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Text File | 1997-04-03 | 40.2 KB | 1,185 lines

^2 ┌─────────────────┐ │VERB DISAGREEMENT│ └─────────────────┘ To check if the subject and verb agree, make a short sentence that only contains the main subject and verb of the sentence. EXAMPLE: "The boat that held the lobsters are coming home." The main subject is "The boat." The phrase "that held the lobsters" only helps to describe "the boat" and should be ignored when deciding subject/verb agreement. The main verb "are coming" comes after the main subject and any descriptive phrases. The sentence "The boat are coming" doesn't sound correct because the subject and verb do not agree. The correct sounding sentence would be "The boat is coming." CORRECTION: "The boat that held the lobsters IS coming home." When determining subject/verb agreement, do not be fooled by phrases such as "that held the lobsters" which only describe the main subject. The main subject is not always the noun which is next to the main verb. ^3 ┌──────────────────┐ │UNUSUAL WORD USAGE│ └──────────────────┘ This message covers a variety of common errors. These errors include: (1) Accidentally leaving out a word EXAMPLE: "A teacher tried [] teach a difficult class." (2) Putting in an extra word EXAMPLE: "The [those] cars are good." (3) Misspelling a word into another word EXAMPLE: "I put the car [it] the garage." (should be "in" instead of "it") Since the program usually cannot pinpoint which type of problem has occurred, you should carefully proofread the sentence word-by-word. You should pay special attention to the words highlighted in the error message. However, the mistake can be located anywhere before the highlighted words. You may also get this message if your sentence is difficult to understand or if the sentence is poorly punctuated. Check if you need to set off any phrases with commas. If you cannot find any mistakes in the sentence after proofreading it, you can ignore this message. ^4 ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │PRONOUN USAGE - AFTER THE VERB│ └──────────────────────────────┘ Examine the highlighted pronoun to make sure that you are using the appropriate form of the pronoun. Pronouns usually come in two forms. One kind is used before the main verb (subjective) and the other kind is used after the main verb (objective). Examples of subjective/objective pairs include "I" and "me", "he" and "him", "we" and "us", and "they" and "them". If the highlighted pronoun is the object of a verb, then you should change the pronoun to its objective form. ║ EXAMPLE: "I wanted to help Larry and he." To check if the pronoun is used correctly, make a sentence which only contains the pronoun in question. The sentence, "I wanted to help he." doesn't sound correct because "he" is a subjective pronoun which cannot be used after the verb. The objective form of "he" is the word "him". CORRECTION: "I wanted to help Larry and him." ^5 ┌─────────────────────────┐ │USING REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS │ └─────────────────────────┘ Check if the highlighted pronoun needs to be replaced by a reflexive pronoun such as "myself", "himself" or "yourself". If a sentence contains two pronouns and they both refer to the same person, then the second pronoun must be in a reflexive form. EXAMPLE: "I like me." The pronouns "I" and "me" both refer to the same person. Therefore, the second pronoun "me" should be in the reflexive form. CORRECTION: "I like myself." ^6 ┌───────────────────────────┐ │REFLEXIVE PRONOUN AGREEMENT│ └───────────────────────────┘ Check if the highlighted reflexive pronoun refers to the same person mentioned earlier in the sentence. If you use a reflexive pronoun such as "himself", "yourself", or "myself", it must agree with the pronoun it refers to earlier in the sentence. EXAMPLE: "I would like to find himself." The reflexive pronoun "himself" does not agree with the pronoun "I". These pronouns refer to different people. To correct this sentence, one of the pronouns would need to be changed to match the other. CORRECTION: "I would like to find myself." or ... "He would like to find himself." ^7 ┌───────────────────────────────┐ │PRONOUN USAGE - BEFORE THE VERB│ └───────────────────────────────┘ Examine the highlighted pronoun to make sure that you are using the appropriate form of the pronoun. Pronouns usually come in two forms. One kind is used before the main verb (subjective) and the other kind is used after the main verb (objective). Examples of subjective/objective pairs include "I" and "me", "he" and "him", "we" and "us", and "they" and "them". If the highlighted pronoun is the subject of a sentence, or a phrase then you should change the pronoun to its subjective form. EXAMPLE: "I know that them are good." Although the word "them" is not at the beginning of the sentence, it is the subject of the phrase "them are good." Starting a sentence with the word "them" is incorrect because this word is in the objective form. CORRECTION: "I know that they are good." ^9 ┌─────────────────────┐ │ MISSING PUNCTUATION │ └─────────────────────┘ Every sentence must end with a punctuation mark. The most common marks are the period (.), the question (?), and the exclamation (!). Check if you need to add a punctuation mark to the end of your sentence. Also check if your sentence is broken into two sections. There should never be a blank line in the middle of a sentence. EXAMPLE: "This is an example of a sentence that is broken into sections." This example shows that there is a blank line in the middle of the sentence. This blank line should be removed. ^11 ┌───────────────────┐ │PLURAL NOUN PHRASES│ └───────────────────┘ Check if there are any words in the sentence which would imply that the highlighted noun must be plural. Certain words such as "several" and "many" imply that there are several objects involved. When you create a noun phrase which uses one of these words, all the nouns must be in a plural form. EXAMPLE: "John found several problem with the car." The word "several" does not agree with the singular noun "problem." The word "problem" should be replaced by the word "problems" which is plural. Plural noun phrases can also be required after sentences which use the word "there." EXAMPLE: "There are the car." The verb "are" implies a plural number of objects. This disagrees with the singular noun phrase "the car." It should be changed to "the cars." ^13 ┌──────────────────────────┐ │USING CONJUNCTIONS - NOUNS│ └──────────────────────────┘ ^14 ┌───────────────────────┐ │DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND│ └───────────────────────┘ This message means that the program was unable to find a specific problem in the sentence. However, you should carefully proofread the sentence since the sentence could not be fully processed. You should check for extra, missing, or misused words. Carefully check for an error near the highlighted word. However, the error could be located anywhere in the sentence. You may also get this message if your sentence is difficult to understand or if the sentence is poorly punctuated. Check if you need to set off any phrases with commas. If you cannot find any mistakes in the sentence after proofreading it, you can ignore this message. ^16 ┌─────────────────────┐ │SINGULAR NOUN PHRASES│ └─────────────────────┘ Check if there are any words in the sentence which would imply that the highlighted noun must be singular. Certain words such as "a" and "one" imply that there is only one object involved. When you create a noun phrase which uses one of these words, all the nouns must be in a singular form. EXAMPLE: "John found a problems with the car." The word "a" does not agree with the plural noun "problems." The word "problems" should be replaced by the word "problem" which is singular. Singular noun phrases can also be required after sentences which use the word "there." EXAMPLE: "There is the cars." The verb "is" implies a single object. This disagrees with the plural noun phrase "the cars." It should be changed to "the car." ^17 ┌─────────────┐ │DOUBLED WORDS│ └─────────────┘ Repeating a word in a sentence is always a problem. Even if the sentence is grammatically well formed, a doubled word causes confusion. EXAMPLE: "I know that that car is going to win the race." The repeated word "that" can cause confusion. To correct the problem, use another adjective to describe "car". CORRECTION: "I know that this car is going to win the race." ^18 ┌───────────────┐ │MISSING ARTICLE│ └───────────────┘ Singular nouns usually require an article. If you want to refer to a particular object, you use the article "the". If you want to refer to any object, you use the article "a". You do not need to use articles for objects which represent plural entities. For example, "boats", "trees" and "cars" do not require the use of an article. Articles are also not required for objects that represent a substance. Words such as "iron", "water", and "candy" do not require an article. If a noun is singular and doesn't refer to a substance, it probably requires an article. EXAMPLE: "I like car." The word "car" is not plural and it does not refer to a substance. To correct the sentence, an article is needed. CORRECTION: "I like the car." ^19 ┌────────────┐ │MISSING VERB│ └────────────┘ A sentence may contain many verbs, but only one of them can be the main verb. Check if the sentence relates a complete thought. If the sentence does not relate a complete thought, then the sentence is incomplete. EXAMPLE: "The board leaning on the car." This sentence contains the verb "leaning", but this verb is describing "board". The main verb would tell us what "the board" is doing to something else. Since we don't know what is happening to "the board", this sentence is incomplete. To correct the sentence, a main verb must be added. CORRECTION: "The board leaning on the car IS scratching the paint." ^21 ┌──────────────────┐ │UNCLOSED QUOTATION│ └──────────────────┘ A quotation always uses two quotation marks. These marks must match each other. Examples of quotation mark pairs include: " " ' ' ( ) [ ] { } The program will signal a quotation problem if the quotation contains more than 500 characters. If you want to use a quotation with more than 500 characters, you can ignore this message. ^23 ┌───────────────────────┐ │MISSING INFINITIVE - TO│ └───────────────────────┘ Check if the highlighted verb needs to be preceded by the word "to". The word "to" is known as an infinitive. It is usually required before the plain or regular forms of verbs. EXAMPLE: "I wanted teach children." The word "to" is missing before "teach". The corrected sentence would be: CORRECTION: "I wanted TO teach children." ^24 ┌─────────────────┐ │USING POSSESSIVES│ └─────────────────┘ Check if the highlighted possessive word has a noun following it. A possessive word can only act as an adjective. EXAMPLE: "John's is very fast." The word "John's" is a possessive. Something must belong to "John" but it is missing in the sentence. To correct the sentence, a noun needs to be supplied. CORRECTION: "John's car is very fast." ^25 ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ │NEEDS POSSESSIVE OR MISSING COMMA│ └─────────────────────────────────┘ Check if the highlighted plural noun should be in a possessive form. It is easy to leave out the apostrophe. EXAMPLE: "The boats trailer is in the water." The word "boats" is supposed to modify the main subject "trailer". It is unusual to find any noun following a plural noun form. The word "boats" needs to be made into the possessive form "boat's". CORRECTION: "The BOAT'S trailer is in the water." Also check if a comma is missing between a list of objects. EXAMPLE: "The boats cars and trailers are on sale." CORRECTION: "The boats, cars, and trailers are on sale." The comma before the conjunction "and" is optional. ^27 ┌────────────────────┐ │MISSING VERB PHRASE │ └────────────────────┘ Check if there is a verb phrase missing in the sentence. EXAMPLE: "The car that I like in the garage." This sentence is missing the main verb phrase. CORRECTION: "The car that I like in the garage is red." If the sentence contains a verb phrase, check if you need to add commas to make the phrases in the sentence clearer. ^28 ^29 ┌──────────────────┐ │UNUSUAL COMMA USE │ └──────────────────┘ Commas can appear in many places, but never after an article. EXAMPLE: "I have a, car, a boat, and a house." An extra comma could be a revision leftover. CORRECTION: "I have a car, a boat, and a house." ^30 ┌──────────────────┐ │COMMAS IN NUMBERS │ └──────────────────┘ Use commas to separate numbers longer than three digits into groups of three. The comma is optional for a number which contains only four digits. EXAMPLE: "The boat cost $15000." The value "$15000" needs to be separated by commas. CORRECTION: "The boat cost $15,000." ^31 ┌─────────────────────┐ │SPELLING NUMBERS OUT │ └─────────────────────┘ Numbers under ten should be spelled out. In general, if the number requires less that two words to spell out, then it should be spelled out. EXAMPLE OF NUMBERS WHICH SHOULD BE SPELLED OUT: seventy-two, six hundred, twenty-two thousand, five, sixteen Exceptions to the rule include numbers used in: Days and Years: July 4, 1776, 200 B.C. Pages, Chapters: Chapter 6, page 4 Decimals, Percentages: 54.6, 87% Addresses: 435 Stonewall Ave. Scores and stats: a ratio of 8 to 1, 28 to 3 Exact amounts of money: $4.50, 2.5 million Time of day: 4:00, 11:00 Numbers which start sentences should always be spelled out. ^32 ┌────────────────────┐ │COMMAS - ADJECTIVES │ └────────────────────┘ If two or more adjectives are used to describe a noun and if those adjectives can be rearranged without changing the meaning, then the adjectives should be separated by commas. EXAMPLE: "The humid hot climates can be uncomfortable." To check if a comma is needed between the adjectives "humid" and "hot", rewrite the sentence with the adjectives rearranged. "The hot humid climates can be uncomfortable." Since this didn't change the meaning of the sentence, a comma is needed between the adjectives. CORRECTION: "The humid, hot climates can be uncomfortable." ^33 ┌───────────────┐ │CAPITALIZATION │ └───────────────┘ Words normally only have one capital letter at the beginning or the entire word is in capital letters. It is unusual to have mixed capitalization. Some company names and tradenames can use mixed capitalization. EXAMPLE: "I wanted to thanK Mr. Jones." The word "thank" ends with a capital letter. CORRECTION: "I wanted to thank Mr. Jones." ^34 ┌─────────────────────┐ │QUESTION MARK NEEDED │ └─────────────────────┘ If a sentence starts with a question word such as "where", "why" or "when", then it usually requires a question mark at the end of the sentence. Check if your sentence is actually a question. EXAMPLE: "Did you clean your room." This sentence is clearly a question. It needs a question mark. CORRECTION: "Did you clean your room?" ^35 ┌───────────────────────┐ │UNNEEDED QUESTION MARK │ └───────────────────────┘ Check if the sentence is actually a question. The punctuation or the format of the sentence may be unclear. EXAMPLE: "The captain did not know where the crew went?" This sentence might be appropriate if the speaker wanted to confirm the statement, but if the speaker wanted to make a statement, the question mark is inappropriate. CORRECTION: "The captain did not know where the crew went." ^36 ┌────────────┐ │USE OF 'AN' │ └────────────┘ Words which begin with a vowel sound use the word "an" as an article. Most words which start with the vowels 'a', 'e', and 'i' use 'an' as an article. However, there are exceptions. Words that start with the vowel 'u' but sound like "yoo" (university, uniform) use "a" as an article. You must always sound out the word to decide if it starts with a vowel sound. For example, the word "FBI" begins with a consonant, but since it is pronounced as three letters beginning with the sound "eff" (a vowel sound) it requires the use of "an" for an article. EXAMPLE: "A apple fell from the tree." The word "apple" starts with a vowel sound. It should use "an" as an article. CORRECTION: "An apple fell from the tree." ^37 ┌────────────┐ │USE OF 'A' │ └────────────┘ Words which begin with a consonant sound use the word "a" as an article. Most words which start with consonants use 'a' as an article. However, there are exceptions. You must always sound out the word to decide if it starts with a consonant sound. For example, the word "FBI" begins with a consonant, but since it is pronounced as three letters beginning with the sound "eff" (a vowel sound) it requires the use of "an" as an article. EXAMPLE: "An car is parked in the lot." The word "car" starts with a consonant sound. It should use "a" as an article. CORRECTION: "A car is parked in the lot." ^38 ┌──────────────┐ │ARCHAIC WORDS │ └──────────────┘ There are some words which should be avoided. Words signaled by this message belong in this class. You should only use them when you want to write in an informal or vulgar manner. Otherwise they should be avoided. If you are using unfamiliar foreign words, they need to be placed in italics. ^39 ┌─────────────────┐ │SPLIT INFINITIVE │ └─────────────────┘ An infinitive phrase consists of the word "to" followed by a regular verb. Examples of infinitive phrases include "to eat" and "to find". A split infinitive occurs when there is a word between the word "to" and the verb. Examples of split infinitive would be "to quickly eat" and "to only find." Authorities disagree if split infinitives should not be used. Split infinitives can often be eliminated by moving the intervening word to the end of the sentence. EXAMPLE: "He wanted to quickly find the answer." The word "quickly" splits the infinitive phrase. It can be moved to the end of the phrase. CORRECTION: "He wanted to find the answer quickly." ^40 ┌───────────┐ │VERB TENSE │ └───────────┘ Verbs come in several different forms. For example, the word "write" has the forms "writes", "written", "wrote", and "writing". These different forms are not interchangeable. Check that you are using the correct form. EXAMPLE: "I have wrote several books." The word "wrote" is not the appropriate form of the verb to use after have. The past participle form should be used here. CORRECTION: "I have written several books." The past participle verb form usually ends with 'en' or 'ed'. The present participle verb form usually ends with 'ing'. ^42 ┌─────────────┐ │"IF" PHRASES │ └─────────────┘ When starting sentences with "if", the word "were" is always used as a verb instead of "was". The word "were" expresses a condition which is contrary to fact. The word "was" would indicate that the condition was fact. EXAMPLE: "If John was at home, he would be happy." The word "was" implies that "John" is already "at home." This is not logical. The word "were" needs to be used to indicate that "John" is not already "at home." CORRECTION: "If John WERE at home, he would be happy." ^43 ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ ║ │DOUBLE COMPARATIVES/SUPERLATIVES │ ║ └─────────────────────────────────┘ ║ ║ When a sentence uses words which end with "-er" or "-est", avoid combining ║ these words with the words "more", "most", "less", or "least". It is ║ redundant to combine these words and should be avoided. ║ ║ EXAMPLE: "He has the more better car." ║ ║ The word "more" doesn't add anything to this sentence and should be ║ removed. ║ ║ CORRECTION: "He has the better car." ║ ^44 ┌───────────────────────┐ │EXCESSIVE CONJUNCTIONS │ └───────────────────────┘ If a sentence contains more than four conjunctions, it can become confusing to understand. EXAMPLE: "John and Mary ate and went to the park and found Jim and left." This sentence strings together too many different thoughts. It should be broken into separate sentences. CORRECTION: "John and Mary ate and then went to the park. They found Jim at the park and left with him." ^45 ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │EXCESSIVE SUBORDINATE CLAUSES │ └──────────────────────────────┘ If a sentence contains more than three subordinate clauses, it can become hard to understand. A subordinate clause is any clause which is used to describe an object. Such clauses usually start with "that" or "which". EXAMPLE: "The car that is in the garage that is in my house which is located in Seattle which is a good place to live is a classic car." This sentence contains too many clauses which begin with the words "that" and "which". The sentence should be broken up and the subordinate clauses should be removed. CORRECTION: "The car is a classic. I keep it in the garage of my house. My house is located in Seattle which is a good place to live." ^46 ┌──────────────┐ │SHIFT IN TIME │ └──────────────┘ If you join two sentences with a conjunction, then both of the sentences should express the same time relationship. However, there are cases where it is appropriate to express both the past and present tense in the same sentence. EXAMPLE: "John finished his job and the boss is going home." The first part of the sentence uses "finished" which expresses a past tense. The second part of the sentence uses "is" which expresses a present tense. The two parts of the sentence do not match. The sentence should be rewritten with a consistent tense. CORRECTION: "John finished his job and the boss went home." ^47 ┌────────────────┐ │DOUBLE NEGATIVE │ └────────────────┘ Avoid using two negative words in the same sentence. The words usually cancel each other out. EXAMPLE: "We could not never find him." The word "not" reverses the effect of "never". One of the negative words should be dropped. CORRECTION: "We could never find him." ^48 ┌──────────────┐ │EITHER ... OR │ └──────────────┘ When the word "either" is used in the sentence, it is usually paired up with the word "or" instead of "nor". EXAMPLE: "I wanted either the car nor the boat." This sentence doesn't make any sense because the "nor" implies that something is not wanted. This sentence needs to use "or". CORRECTION: "I wanted either the car or the boat." ^49 ┌────────────────┐ │NEITHER ... NOR │ └────────────────┘ When the word "neither" is used in the sentence, it is usually paired up with the word "nor" instead of "or". EXAMPLE: "I wanted neither the car or the boat." This sentence doesn't make any sense because the "or" implies that something is wanted. This sentence needs to use "nor". CORRECTION: "I wanted neither the car nor the boat." ^50 ┌───────────────────┐ │USING WHO OR WHICH │ └───────────────────┘ When you create a phrase which modifies an object which refers to a person, you should use "who" or "that" to start the phrase. EXAMPLE: "The person which took the food was hungry." The noun "person" refers a human person. The word "who" should be used instead of "which". CORRECTION: "The person who took the food was hungry." ^52 ┌─────────────┐ │SEXIST WORDS │ └─────────────┘ Certain words distinguish roles played by men and women. If a role can be played by either a man or a woman, then you should use a gender neutral term. EXAMPLE: "The chairman controls the company." The word "chairman" implies that this is a role which is only played by men. A more gender neutral term could be used. CORRECTION: "The chairperson controls the company." ^53 ┌──────────────────────┐ │AWKWARD CONSTRUCTIONS │ └──────────────────────┘ Sentences which begin with "Being that" are awkward and should be avoided. EXAMPLE: "Being that you are safe, we can go home." This is an awkward construction which can be replaced by "because". CORRECTION: "Because you are safe, we can go home." ^54 ┌──────────────────────┐ │AWKWARD CONSTRUCTIONS │ └──────────────────────┘ Sentences which begin with "Seeing that" are awkward and should be avoided. EXAMPLE: "Seeing that you are safe, we can go home." This is an awkward construction which can be replaced by "since". CORRECTION: "Since you are safe, we can go home." ^55 ┌───────────────┐ │USING "AMOUNT" │ └───────────────┘ When you use the word "amount" to describe something, the thing which is being described should be singular and represent something which can be measured. EXAMPLE: "The amount of cars was good for the show." You cannot measure "cars". For example, you cannot say: "I would like a cup of cars." For something which cannot be measured, you need to use the word "number" to describe "cars". CORRECTION: "The number of cars was good for the show." ^56 ┌──────────────────────────┐ │CAPITALIZATION - SENTENCE │ └──────────────────────────┘ The start of every sentence needs to begin with a capital letter. EXAMPLE: "this is a sentence." The start of the sentence does not begin with a capital letter. CORRECTION: "This is a sentence." ^57 ┌───────────────────────┐ │UNNEEDED PASSIVE VOICE │ └───────────────────────┘ This rule only flags passive sentences that can be easily rewritten into the active voice. Passive sentences usually contain a form of the word "be" followed by a verb in the past tense. If the sentence contains the word "by" after the verb, it can often be rewritten in the active voice. EXAMPLE: "The food was eaten by John." To make the sentence use the active voice, the noun phrase after the word "by" should be placed in the front of the sentence. CORRECTION: "John ate the food." Forms of the word "be" include "been", "is", "are", "was" and "were". Verbs in the past tense usually end in "ed" or "en". (eaten, tried, etc.) ^62 ┌──────────────────┐ │SENTENCE TOO LONG │ └──────────────────┘ Unless you have a specific need, sentences should only relate a single thought and should be under fifty words in length. Sentences which are longer that fifty words can be difficult to understand. ^67 ┌───────────────────┐ │SAME BEGINNING WORD│ └───────────────────┘ Your writing can become difficult to read if you do not vary your sentences. Try to use different words to introduce your sentences. ^68 ┌───────────────┐ │UNUSUAL SPACING│ └───────────────┘ More than one space has been detected between words. Usually there should only be one space between words in a sentence. A double space between sentences is acceptable. EXAMPLE: There should be no extra spaces in the sentence. There are several spaces after the word "extra". CORRECTION: There should be no extra spaces in the sentence. ^69 ┌───────────────────┐ │USING WHICH OR THAT│ └───────────────────┘ If you are trying to describe a particular object, some authors prefer to use the word "that" instead of "which" to introduce the restrictive phrase. EXAMPLE: The car which I bought was very expensive. This sentence describes a particular car, therefore it is preferable to use the word "that". CORRECTION: The car that I bought was very expensive. You can also use the word "which" for nonrestrictive clauses. Nonrestrictive clauses only add information about an object and are separated by commas. CORRECTION: The car, which will be used for transportation, was expensive. ^70 ┌─────────────────────┐ │QUOTATION PUNCTUATION│ └─────────────────────┘ Punctuation marks are usually found inside quotation marks. If you are quoting specific terms, punctuation marks may appear outside of the quotation. EXAMPLE: "I want that seat", she said in a loud voice. The comma should be placed inside of the quote. CORRECTION: "I want that seat," she said in a loud voice. ^71 ┌──────────────────────────┐ │ADJECTIVE/ADVERB CONFUSION│ └──────────────────────────┘ The main verb of the sentence usually is not followed by a single adjective like the word "slow". Verbs are usually followed by adverbs that usually end with "ly" like the word "slowly". EXAMPLE: She sang beautiful. The word "beautiful" describes how she sang. Therefore it is more appropriate to use the adverb form of the word. CORRECTION: She sang beautifully. ^72 ┌────────────────────┐ │GOOD/WELL CONFUSION │ └────────────────────┘ The word "good" is always an adjective which describes an object. Don't use the word "good" to describe how an action occurred. EXAMPLE: You play very good. In this example, the word "good" is being used as an adverb which describes how you played. The adjective "well" should be used instead. CORRECTION: You play very well. ^73 ┌───────────────────────┐ │THERE IS/ARE AGREEMENT │ └───────────────────────┘ When you start a sentence with the word 'here' or 'there' and you use a form of the verb 'is', then you need to make sure that the phrase which follows the verb matches in number with the verb. EXAMPLE: There is the cars. The phrase "the cars" indicates that the phrase is plural (refers to many objects.) However the verb "is" implies that a single object is involved. Therefore, the verb "are" is needed in this sentence. CORRECTION: There are the cars. EXAMPLE: There are the car. In this example, the verb is plural, but the object is singular. CORRECTION: There is the car. ^74 ^75 ┌─────────────────┐ │USING FEWER/LESS │ └─────────────────┘ Use the word "fewer" with plural subjects like "cars" and "boats". Use the word "less" with singular subjects like the word "sugar". EXAMPLE: We have fewer sugar than they do. CORRECTION: We have less sugar than they do. EXAMPLE: We have less cars than they do. CORRECTION: We have fewer cars than they do. ^76 ┌─────────────┐ │DATE FORMATS │ └─────────────┘ Dates should be formatted with a comma between the date and year. EXAMPLE: July, 4 1993 The comma should appear after the 4. CORRECTION: July 4, 1993 ^77 ┌──────────────┐ │UNNEEDED COLON│ └──────────────┘ A colon should not separate a verb from its complement. Check if the colon can be removed. EXAMPLE: The pie needs: sugar, apples, and flour. The phrase before the colon should be able to stand by itself. Since "The pie needs" cannot stand by itself, the colon should be removed or the phrase needs to be expanded so that it can stand by itself. CORRECTION: The pie needs sugar, apples, and flour. OR CORRECTION: The pie needs the ingredients: sugar, apples, and flour. ^78 ┌───────────────────────────────────┐ │INTRODUCTORY ELEMENT NEEDS A COMMA │ └───────────────────────────────────┘ If a sentence starts with an introductory element, it should be separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. Introductory elements can be prepositions, adverbs, interjections, and infinitives. EXAMPLE: In my experience I have never seen such a thing. CORRECTION: In my experience, I have never seen such a thing. A comma may be omitted following short introductory elements if it does not create confusion. However, using a comma is always correct. ^79 ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ │COMMA SEPARATES JOINED SENTENCES │ └─────────────────────────────────┘ If you are joining two sentences with a conjunction, it is preferable to separate the two sentences with a comma before the conjunction. EXAMPLE: She was at home and the TV was on. CORRECTION: She was at home, and the TV was on. When the two sentences are very short and closely related in meaning, you may omit the comma between them as long as the resulting sentence is clear. However, using the comma will always be correct. ^80 ┌───────────────────────────┐ │USE BRACKETS IN QUOTATIONS │ └───────────────────────────┘ If you need to change or add comments to a quotation, enclose the change with brackets. EXAMPLE: He said, "The car (a Jeep) was fun to drive." CORRECTION: He said, "The car [a Jeep] was fun to drive." ^81 ┌────────────────────┐ │UNUSUAL PUNCTUATION │ └────────────────────┘ Punctuation marks should immediately follow the last word in the sentence. Make sure that there isn't an extra space before the punctuation. Punctuation marks should not be mixed together unless they are part of a quotation. Punctuation marks should always fall inside of the quotation unless you are stating specific scientific terms. It is preferred that punctuation marks not be repeated for emphasis. If you want to create an ellipsis mark to show the deletion of text from a quotation, use three spaced periods within the quotation. If the ellipsis mark is at the end of the quotation, use four spaced periods. Ellipsis marks can only be placed inside of quotations. EXAMPLE: This is exciting!! CORRECTION: This is exciting! EXAMPLE: He said, "This ... was an ellipsis mark." CORRECTION: He said, "This . . . was an ellipsis mark." ^82 ┌────────────────┐ │SHORT SENTENCES │ └────────────────┘ A series of very short sentences can make your writing monotonous and ineffective. Try to vary the length of your sentences to avoid this problem. EXAMPLE: I live in Seattle. It rains a lot. The scenery is beautiful. I will stay here. CORRECTION: I live in Seattle and I want to stay here. It rains a lot but the scenery is beautiful. ^83 ┌─────────────────────────┐ │ENDING WITH PREPOSITIONS │ └─────────────────────────┘ Try to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition. EXAMPLE: Jane didn't know where she was at. CORRECTION: Jane didn't know where she was. ^84 ┌─────────────────────────┐ │STARTING WITH AND OR BUT │ └─────────────────────────┘ Sentences that begin with "and" or "but" can express incomplete thoughts. Check that your sentence expresses a complete thought or join the sentence with the previous sentence. EXAMPLE: Jane worked all day. And partied all night. The second sentence beginning with "and" does not express a complete thought. CORRECTION: Jane worked all day and partied all night. ^85 ┌──────────────┐ │MISSING SPACE │ └──────────────┘ A period at the end of a sentence usually requires a space after it. Check if you need to insert a space after the period. EXAMPLE: This isn't correct.This sentence is missing a space. CORRECTION: This isn't correct. This sentence is missing a space. ^88 ┌──────────────────┐ │USING CONTRACTIONS│ └──────────────────┘ If you are writing a formal document, contractions should be avoided. EXAMPLE: How's the production line been going? CORRECTION: How has the production line been going? ^89 ┌─────────────────┐ │STARTING ADVERBS │ └─────────────────┘ Starting a sentence with an adverb can be awkward. The adverb can usually be moved next to the main verb in the sentence. EXAMPLE: Quickly, we went to the movie. CORRECTION: We quickly went to the movie. ^90 ┌──────────────┐ │PASSIVE VOICE │ └──────────────┘ This rule flags all passive sentences in your document. Passive sentences usually contain a form of the word "be" followed by a verb in the past tense. If the sentence does not contain the word "by", it may be difficult to rewrite the sentence into the active voice. EXAMPLE: This equipment should be examined for damage. To make the sentence use the active voice, try to move the noun phrase after the verb. CORRECTION: Examine this equipment for damage. Forms of the word "be" include "been", "is", "are", "was" and "were". Verbs in the past tense usually end in "ed" or "en". (eaten, tried, etc.) ^91 ┌─────────────────┐ │POSSESSIVE NAMES │ └─────────────────┘ If a word in a sentence refers to a single person, the possessive is normally formed by adding 's instead of adding an apostrophe at the end of the name. This includes names which end in 's'. EXAMPLE: Burns' poems are great. "Burns" refers to a person, so the apostrophe is incorrect. CORRECTION: Burns's poems are great. Adding an apostrophe to form the possessive case is allowed for plural words ending in 's'. EXAMPLE: teachers' workers' Murphys' (refers to two people) ^92 ┌───────────────────┐ │USING ITS AND IT'S │ └───────────────────┘ The word "it's" is always a contraction for "it is". The word "its" shows a possessive relationship. Check if you are using the correct form by expanding "it's" or "its" into "it is". If it sounds correct, then use "it's", otherwise use "its" to show possession. EXAMPLE: Its a beautiful day. I know its going to shine. CORRECTION: It's a beautiful day. I know it's going to shine. EXAMPLE: It's color is green. I want to see it's color. CORRECTION: Its color is green. I want to see its color. ^93 ┌────────────────────┐ │USING i.e. AND e.g. │ └────────────────────┘ The latin abbreviations i.e. (means 'that is') and e.g. (means 'for example') are normally followed by commas and surrounded with parenthesis. EXAMPLE: There were several colors (e.g. brown and yellow). CORRECTION : There were several colors (e.g., brown and yellow). ^94 ┌────────────────────────┐ │COMMONLY CONFUSED WORDS │ └────────────────────────┘ This rule covers a number of commonly confused words. These word pairs include: "from" (a location) "form" (an object/action) "their" (possessive) "there" (a location) "to" (a location/action) "too" (excessive) "effect" (a result) "affect" (an action) "illicit" (illegal) "elicit" (an action) "your" (a possessive) "you're" (you are) "they're" (they are) "their" (a possessive) ^95 ┌────────────────────────┐ │TOO MANY NOUNS IN A ROW │ └────────────────────────┘ A sentence that contains too many nouns in a row can be confusing. EXAMPLE: The house boat water hookup point is in the back. CORRECTION: The water hookup point for the house boat is in the back. ^96 ┌───────────────────────────────┐ │TOO MANY PREPOSITIONS IN A ROW │ └───────────────────────────────┘ A sentence that contains too many prepostions in a row can be confusing. EXAMPLE: I walked in the house by the bay near the city. CORRECTION: I walked in the house. It was by the bay and the city. ^default This program setting or message is not supported ^END