Part Two: Writing Effective Sentences

1. Part Two: Writing Effective Sentences

2. Subject-Verb Agreement • Verbs must agree with its subject in number and person. • Singular • I work, you work, he works • I bike, you bike, she bikes • Plural • We work, you work, they work • We bike, you bike, they bike

3. Recognizing Subject-Verb Agreement • Faulty agreements: • George hate to work. • Gail love to bike. • Correct agreements: • George hates to work. • Gail loves to bike.

4. Exercise

5. Correct these sentences Bruce drive a long way to work. You wouldn’t knows it, but Greg are six feet four inches tall. When is we going to the movies? Who isn’t know how to add two plus two? I is the fastest runner I knows.

6. Verb Forms and Tenses • Every Verb has four main forms • Base form • Talk • Past • Talked • Present Participle • (am) Talking • Past Participle • (Have) Talked

7. Irregular Verb Forms • Irregular verbs can have completely different spellings from its base form. • Example: To Be • Base: Be • Past: Was • Present Participle: (am) Being • Past Participle: (have) Been What are some other examples of Irregular verbs? Is this a reason why English is such a hard language to learn and master?

8. Verb Tenses • The Simple Tenses • Present • We walk to school. • Past • We walked to school yesterday. • Future • Tomorrow we will walk to school.

9. Verb Tenses • The Perfect Tenses • Present perfect • George has worked for five hours. (He is still working) • Past perfect • After five hours of work, it was quitting time. (Shows that there is an end to the work) • Future perfect • George will have worked for five hours by quitting time. (First he will work for five hours, and then it is quitting time)

10. Verb Tenses • Progressive Tenses • Present Progressive • Dad is watching television • Past Progressive • Dad was watching television. • Future Progressive • Dad will be watching television. • Present Perfect Progressive • Dad has been trying to watch television. • Past Perfect Progressive • Dad had been trying to watch television. • Future Perfect Progressive • Dad will have been watching television.

11. Pronoun Problems • Using ‘their’ instead of he or she, or his or her. • Ambiguous or implied reference • Pronoun could refer to one or more subject • Vague references • Using they, you, or it instead of clearly stating the subject • Pronoun case • Using incorrect pronoun cases • Example: Her is tall. • Correction: She is tall.

12. Shifts and Mixed Constructions • Consistent verb tenses • Past and present get mixed • Example: Penelope walked all day and when she gets to the store they don’t have what she wanted. • Correction: Penelope walks all day and when she gets to the store they don’t have what she wants.

13. Consistent Point of View • Confusing the first, second, or third person POV. • Example: My coworkers asked for a raise, but you are supposed to work hard for that. • Correction: My coworkers asked for a raise, but they are supposed to work hard for that.

14. Adjectives and Adverbs • Distinguishing the two • Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns • Adverbs modify verbs, an adjective, or another adverb

15. Understand Comparative and Superlative Adjectives and Adverbs • Compare: I am bigger than you. • Superlative: I am the fastest runner here. • Adjective: Big, Bigger, Biggest • Adverb: Fast, Faster, fastest

16. Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers • Misplaced Modifiers • A word, phrase, or clause that does not clearly modify the intended word • Can generally be moved in the sentence to clarify meaning • Dangling Modifiers • This does not modify anything in the sentence • Usually appears at the beginning of the sentence • It cannot simply be moved to clarify the meaning