Write long enough and you will eventually pass all of life\u2019s basic grammar tests. While you may not be able to quote the rules and semantics of the English language, you undoubtedly don\u2019t commit egregious and dopey errors in your sentences and paragraphs.<\/p>\n
But even educated adults who write a lot commit less glaring \u2013 and quite common \u2013 writing errors. Writing guru Albert Joseph, in his guide \u201cPut it in Writing,\u201d <\/em>lists the following most common writing errors:<\/p>\n Error #1 \u2013 the dangling participle<\/strong><\/p>\n The psychologist who wrote, \u201cBeing a child with a deprived background, who grew up in the tough city streets, I was aware that the child had several significant obstacles to overcome\u201d committed the most common writing error \u2013 that of the dangling participle.<\/p>\n To correct the sentence, just strike out \u201cI was aware that.”\u00a0 That way the participle phrase beginning with \u201cBeing a child\u201d has a noun to modify.<\/p>\n Error #2 \u2013 subject-verb agreement<\/strong><\/p>\n Everyone knows that singular subjects take singular verbs. Likewise, plural subjects\u2026well, you know the rest. The problem, especially in longer sentences, is where the subject and the verb part company.\u00a0 When interrupted by nonrestrictive clauses and phrases set off by commas the verb that comes to mind tends to gravitate to the closest noun \u2013 if you are not careful, that is.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an example: You would not write, \u201cThe solution are<\/em> easy,\u201d but you might be tempted to write, \u201cThe solution to these problems, and similar ones that occur in these situations are<\/em> easy.\u201d\u00a0 You would, of course, be wrong. The subject is problem<\/em> and the verb has to remain the singular is.<\/em><\/p>\n Error #3 \u2013 Noun-pronoun disagreement<\/strong><\/p>\n Part 1: Loose antecedent or dangling pronouns<\/em><\/p>\n Here\u2019s an example where a pronoun later in a paragraph can cause ambiguity:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Governor decided to veto the bill, and the legislators consider his decision outrageous. Most state residents, according to one popular survey, agree with this<\/em> point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n Which point of view is the pronoun this<\/em> referring to \u2013 the decision made by the Governor or the considerations of the legislators? The antecedent of the pronoun was undoubtedly clear to the writer, but might require additional clarification for the reader.<\/p>\n Part 2:\u00a0 Singular nouns and plural pronouns \u2013 or vice versa<\/em><\/p>\n In these times of so-called \u201cgender-neutral\u201d writing and the tendency to avoid sexist stereotypes, some writers have resorted to mismatching their nouns and pronouns and write this way on purpose:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you see a person<\/em> who needs to be cheered up, give them<\/em> your smile.\u201d<\/p>\n That approach avoids the use of the male pronoun him<\/em> and might satisfy those who care about sexual equality. As far as those who care about correct grammar, they probably won\u2019t smile. The good-grammar compromise is simply to match up your noun and pronoun and make them both plural<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you see people<\/em> who need to be cheered up, give them<\/em> your smile.\u201d<\/p>\n Error #4 \u2013 The false series\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n When you write about a series of things, your writing should follow a consistent pattern. A normal series follows this pattern: one, two, and three. <\/em>A false series would go thus: one, two, and C.<\/em><\/p>\n Two examples of this writing error:<\/p>\n False series: The new process saves time, money, and improves employee morale.<\/p>\n Normal series: The new process saves time and money, and it improves employee morale.<\/p>\n False series:<\/p>\n Follow these steps to update the system<\/p>\n Fix that egregious lack of parallelism by changing the wording of C to \u201cRetrain your operators.\u201d<\/p>\n Error #5 \u2013 the missing second comma<\/strong><\/p>\n When inserting nonrestrictive phrases or clauses in a sentence, they must be surrounded a pair of commas. In the writer\u2019s haste to compose, it is the second comma that is frequently missed.<\/p>\n Two examples:<\/p>\n My brother, who looks quite a bit like me is often mistaken for my twin. The reason my brother and I are often mistaken for twins, my mother once explained is that we look so much alike. Write long enough and you will eventually pass all of life\u2019s basic grammar tests. While you may not be able to quote the rules and semantics of the English language, you undoubtedly don\u2019t commit egregious and dopey errors in your sentences and paragraphs.<\/p>\n But even educated adults who write a lot commit less glaring \u2013 and quite common \u2013 writing errors.\u00a0[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[49],"tags":[55,56,54,53,52],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2DkBj-4A","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gramlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gramlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gramlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gramlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gramlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gramlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/www.gramlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gramlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gramlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gramlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n(The second comma should go after \u201clike me.\u201d)<\/p>\n
\n(The second comma should go after \u201conce explained.\u201d)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"