6.1: Grammar & Mechanics

This chapter is brought to you by Sybil Priebe.

Grammar.

Grammar refers to the structure of a language: the parts of speech and their functions, their relationship to each other, word order in sentences, the parts of a sentence and how they are put together (sentence patterns).

Mechanics.

The mechanics of writing refers to the technical elements - or the itty-bitty building blocks of sentences - such as: punctuation, capitalization, spelling, etc.

HERE’S WHAT’S COMING UP IN THIS UNIT:

• Grammar: Parts of Speech Review
• Grammar: The Basic Sentence Patterns
• Grammar: Active vs. Passive Voice
• Mechanics: Common Punctuation Errors
• Mechanics: The Basic Comma Rules
• Mechanics: Commonly Confused Words
• Mechanics: Common Misspellings
• Common Error: Subject/Verb Agreement
• Other Common Errors

Grammar: Parts of Speech Review

Let’s review using a poem!

PARTS OF SPEECH POEM⁶⁸

Every name is called a noun,

As field and fountain, street and town,

In place of the noun the pronoun stands

As he and she can clap their hands.

The adjective describes a thing,

As magic wand or bridal ring.

The verb means action, something done,

As read and write and jump and run.

How things are done the adverbs tell,

As quickly, slowly, badly, well.

The preposition shows relation,

As in the street or at the station.

Conjunctions join, in many ways,

Sentences, words, or phrase and phrase.

The interjection cries out, “Hark!

I need an exclamation mark!”

Side Note

Things native English speakers know, but don’t know we know⁶⁹:

…adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-color-originmaterial-purpose Noun. So, you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest, you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out. And as size comes before color, green great dragons can’t exist.

Grammar: Basic Sentence Patterns

Remember:

S = Subject = Topic of the sentence

V = Verb = What is going on in the sentence – what the subject is doing/action

C = Completer = Most sentences need to be completed, but there are some without completers like the sentence: “I do.”

THE SEVEN BASIC SENTENCE PATTERNS:

• The Simple Sentence. Subject + Verb + Completer.
  • Kenneth is a screwball.
• The Compound Sentence. Subject + Verb + Completer + Comma + Conjunction + Subject + Verb + Completer.
  • He wouldn’t stop telling racist jokes, and Sally didn’t like that.
• The Introductory Sentence. Intro Phrase + Comma + Subject + Verb + Completer.
  • Yesterday evening, Sally and Kenneth screwed in some lightbulbs.
• The Interrupting Sentence. Subject + Comma + Interrupting Phrase + Comma + Verb + Completer.
  • Kenneth, the dude from Indiana, had some screwy-looking pizza.
• The Embedded Sentence. Subject + Who/That + Phrase + Verb + Completer.
  • The pizza that was weird got tossed in the garbage.
• The Trailing Sentence. Subject + Verb + Completer + Colon + List or Trailing Word.
  • The stinky garbage contained the following: the screwy pizza, two paper plates, and seven old lightbulbs.
• The Complex Sentence. Subject + Verb + Completer + Semi-Colon + Complex Conjunction + Comma + Subject + Verb + Completer.
  • Kenneth took the garbage outside; however, Sally had to holler at him to do so.

Here is the entire list of conjunctions:

and, but, or, nor, for, so, and yet.

Here’s a list of complex conjunctions (a.k.a. conjunctive adverbs):

also, consequently, for example, furthermore, however, in addition, in contrast, in fact, instead, likewise, moreover, nevertheless, otherwise, still, then, therefore...

AND THE WEIRD SENTENCE PATTERNS:

• Fragment: An incomplete sentence.
  • MAYBE: Without his love.
  • YES: I was torn without his love.
• Run-on: Two or more SVC units fused together without punctuation.
  • EH: He didn’t want to stay and well I guess that was okay, but I wanted him there and he couldn’t be so whatever.
  • YES: He didn’t want to stay, but I wanted him there. He couldn’t be, though.
• Comma Splice: A comma is spliced between two sentences, and it just needs to change into a period or semi-colon or an added conjunction and comma.
  • NO: The doctor mentioned the heart condition, I couldn’t believe it.
  • YES: The doctor mentioned the heart condition; I couldn’t believe it.

HERE ARE THE FOUR PURPOSES A SENTENCE COULD HAVE:

• Declarative: I need my Batman cup in order to screw together this IKEA set.
• Imperative: Go get my Batman cup.
• Interrogative: Where did you put the screws?
• Exclamatory: Holy crud, Batman!

Grammar: Active vs. Passive Voice

The majority of readers and teachers prefer the active voice over the passive voice.

• NO/PASSIVE: The book was written by me.
• YES/ACTIVE: I wrote the book.

One main reason readers and teachers prefer active voice is because the passive voices allow writers to kind of evade responsibility:

• NO/PASSIVE: Dana’s favorite pen was lost by Sybil.
• YES/ACTIVE: Sybil lost Dana’s favorite pen.

Active voice must be used for contracts and all legal documentation. Passive voice is used in the sciences.

Mechanics: Common Punctuation Errors⁷⁰

COMMA:

Punctuation errors most often involve the comma, which means knowing when and how to use one. Of course, that’s easier said than done.

• NO: Sally wants to go to the party, John will be there with his friends.
• YES: Sally wants to go to the party; John will be there with his friends.
• YES: Sally wants to go to the party because John will be there with his friends.
• YES: Sally wants to go to the party. John will be there with his friends.

APOSTROPHE:

Used for contractions and to show possession.

• NO: I cant make my famous caramel roll’s for the weekend.
• YES: I can’t make my famous caramel rolls for the weekend.

SEMI-COLON:

Sybil’s favorite punctuation mark is the semi-colon. And not just because it makes a winky face when paired with a comma for a text message. No, she likes semi-colons because they are powerful. They can substitute a comma and conjunction when the two sentences smacked together are heavily related.

• YES: It’s a gorgeous day today; I have to go swimming.

QUOTATION MARKS:

Quotation marks are typically under-utilized by students. They can protect you from plagiarism, they help with adding dialogue to something, and they can go around words that are tricky to define.

• YES: In the article by Dr. James Johnson, he declares that, “Cramming knowledge into one’s head the night before will causes headaches, not great test grades.”
• YES: Then my mom said, “Please don’t quote me in this essay you are writing; I don’t want to sound stupid.”
• YES: I wanted to ask him what he thought of the “party” we went to because it was weird.

CAPITALIZATION:

The majority of students already know that capitalization is used for the first word of a sentence, for the names of people and of proper nouns, and when dealing with titles of books, movies, magazines, web sites, etc. The issues seen sometimes are usually centered around oddball items like titles of classes, titles of degrees, etc. YES: I took History 101 because it was required for my major. YES: Sybil, Ronda, and Dana have their Master’s degrees.

HYPHENS & DASHES:

The difference between hyphens and dashes is that hyphens are used IN words and dashes are not. Dashes are used in a similar way to how parenthesis function. YES: Three unlikely people - a witch, a pastor, and a bishop - all walked into a bar. Hyphens join two parts of a compound word like brother-in-law or five-years-old.

PARENTHESIS:

Speaking of parenthesis, parenthesis are to be used to add extra remarks within a sentence. YES: Be sure to call me (extension 2346) when you get this message. YES: My brother (Jed) works in Fargo.

ELLIPSES:

Ellipses are pauses in dialogue/speech and are rarely more than three periods… so, please stop using seventeen.

Mechanics: The Basic Comma Rules

• Use a comma with a coordinating conjunction to join two or more sentences. In Layman’s terms, fix a comma splice by adding one of the following: and, but, for, so, or, nor, or yet.
• Use a comma to set off non-essential information in a sentence. Basically, put commas around extra information that is not part of the main idea. See #4 in Sentence Patterns.
• Use a comma in lists or items in a series. See #6 in Sentence Patterns.
• Use commas in addresses and dates. YES: I live in Wahpeton, ND.
• Use a comma between adjectives if they make sense with the order reversed or with “and” inserted in between them. YES: She is a smart, beautiful human.

The Wildcard Rule

There are always exceptions to the rules, and often it is just a matter of personal preference and style. Think about your purpose and your audience; then decide whether or not a comma makes the sentence clearer or is just an extra mark on the page.

Mechanics: Commonly Confused Words

A spell-checker will warn you of most spelling mistakes, but if it’s a word - even if it’s the wrong one - Microsoft Word won’t detect its “wrongness.” A good tip is to keep a list of words you have trouble with.

Here are some you might need to include in that list:

• too/to/two
  • YES: The two of us are too tired to go to the store.
• their/there/they’re
  • YES: They’re going to their store over there.
• then/than
  • YES: She is smarter than he is, but then he’s definitely nicer.
• lose/loose
  • YES: If they let the quarterback get loose, they will lose.
• definitely/defiantly
  • YES: I definitely want to finish this paper before the party.
  • YES: The toddler defiantly threw his food on the floor.

Other Commonly Confused Words:

except/accept

effect/affect

all together / altogether

allusion / illusion

capital / capitol

cite / site

complement / compliment

farther / further

it’s / its

laid / lain / lay

lend / loan

passed / past

precede / proceed

principal / principle

who’s / whose

you’re/your

Mechanics: Common Misspellings

accommodate

achieve

breathe

convenience

definite

dilemma

embarrass

fundamental

guarantee

humorous

independent

judgment

license

loneliness

marriage

necessary

permanent

privilege

prejudice

recommend

repetition

rhythm

separate

sacrifice

surprise

thorough

truly

weird

whether

Common Error: Subject/Verb Agreement⁷¹

Verb tense and subject/verb agreement are also key errors that should be looked for when proofreading a paper. The subject should always agree with the verb in tense and number. These verb issues are often overlooked or unnoticed while writing an initial draft but can usually be caught with a good proofread.

Below are some examples of errors with subject/verb agreement. Take some time and see if you can figure out what the error is in these sentences.

• NO: The dog need to go on a walk.
• YES: The dog needs to go on a walk.
  • The subject in the original sentence (dog) is singular. The verb (need) is plural. The verb needs to be changed from plural to singular form in order to agree with the subject.
• NO: Chris and Molly goes for walks often in the evening.
• YES: Chris and Molly go for walks often in the evening.
  • In this case the verb started out as a singular form. It needed to be changed to plural to fit with Chris and Molly (plural subject).

A quick way to check for subject/verb agreement is to circle the verb and underline the subject of each sentence. Make sure that if the subject is plural, you use a plural form of the verb. If you cannot identify subjects and verbs this method will not be practical, and you should seek guidance.

OTHER COMMON ERRORS: WITH A SIDE OF HUMOR

• NO: “Could of, would of, should of.” YES: “Could have, would have, should have.”
• No one needs to use more than three exclamation points if they are excited.
• “I seen him somewheres.” No, Dad. No. You saw him somewhere.
• NO: “Sybil took a class with Carrie and I.” YES: “Sybil took a class with Carrie and me.” If you’re stumped, take out one of the names.
• NO: “I’m pooped out, so I’m going to lay down.” The trick here is to substitute “lay” for “place,” and if the word “place” doesn’t work, the word you want is “lie.” YES: “I’m pooped out, so I’m going to lie down.”
• NO: “Please contact Sybil or myself if you have any questions.” YES: “Please contact Sybil or me if you have any questions.”
• Please don’t litter your sentences with side thoughts using parenthesis. If it’s important, make it a separate sentence. If it’s not, leave it out.
• The use of both “all right” and “alright.” NO: “Alright” is not in the dictionary.
• “Anyways” isn’t a word, yet. Go yell at Merriam-Webster if you want it in there.
• “Irregardless” also isn’t a word. Stop it.
• NO: “I could care less.” That means you still care. YES: “I couldn’t care less.” This means there is no more caring in your system.
• Watch out for dangling modifiers. NO: “After rotting in the basement for weeks, my sister brought up some apples.”
• Using the correct pronoun! NO: “Every one of the female students had their papers ready.” YES: “Every one of the female students had her papers ready.” NO: “Neither Jack nor John believed they had known about the project.” YES: “Neither Jack nor John believed he had known about the project.”
• Parallelism: NO: “Over the weekend, Kevin bought a new MacBook Pro online, two software programs, and arranged for free shipping.” YES: “Over the weekend, Kevin bought a new MacBook Pro online, ordered two software programs, and arranged for free shipping.”
• Comparison words need a comparison. NO: “Doctors make more money.” YES: “Doctors make more money than teachers.”
• Different than vs. Different from: Use the latter! YES: “This house is different from the one I have.” NO: “This house is different than the one I have.”

Assignments or Questions to Consider

(Insert ideas from students or teacher here.)

68 Unknown author. If you know who created this, please let us know.

69 From a tweet by Matthew Anderson, @MattAndersonBBC.

70 “Basic Writing/Print version.” Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 9 Sep 2008, 16:02 UTC. 11 May 2016, 17:32 .

71 “Basic Writing/Print version.” Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 9 Sep 2008, 16:02 UTC. 11 May 2016, 17:32 <en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=1273791>.