronouns Pronouns replace nouns. If we didn't have pronouns, we'd have to keep repeating our nouns and that would make our sentences very cumbersome and repetitive. Pronouns are usually short words. The correct use of pronouns may be learned in various ways. One method is to depend on your ear: "Which sounds right— I or me?" Another way is to learn the case forms of pronouns and to know when to use each form. Pronouns replace nouns. If we didn't have pronouns, we'd have to keep repeating our nouns and that would make our sentences very cumbersome and repetitive. Pronouns are usually short words.

Commonly confused words Words that sound alike or nearly alike but have different meanings often cause writers trouble. Some examples are : Accept / Except Affect / Effect A Lot / Alot Allusion / Illusion All Ready / Already There are a lot of words in English that look or sound alike but have very different meanings, such as pore and pour or flaunt and flout. Its easy to get them confused and most electronic spell checkers wont be much help in this type of situation: they can tell you if a word has been spelled wrongly but they can’t generally flag up the misuse of a correctly spelled word.

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