Language Standards

 Independent Clause [IC]  Has subject and verb and can stand alone as a complete thought  I am tired. [IC]  Dependent Clause [DC]  Has a subject and verb but cannot stand alone as a complete thought  Since I am tired. [DC]

 A run-on happens when you merge two independent clauses together.  I was tired I fell asleep. Pattern: IC IC.  The run-on sentence can be short or long.  There are a few ways to fix this.

 Separate with a period. IC. IC.  I was tired. I fell asleep. Insert a comma and a conjunction. IC, conj IC.  I was tired, so I fell asleep.  Insert a semicolon. IC; IC.  I was tired; I fell asleep.  Insert a semicolon with a conjunctive adverb. IC; conj adv, IC.  I was tired; therefore, I fell asleep.  Make one of the IC’s into a DC. DC, IC.  Because I was tired, I fell asleep.  You CANNOT simply insert a comma between them. IC, IC.  I was tired, I fell asleep. For more on run-ons, see: sentences.aspx

 Any group of words that cannot stand alone as a complete thought  Because I was tired (subordinate or dependent clause)  Thinking I would call him later and tell him the truth (participial phrase)  To fix this, you need to revise so that it has a subject, a verb, and expresses a complete thought.  Because I was tired, I went to sleep.  Thinking I would call him later and tell him the truth, I decided not to worry about my little white lie. For more on fragments, see: grammar.aspx

 To write out numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine.  Thirty-five  Sixty-four  Ninety-three  To join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun  a one-way street  chocolate-covered peanuts  well-known author  However, when compound modifiers come after a noun, they are not hyphenated.  The peanuts were chocolate covered.  The author was well known.

 With the prefixes  ex- (meaning former)  self-  all-  With the suffix –elect  Between a prefix and a capitalized word  With figures or letters  Examples:  ex-husband  self-assured  mid-September  all-inclusive  mayor-elect  anti-American  T-shirt  pre-Civil War  mid-1980s

 When two or more compound modifiers have a common base, this base is sometimes omitted in all except the last modifier, but the hyphens are retained.  Long- and short-term memory  2-, 3-, and 10-minute trials  8- by 10-inch photo

 Avoid redundancies (repetitive wording)  I wrote an autobiography about my own life for my English class. (An autobiography is about the person’s own life, so you don’t need to say both.)  We need to join together our forces to solve the problem. (“To join” means to put together, so to say join and together is redundant.)  The problem evolved over time. (“To evolve” means to develop over time, so to say evolve and over time is redundant.)  For many more redundant expressions, see: m

 Avoid wordy expressions (e.g., saying something in five words that can be said in one or two words).  Due to the fact that = Because  Because of the fact that = Because  During the time that = While  In the event that = If For more examples, see: expressions/

 Antecedent: The word that the pronoun refers to.  Just because Jim said he would help, doesn’t mean that he will show up.  He is the pronoun. Jim is the antecedent.

 “Breathe in through your nose, hold it for a few seconds, then breathe out through your mouth.”  The pronoun “it” seems to refer to “nose,” the singular noun closest to the word “it”; however, the writer did not mean for you to hold your nose. What’s missing here is a clear antecedent: “your breath.”  Correction: “Breathe in through your nose, hold your breath for a few seconds, then breathe out through your mouth.”

 Pronouns pop up in almost every sentence, and sometimes readers may feel as if they are juggling. They’re trying to remember which nouns have already been mentioned so that they can correctly match them up with later- appearing pronouns. Don’t turn your readers into a circus act. Your job is to provide a pleasurable and easy reading experience. Ensure that your pronouns and antecedents are clearly marked.

 “The ladies of the church have cast off clothing of every kind, and they can be seen in the church basement Friday afternoon.”  The pronoun “they” finds itself in an awkward position. Does it refer to the ladies or the clothing? Well, we can guess that “items of clothing” is the intended antecedent, but it doesn’t appear that way.  Of course, there's another problem with that sentence: One could also interpret it to mean the church ladies are running around in their birthday suits, but we'll save that problem for another day. For these examples and more, see: and-antecedents.aspxhttp://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/pronouns- and-antecedents.aspx

 In an active sentence, the subject is doing the action.  Steve loves Amy.  Steve is the subject, and he is doing the action: he loves Amy, the object of the sentence.  I heard it through the grapevine.  "I" is the subject, the one who is doing the action. "I" is hearing "it," the object of the sentence.

 In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position.  Amy is loved by Steve.  The subject of the sentence becomes Amy, but she isn't doing anything. Rather, she is just the recipient of Steve's love. The focus of the sentence has changed from Steve to Amy.  It was heard through the grapevine.  “It” is not doing the action; it is receiving the action. The person doing the action (“hearing”) is not mentioned in the sentence.  A clue that a sentence is passive is that the subject isn't taking a direct action.

 Passive sentences aren't incorrect, but they often aren't the best way to phrase your thoughts. Sometimes passive voice is awkward and other times it’s vague. Also, passive voice is usually wordy, so you can tighten your writing if you replace passive sentences with active sentence.  Politicians often use passive voice to intentionally obscure the idea of who is taking the action. Ronald Reagan famously said, “Mistakes were made,” when referring to the Iran-Contra scandal. Other examples of passive voice for political reasons could include “Bombs were dropped,” and “Shots were fired.”  Businesses sometimes use passive voice. Writing “Your electricity will be shut off,” sounds better than “We, the electric company, will be shutting off your power.”

 Use it for times when you're talking about something that isn't true or you're being wishful.  If I were in charge, I would declare every Friday a holiday.  If he were nicer, I wouldn't hate him so much.

 “If" and "could" and similar words don't always mean you need to use "I were.“ When you are supposing about something that might be true, you use the verb "was.“  There was a storm in Mexico. If Richard was in Cabo, he could have missed the call.  Because there was a storm, and Richard was in the area, he may have missed the call. The possibility that it happened is what makes this sentence need the indicative mood and not the subjunctive mood. It's why I say “If Richard was” instead of “If Richard were.”

 The EOC may refer to parallel structure, parallel construction, parallelism, faulty parallelism.  Any items joined by a conjunction, must be the same grammatical structure.  Faulty parallelism ▪ Tom likes to fish, hike, and swimming.  Correction: ▪ Tom likes to fish, hike, and swim. ▪ Tom likes to fish, to hike, and to swim.

 A tip to check parallelism is to bullet-point the items being joined. I bought a shirt, skirt, and pair of shoes. I bought a: (a) shirt (b) skirt (c) pair of shoes. All three items are nouns and work with the stem part of the sentence.