4th Squadron Practical Writing Guide:

Basic Grammar Terms

Noun: A person, place, thing, or idea [Task Force Tiger, Barcelona, alcohol,
mayhem]
Verb: An action word [decimate, glowed, fry, exonerate, run]
Adjective: A word which describes a noun [reckless dismount, enraged platoon
sergeant]
Adverb: A word which describes a verb or another adverb usually ends in ly
[Baker sings beautifully]
Subject: the actor which performs the action of the sentence, always a noun.
Object: the recipient of the action in the sentence, also a noun not all sentences
have an object.
Sentence: a complete thought that includes a subject, a verb and an object if
required.
[Panzak (subject) kills (verb) the T-72 (object)]
Common Spelling Errors which spellcheck wont catch
manor manner
absents absence
affect vs. effect affect means to influence, effect means to create
hole whole [the Squadron as a whole]
Their ownership [their effort, their pancake, their mission]
There location [over there, here and there]
Theyre contracted form of they are [theyre jamming, theyre zooming]
Its it is [it is Friday its Friday]
Its belonging to it [the Strykers tire its tire]
Punctuation
Semicolons are used to separate two independent but related sentences [SSG
Petrichs MILES light was flashing most of the Hohenfels rotation; the OPFOR knew
where he slept.]
Colons are most often used to separate an independent sentence from a list [I
bought everything: tables, fruitcake, and a zeppelin]

Commas are used to separate lists [M4s, 240Ls, MK-19s and 50. cals], two
adjectives together [tough, realistic training] and any place where it seems like
there should be a pause when spoken. The Army also dislikes it when you put a
comma before the word and. Such a comma is occasionally called an Oxford
comma and is not generally incorrect.
Apostrophes are used in contractions (cant, wont, oughtnt, etc.) and
demonstrating ownership.
Triple Exclamation Points [!!!] should generally be avoided in official writing.
Plural vs. Possessive (Does it need an apostrophe?)
Plural: shows there is more than one [Nemesis Troop and Outlaw Troop are ready
the troops are ready]
Possessive: shows ownership (the apostrophe shows the owner) [Nemesis Troop
has a high state of readiness Nemesis Troops high state of readiness]
Plural and Possessive: [Fourth Squadron troops have a high state of readiness
Fourth Squadron troops high state of readiness]
Capitalization
Capitalize proper nouns, essentially any item with a specific name [Saber Standard,
War Monkey, PFC Butler, Blue Platoon Beasts, Doc Baker]
Do not capitalize nouns that refer to unnamed or unspecified things [three platoons,
the motorpool, a driver and gunner, the doctor, the commander)
DO NOT WRITE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS UNLESS YOU ARE WRITING THE CITATION
ON THE BOTTOM OF AN AWARD OR ARE YELLING!!!
Unique capitalization: (There are only three unique capitalizations in the Army, all
other words use standard grammar) Capitalize the word Soldier when it refers to a
U.S. Army Soldier, Family when it refers to U.S. Army Family or Family members,
and Civilian when it refers to DA civilians and is used in conjunction with Soldier
and/or Family.
Avoiding Fluff
Repetitive Redundancy: Avoid stringing together words with similar meanings
just to make a sentence longer [flexibility and adaptability / high motivation and
warrior spirit/ discipline and drive/ motivated and pushed/ tough and challenging]
Verbosity: Avoid phrases that contain flowery words which a writer could generate
without knowing the soldier [PFC Whatshisface performed in an exemplary manner
that evidenced his commitment to the values which inspired patriotism in the hearts
of our forefathers. His countless hours of committed labor as well as the passionate
and agile devotion which he relentlessly demonstrated to his peers and unit
resulted in 100% mission readiness at any and all times of the day and night in
addition to several more hours of readiness in the afternoon.]

Excessive Subjectivity: An objective claim is one which can be proven beyond

dispute [PFC Winchester drove vehicles for three crews during crew gunnery]. A
subjective claim is one which is not measurable and is more a matter of opinion
[PFC Winchester is a team player and very helpful]. Subjective claims are not
completely bad, but an argument (or an award) is always stronger if it has many
objective factual claims to back it up. Writing generally nice things about a
Soldier is unlikely to get him an uncommon award or evaluation.

Active Voice
Active voice writing places the subject before the verb. That means the person who
did the action is listed before the action. [SSG Unell won the fight]. You should use
the active voice.
Passive voice writing uses more words to place the subject at the end. It places the
action before the person who did it. [The fight was won by SSG Unell]. The passive
voice should be avoided by you.
Miscellaneous
Numbers: write out numbers less than and including ten [one, eight, ten, 43,
$787,977]
Acronyms: When an acronym is used, spell out the acronym the first time it is used
(capitalize it) and follow it with the acronym in parentheses. Thereafter, use the
acronym.
Parallelism: When making lists of anything, ensure that each item in the sentence
is in the same form as the rest [An AT-4 , a set of brass knuckles, and a ninja
throwing star/ The gunner, the driver and the dogcatcher/ he planned, prepared
and executed/ NOT he was planning, prepared, and will execute]
Run-on sentences: Any sentence with more than two subjects and verbs should
be two sentences [He cleaned the motorpool with the flourish of a renaissance
master, he reestablished the feng shui of the Saber universe.]
Army specific rules: You can find all Army specific rules in AR 25-50: Preparing
and Managing Correspondence. There arent actually that many rules in there;
most Army writing rules are actually local policy.