Next graduate writing workshop

Grammar II: Common Writing Problems

Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012: 3:00 4:30 PM
Location: Physics 165 (here)

Basic English Grammar

University Learning Centre

Writing Help
Ron Cooley
Department of English
ron.cooley@usask.ca

Outline
Overview/review of English grammar
and grammatical terminology:
Parts of speech
Parts of a sentence
Sentence types

This session will review some

of the most common
problems in English
grammar, usage, and
punctuation. Well focus on
how to recognize trouble
spots and correct your own
work.

Parts of Speech: Nouns

Noun: names a person place or thing

Types

Proper: names of people, places, institutions

Common:

Concrete: material things (table, house, dog)

Abstract: conditions, qualities, ideas (hunger, wisdom)
Collective: singular nouns naming groups (family)

Countable (students, apples, books)

vs. non-countable (grain, water, information)

Parts of Speech: Nouns

Parts of Speech: Nouns

(and their attributes)

(and their attributes)

Number

Singular: book, computer, thief

Plural: books, computers, thieves

Usage problem

Plural nouns do not

take apostrophes.

Plural possessives

Sometimes a usage problem:

the students timetables
Apostrophe after the s.
Omit the second s (not studentss).
Hence, plural possessives are actually
contractions.
The apostrophe signals both the
possessive form and the contraction.

Case (grammatical function of a noun)

Subject (nominative): book, computer, thief
The book was long.
Object (accusative): book, computer, thief
She enjoyed the book.
Possessive (genitive): the books cover, the
computers keyboard, the thiefs mask
The books cover made it seem interesting.

Parts of Speech:
Pronouns: substitute for nouns

Personal pronouns: substitute for particular people

(I, you, he, she, they)
Demonstrative Pronouns: substitute for things
or things (it, they, this, these, those)
Like nouns, pronouns have number and case
Number:
Singular: I, you, he, she, it
Plural: we, you, they
Case:
Subject (Nominative): I, we, you, he, she, it, they
Object (Accusative): me, us, you, him, her, it, them
Possessive (Genitive): my, our, your, his, her, their
I [subject] gave him [object] your book [possessive].

Parts of Speech: Pronouns

Types of Pronouns

Relative:
introduce adjective clauses
who, whom, that, which:
He is the man whom I love.

Parts of Speech: Verbs

Action Words
(and their attributes)

Tense (present, past, future)

Interrogative: introduce questions

who, whom, which: Which sandwich is that?

Indefinite: refer to unspecific people or things

each, some, either, anyone, all: All are welcome.

Reflexive: indicate that the subject and object are the same
himself, herself, myself: I hurt myself.

Simple present (fact or repeated or usual action):

I go to class
Simple past (action started/finished at specific time
in past): I went to class
Simple future (promise or plan for future):
I will go to class
Present perfect (action at unspecified time before now): I have gone to class
Past perfect (action before another action in past): I had gone to class
Future perfect (action before another action in future): I will have gone to class
Present progressive (action happening now): I am going to class
Past progressive (longer action in the past was interrupted): I was going to class
Present perfect progressive (action started in past has continued until now):
I
have been going to class
Past perfect progressive (action started in past has continued until another time in
past): I had been going to class
Future perfect progressive (action will continue until a particular event or time in
future): I will have been going to class

Parts of Speech: Verbs

Action Words (and their attributes)

Mood

Infinitive: to go
The verb in the abstract, disconnected from a subject.
Can be used as a noun: To err is human
Indicative: He goes to class.
Used to express facts or opinions.
Imperative: Go to class!
Used to make demands or give orders.
Subjunctive (often used with conditional): If I were to go to class, I
would understand the subject. It is important that he go to class.
Used to express unreal conditions or urgency.
The subjunctive is falling out of use, especially orally.

Resource: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/types.html

Parts of Speech: Verbs

Action Words (and their attributes)

Voice

Active: We studied samples to determine . . .

Passive: Samples were studied to determine . . .
When you use the passive voice, you reverse the
normal positions of subject and object. The
performer of the action becomes the object of the
sentence.

Parts of Speech: Verbals

forms of verbs that can function as other parts of speech

Problems with verbals

Verbal nouns (Gerunds):

Cycling is my favourite sport.

Verbal adjectives (Participles):

My cycling friends like to ride on weekends.

Parts of Speech: Modifiers

modify (describe) other words in the sentence

The reason being that I dont like driving is not a

sentence.

Verbals (participles)
can dangle

Parts of Speech: Prepositions

Express location or relationship: in, on, to, into, with,

through, under, between, before, etc.

Introduce prepositional phrases:

In our study, we found . . .
Usage is highly idiomatic (i.e.
governed by convention, not by
rule)
We say Reaction x takes place
under certain conditions not
Reaction x takes place with
certain conditions

Adjectives: modify (describe) nouns or pronouns

Verbals cant function as verbs

I made a careful study of the book.

Adverbs: modify (describe) verbs, adjectives, or other

adverbs

I studied carefully.
Some adverb forms are falling out of use in informal speech.
Many say close the door tight rather than close the door
tightly.

Parts of Speech: Conjunctions

Coordinating: and, yet, but

Join equal sentence elements (independent clauses)
Road construction can be inconvenient, but it is necessary.

Correlative: either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also

Always work in pairs to link parallel sentence elements
This project not only gave me experience working with others,
but also pushed me to think about the complicated nature of
todays workplace.

Subordinating: although, because, unless, whenever, if, when

Introduce subordinate clauses
Because he enjoys walking, he often takes backpacking
vacations.

Conjunctive adverbs: however, therefore, furthermore

Indicate the relationship between independent clauses
I didnt know which job to take; therefore, I declined both offers.

Rules for Article use

Parts of Speech: Articles (the, a, an)

introduce a noun (but not always)
Definite

Indefinite

Singular
countable

the book

a book

Plural countable

the books

books

Non-countable

the information

information

Parts of a Sentence

Most English speakers dont

even realize there are rules.

Complicated, but one easyto-remember rule: singular

countable nouns ALWAYS
take articles.

Rensselaer Polytechnic
Centre for Communication
Practices
Article Usage guide
http://www.ccp.rpi.edu/resourc
es/article-usage/

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs back.

Subject: the noun performing the action (and

words and phrases associated with it)
The quick brown fox

Predicate: the verb (and words associated with

it)

jumped over the lazy dogs back.

The object (the noun receiving the action) is part
of the predicate: the lazy dogs back

Parts of a Sentence: Phrases and Clauses

Parts of a Sentence: Phrases and

Clauses

Phrase: a group of words lacking either a

subject or a predicate.

Clause: a group of words containing both a

subject and a predicate.

A phrase can function as any of the main

parts of speech: verb phrase, noun phrase,
adjective phrase, adverb phrase

Independent clause: could stand alone as a

sentence.

Subordinate clause: could not stand alone as

a sentence; needs to be attached to a main
clause.

A subordinate clausealso called a dependent clausewill begin with

a subordinate conjunction
after
as
before
even though
in order that
provided that
since
than
though
until
whenever
whereas
whether
why

although
because
even if
if
once
rather than
so that
that
unless
when
where
wherever
while

or a

relative pronoun
that

which

whichever who
whoever
whosever
whom
whose
whomever

Subordinate clauses introduced by relative

pronouns (relative clauses) can be either
restrictive on non-restrictive

A restrictive clause provides essential information

about the subject of a sentence: it restricts the
meaning of a sentence by identifying the specific
qualities of the noun or pronoun.
Restrictive:
The officer helped the civilians who had been
shot.
Non-restrictive:
The officer helped the civilians, who had been
shot.

Subordinate clauses introduced by relative

pronouns (relative clauses) can be either
restrictive on non-restrictive

Sentence Types (three basic types, plus

combinations)
Simple: subject, predicate, and sometimes object:
I go to class

Restrictive clauses usually begin with that

The meat that was contaminated with e-coli was

removed from stores.

Non restrictive clauses usually begin with

which and are set off by commas.

The meat, which was contaminated with e-coli,

was removed from stores.

Sentence Types (three basic types, plus

combinations)

Compound: two (or more) independent clauses

joined by a coordinating conjunction:

A string of simple sentences will

often make your writing seem
simplistic.
A paragraph with NO simple
sentences will fatigue your reader.
Useful for variety and emphasis:
Many issues concerning this
new model remain unclear.

Sentence Types (three basic types, plus

combinations)

I go to class, and you go to the lab.

Complex: at least one independent (main)

clause and at least one subordinate clause.

Use compound sentences to enumerate related

facts (especially in pairs)

There are approximately 5.2 million deaths from injuries

every year, and non-fatal injuries account for about onetenth of the global burden of disease.

Or to present simple contrasts

Physical activity brings the risk of injury, but inactivity leads

to other health problems.

Whenever I go to class, you go to the lab.

Use complex sentences to convey the

relationship between related ideas

By the time they get support, most of the students

will have failed at the most important task,
learning to read.

Sentence Types: Examples

We use labor income as a proxy for domestic wealth and find

empirical support for these predictions. (compound sentence)

We test the implications of an international asset pricing model, in

which agents have preferences that are exogenously defined over
both their own consumption and the contemporaneous average
consumption of a reference group, defined in this paper as the
agent's countrymen. (complex sentence)

These preferences are termed keeping up with the Joneses.

(simple sentence)

Resources:

General Parts of Speech/Sentences:

Adapted from: Gmez, Juan-Pedro, Richard Priestley, and Fernando Zapatero. 2009. Implications of
Keeping-up-with-the-Joneses Behavior for the Equilibrium Cross Section of Stock Returns:
International Evidence. International Journal of Finance 64: 2703-37.

Online Writing Lab at University of Ottawa

http://www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/hypergrammar/partsp.html