The Brainfuse Writing Lab 

Essential Grammar Guide

A Quick Reference for Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics

Grammar

Run-on Sentences: When writers join two or more independent clauses together without a conjunction, they have formed run-on sentences. These are hard to follow and need to be revised.

Incorrect:  The grate outside the bakery seemed to rise with the sun its windows revealed all of the cakes that had been made the day before.

Revised: The grate outside the bakery seemed to rise with the sun, and its windows revealed all of the cakes that had been made the day before.

or

The grate outside the store seemed to rise with the sun. Its windows revealed all of the cakes that had been made the day before.

Sentence Fragments: A complete sentence needs to be a complete thought. That thought needs to include a subject and a predicate.

The subject = Who/What the sentence is about. 

The predicate = what the subject does, or what the subject is (Use "what the subject is" if you are using a linking verb. That's a verb that shows a relationship between a noun and an adjective. These verbs can usually be replaced by the verb "to seem," and the sentence will still make sense.

• The leaves fell.
• The leaves turned brown. 
• Look at the leaves. (For requests and commands, you is understood to be the subject.)

A sentence fragment lacks one of these three qualities.

Fragment: Broke the window on our new car.

[Where is the subject?]

Complete: A fly ball broke the window on our new car.

Fragment: Parallel parking. 

[Where is the predicate?]

Complete: Parallel parking can be difficult

Fragment: When I step on the brake.

[How can you make this a complete thought?]

Correct: When I step on the brake, the car squeals.

Rambling Sentences: These sentences go on and on and on. 

Read your paper out loud and see if any of the sentences make you run out of breath or forget the point that you wanted to make. If so, that sentence needs to be broken into two or more sentences. Rambling sentences are often made up of long strands of clauses and parenthetical statements. 

Caution: You may run out of breath if you read this out loud.

Incorrect: The guided tour, which started at the drawbridge, lasted for more than two hours, during which time my uncle, cousin, and I walked through a lot of dark rooms and learned about the history of the castle, which had endured at least a dozen attacks, but it turned into a tourist attraction with a gift shop in the dungeon after the fall of the monarchy. 

One Possible Revision: My uncle, cousin, and I went on a guided tour of a castle, and it lasted for more than two hours. As we walked through dark rooms, our guide told us that the castle had endured at least a dozen attacks. After the fall of the monarchy, however, the site was turned into a tourist attraction. It even has a gift shop in the dungeon.

Subject-Verb Agreement: Subjects and verbs need to agree in number.  If a subject is plural, its verb needs to be plural.  If a subject is singular, its verb needs to be singular.

• The shoe fits. (singular)
• The shoes fit. (plural)

• My vote is cast. (singular)
• The votes are cast. (plural)

Compound subjects include more than one noun. They are often joined by one of these conjunctions 

When a compound subject uses "and" to join two words together, it requires a plural verb.  When a compound subject uses "nor" or "or" to join two words together, the verb should agree with the noun that is closest to it.

• The reels and the projector are damaged.
• Either the reels or the projector is damaged.
• Neither the projector nor the reels are damaged.  

Pronoun Agreement: Make sure that all pronouns clearly agree with their antecedents. Use plural pronouns to represent plural terms.

• The player will end her training soon.
• The players will end their season soon.

Pronoun Case: Pronouns can act as subjects, objects, and words that show possession. 

• Use subjective pronouns to replace the subjects of sentences (I, you, he/she/it, we, they, who)
• Use objective pronouns to replace any objects in the sentence. They might include direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of the preposition. (me, you, her/him/it, us, them, whom)
• Use possessive pronouns to replace nouns that show possession. (my, your, his/her/its, our, their; mine, yours, ours, theirs, them)

Ambiguous Pronouns: Make sure that each pronoun clearly represents a noun.

Incorrect: The producers said that nine bands had entered the contest, but they did not have a drummer. 

[Who did not have a drummer? The producers? Every band? One band? "They" is unclear.] 

One Revision: The producers said that nine bands had entered the contest, but one of those bands does not have a drummer.

Verb Tense: When you are discussing events that took place in one time frame, do not shift from one verb tense to another.

Incorrect: The llamas were resting in the barn, and I do not want to disturb them.

Revised: The llamas were resting in the barn, and I did not want to disturb them.

Verb Tense (literary essays): Most literary essays refer to events from works of literature in the present tense. Describe the event that you are focusing on in the present.

 Incorrect: In Edgar Allen Poe's poem, "The Raven," the bird had persistence.

 Revised: In Edgar Allen Poe's poem, "The Raven," the bird has persistence.

Dangling Modifiers: Phrases are often used to describe people or things. When it is difficult to identify who/what a phrase is modifying, then you might have a dangling modifier. 

When placed at the beginning of a sentence, a participial phrase should precede the noun it modifies. So, if an introductory phrase describes someone or something, that noun (the someone or something) should follow the introductory phrase. The two are separated by a comma.

Incorrect:  Running for the train, the hat was lost. 

[Hats do not usually run for trains.]

Correct: Running for the train, the passenger lost his hat.

Prepositions: These short words are often ignored, but they are important. Prepositions show location, time, or a relationship between words. Writers often forget prepositions or use the wrong one, and this can cause confusion.

 Incorrect: We were accepted for the school.   

 Correct: We were accepted by the school, or we were accepted into the school. 

If you are not sure which preposition should follow a verb, try looking that word up in an online dictionary. These publications often have sample sentences that show you how to use the word.

Because prepositions show relationships between words, some style guides recommend that writers avoid ending sentences with prepositions. Since this is not a convention that all style guides follow, you can ask your instructor for his/her preference.

Parallelism: Make sure that a list of similar phrases includes similar constructions. 

  Incorrect: To finish the triathlon, I needed to run, bike, and was swimming.

  Correct: To finish the triathlon, I needed to run, bike, and swim.

Usage

Commonly Confused Words: There are some errors that spellcheck cannot catch. These words include the following:

• Homophones: words that sound the same. 

affect vs. effect; their, they're, there; allusion vs. illusion

• Words with similar roots: 

conscience vs. conscious

You can learn these words by becoming familiar with them. Study a list of the words and challenge yourself to use them frequently. They will then become a part of your long-term memory.

Mechanics

Comma Usage: Use commas 

• after introductory phrases.

After listening to several hours of testimony, the jury needed a break.

• to separate two independent clauses that are joined by a conjunction.

The exhibit on dinosaurs is no longer at the museum, but you can still see the skeleton of a giant T-Rex in the lobby.

• to introduce short quotations. 

The narrator says, "Hello world!"

(Use colons to introduce longer quotations of 40 or more words. They should follow a complete sentence.)

• to separate two different adjectives that modify a noun. 

Heavy, gray clouds hung over the village. 

• to set off parenthetical comments within a sentence.

The candidate, who was featured on the news, is now ahead in the polls.

Punctuating Quotations: 

• Before a short quotation, add a comma after an introductory phrase.

The author states, "The world is round."

• Before a block quotation, you should use a colon.

Abraham Lincoln began to address the crowd:

Four score and seven years ago...

End Marks: Reread your sentences and make sure that you have chosen the correct way to end each one.

Use a period to end declarative sentences. They state facts and opinions.

Books are becoming artifacts.

Use a question mark for interrogative sentences. They pose questions.

Will people read printed books in one hundred years?

Use an exclamation mark for interjections. Note that these should rarely be used in academic papers because they convey excitement, not objectivity.

These rare books need to be preserved!

Imperative statements: These are commands that can end with a period or exclamation point. 

Please do not write in the book.

Colons:  When a colon introduces a list, it needs to be preceded by a complete sentence, not a phrase. 

The supply closet contains the following items: legal pads, pens, paper for the printer, and binders.

Semicolons:

Semicolons are often used to join together two closely related sentences without using a conjunction. 

I did not go to the gym today; there was a last-minute task that I needed to complete instead.

They are also used in a list of phrases that contain one or more commas. It prevents confusion.

I actually met many new people at the reunion: the new principal, who had just accepted the position; the class president, with whom I had never spoken; and a judge from the class of 1956.

Possession: 

Make sure to add apostrophes to show possession.

The parents' parking lot was filled at 3:00 p.m.

One parent's meeting with a teacher needed to be rescheduled. 

The Reyes's garden wins awards every year.

•  In many style guides, names from ancient texts do not have the extra "s" in their possessive form.

Socrates' questioning style is still used by many professors.