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EDITING and PROOFREADING. Editing for Grammar. SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT. Subjects and verbs must agree in number S ingular subjects take singular verbs A liar is either a chronic liar or an occasional liar. Plural subjects take plural verbs
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EDITING and PROOFREADING Editing for Grammar
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT • Subjects and verbs must agree in number • Singular subjects take singular verbs • A liaris either a chronic liar or an occasional liar. • Plural subjects take plural verbs • Chronic liarsare different from occasional liars.
SHIFTS IN VERB TENSE • Unintentional shifts in verb tense can be confusing to readers. • Verb tenses in the same passage should be the same unless you are referring to two different time periods. • Lee surrendered (past) to Grant on April 9, 1865, and then he addressed (past) his men.
CLEAR PRONOUN REFERENCES • Every pronoun should clearly refer to a specific antecedent, the word (a noun or pronoun) it replaces. • Pronouns and antecedents must agree in number. • Singular pronouns refer to singular antecedents: • When she was attacked, Kitty was on her way home. • Plural pronouns refer to plural antecedents: • The people who watched the attack gave different reasons for their failure to help.
COMPLETE SENTENCES • A sentence is a group of words that includes a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought. • A fragment is an incomplete sentence, one that is missing a subject, a verb, or both a subject and a verb – or that has a subject and a verb but does not express a complete thought.
COMPLETE SENTENCESWhat is missing? • SENTENCE: Although it was written in 1963, Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” remains powerful today. • ? Remains powerful today. • ? Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” • ? Written in 1963. • ? Although it was written in 1963.
RUN-ON SENTENCESComma Splice and Fused Sentences • A comma splice is an error that occurs when two independent clauses are connected by just a comma. • Women who live alone need to learn to protect themselves, sometimes this means carrying a gun. • A fused sentence is an error that occurs when two independent clauses are connected without any punctuation. • Residents of isolated rural areas may carry guns for protection sometimes these guns may be used against them.
MISPLACED and DANGLING MODIFIERS • Modifiers are words and phrases that describe other words in a sentence. To avoid confusion, place modifiers as close as possible to the words they modify. • A misplaced modifier appears to modify the wrong word because it is placed incorrectly in the sentence. • A dangling modifier “dangles” because it cannot logically describe any word in the sentence. • See page 84 for examples
PARALLELISM • Parallelism is the use of matching grammatical elements (words, phrases, clauses) to express similar ideas. • Parallelism makes the links between related ideas clear and emphasizes connections. • Faulty parallelism– using items that are not parallel in a context in which parallelism is expected – makes ideas difficult to follow and will confuse your readers. • Correct the faulty parallelism: As Tannen points out, men speak more than women in public, but at home less talking is done by them.