1. Part Two: Writing Effective Sentences

2. Subject-Verb Agreement
Verbs must agree with its subject in number and person.
Singular
I work, you work, he works
I bike, you bike, she bikes
Plural
We work, you work, they work
We bike, you bike, they bike

3. Recognizing Subject-Verb Agreement
Faulty agreements:
George hate to work.
Gail love to bike.
Correct agreements:
George hates to work.
Gail loves to bike.

4. Exercise

5. Correct these sentences
Bruce drive a long way to work.
You wouldn’t knows it, but Greg are six feet four inches tall.
When is we going to the movies?
Who isn’t know how to add two plus two?
I is the fastest runner I knows.

6. Verb Forms and Tenses Every Verb has four main forms Base form Past
Talk
Past
Talked
Present Participle
(am) Talking
Past Participle
(Have) Talked

7. Irregular Verb Forms
Irregular verbs can have completely different spellings from its base form.
Example: To Be
Base: Be
Past: Was
Present Participle: (am) Being
Past Participle: (have) Been
What are some other examples of Irregular verbs?
Is this a reason why English is such a hard language to learn and master?

8. Verb Tenses The Simple Tenses Present Past Future We walk to school.
We walked to school yesterday.
Future
Tomorrow we will walk to school.

9. Verb Tenses The Perfect Tenses Present perfect Past perfect
George has worked for five hours. (He is still working)
Past perfect
After five hours of work, it was quitting time. (Shows that there is an end to the work)
Future perfect
George will have worked for five hours by quitting time. (First he will work for five hours, and then it is quitting time)

10. Verb Tenses Progressive Tenses Present Progressive Past Progressive
Dad is watching television
Past Progressive
Dad was watching television.
Future Progressive
Dad will be watching television.
Present Perfect Progressive
Dad has been trying to watch television.
Past Perfect Progressive
Dad had been trying to watch television.
Future Perfect Progressive
Dad will have been watching television.

11. Pronoun Problems Using ‘their’ instead of he or she, or his or her.
Ambiguous or implied reference
Pronoun could refer to one or more subject
Vague references
Using they, you, or it instead of clearly stating the subject
Pronoun case
Using incorrect pronoun cases
Example: Her is tall.
Correction: She is tall.

12. Shifts and Mixed Constructions
Consistent verb tenses
Past and present get mixed
Example: Penelope walked all day and when she gets to the store they don’t have what she wanted.
Correction: Penelope walks all day and when she gets to the store they don’t have what she wants.

13. Consistent Point of View
Confusing the first, second, or third person POV.
Example: My coworkers asked for a raise, but you are supposed to work hard for that.
Correction: My coworkers asked for a raise, but they are supposed to work hard for that.

14. Adjectives and Adverbs
Distinguishing the two
Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns
Adverbs modify verbs, an adjective, or another adverb

15. Understand Comparative and Superlative Adjectives and Adverbs
Compare: I am bigger than you.
Superlative: I am the fastest runner here.
Adjective: Big, Bigger, Biggest
Adverb: Fast, Faster, fastest

16. Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
Misplaced Modifiers
A word, phrase, or clause that does not clearly modify the intended word
Can generally be moved in the sentence to clarify meaning
Dangling Modifiers
This does not modify anything in the sentence
Usually appears at the beginning of the sentence
It cannot simply be moved to clarify the meaning