COMMON SENTENCENCE ERRORS

1. COMMON SENTENCENCE ERRORS

2. 1-What Is An Error? • 1. An act, assertion, or belief that unintentionally deviates from what is correct, right, or true. • 2. The condition of having incorrect or false knowledge. • 3. The act or an instance of deviating from an accepted code of behavior. • 4. A mistake.

3. 2-The Common Sentence Mistakes Examples • The students was late for class. In this sentence, the subject “students” is plural while the verb “was” is singular. • Jessica take the bus to school. In this sentence, the subject “Jessica” is singular while the verb “take” is plural. • After hours of futile debate, the committee has decided to postpone further discussion of their resolution until their next meeting. The “their” should be an “its” – a committee, whilst it consists of people, is an item. In order to employ “their” here, “the committee has” would have to become “the committee members have”.

4. At the music recital, Alexandra enjoyed listening to her friend Mohammed’s insightful interpretation, which she thought was more sophisticated than the other performers. It wasn’t stated that Alexandra enjoyed listening to Mohammed – she enjoyed listening to his interpretation, as supported by there being a “which” at the beginning of the next clause. If we were talking about Mohammed, then we would have utilized a “who”; furthermore, we might not have mentioned his interpretation at all. We need, then, to complete this sentence with a comment about the interpretation and not Mohammed – that’s the error. She thought his interpretation more sophisticated, but the sentence currently speaks of people.

5. Originally aprotest on conventional painting, the Pre-Raphaelite movement exertedgreat influence on the art of its time. Our error lies in the first underlined portion. You protest against something, not on it. • The board reviewing the courses offered by the college foundthat the quality of academic programs weregenerally good but somewhatuneven. The quality of the academic programs. That’s a singular noun. We’re describing the quality, not the programs, so the “were” should be a “was”.

6. Maude Adams, after her spectacular triumph as the original Peter Pan, went about heavy veiled and was accessible to only a handful of intimate friends. Quite simply, you go about heavily veiled, not “heavy veiled”. Though a word may appear as a noun far more often than it does as a verb, it can still be a verb in a certain context. Try asking yourself something like “How did Maude Adams go about?”“She went about veiled – heavily veiled.” • All states impose severe penalties on drivers who do not stop when he or she is involved in accidents. the error is the final portion – the error is using “he or she” to describe “drivers”. This should not be done – “they are involved” is the correct piece.

7. Helena's car being the only one that could carry all of our equipment. Note that "being" is a participial form of the verb "to be." It is not acting as a verb in the sentence. • Going with our biology teacher to visit the marine aquarium research lab. Note that this sentence needs a subject ‘‘we’’ and the helping verb "are" to make it complete.

8. 3-Correction In A Sentence • Incorrect: I tried to clean the house, I gave up and watched soap operas instead.  • Correct: I tried to clean the house, butI gave up and watched soap operas instead. 

9. 4- Sentential Errors In WritingA-Comma Splice: • Comma splices entail the incorrect use of a comma (hence: comma splice) to join two (or more) independent clauses together in a single sentence. Incorrect: We have hundreds of pages of reading to do, it will be impossible to finish it all before the exam.  Correct: We have hundreds of pages of reading to do; it will be impossible to finish it all before the exam.

10. Incorrect: She wished she had some ice cream and because it was raining, she asked her roommate to drive her to the store, but she refused.  Correct: She wished she had some ice cream. Because it was raining, she asked her roommate to drive her to the store, but she refused. Incorrect: They wanted to start a band, none of them knew how to sing.  Correct: They wanted to start a band;however, none of them knew how to sing. 

11. B- Run-On Sentence: • In prescriptive grammar, two independent clauses that have been run together without an appropriate conjunction and/or mark of punctuationbetween them. Incorrect: Adam is a sweet boy he really loves animals. Correct: Adam is a sweet boy, he really loves animals. Incorrect: It was a beautiful day there was not a cloud in the sky. Correct: It was a beautiful day; there was not a cloud in the sky. Incorrect: John went to the movies. Sue stayed home. Correct: John went to the movies, and Sue stayed home.

12. C- Non-Parallel Sentences: • Parallelism concerns the balance of a sentence, or the similarity of words, phrases, or clauses in a list or series.  Incorrect: Bethany enjoys baking cakes, cookies, and brownies. Correct: Bethany enjoys baking cakes, cookies, and to make brownies. Incorrect: She doesn’t like washing clothes or housework. Correct: She doesn’t like washing clothes or doing housework. Incorrect: The British Museum is a wonderful place to see ancient Egyptian art, you can explore African artifacts, and beautiful find textiles from around the world. Correct: The British Museum is a wonderful place where you can find ancient Egyptian art, explore African artifacts, and discover beautiful textiles from around the world.

13. D- Sentence 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. Incorrect: Purdue offers many majors in engineering. Such as electrical, chemical, and industrial engineering. Correct:  Purdue offers many majors in engineering, such as electrical, chemical, and industrial engineering. Incorrect: Coach Dietz exemplified this behavior by walking off the field in the middle of a game. Leaving her team at a time when we needed her. Correct:  Coach Dietz exemplified this behavior by walking off the field in the middle of a game, leaving her team at a time when we needed her. Incorrect: I need to find a new roommate.Because the one I have now isn't working out too well.  Correct: I need to find a new roommate because the one I have now isn't working out too well.