Effective Writing. Elizabeth Manning Murphy

‘doesn’t make sense’? If you are a supervisor, how do you explain to the writer exactly what is causing the confusion in the document? The only way is to use the terminology of grammar or of style. You can then be precise. If it’s a grammar problem, for instance, you can say: ‘This sentence is confused because the verb doesn’t agree with the subject’ or ‘It would flow better if we used commas between the clauses instead of all these conjunctions’. It is worth taking the time to learn the terms because then you will understand why a sentence doesn’t make sense – rather than just relying on instinct or on the feeling that it sounds wrong. If you understand why a sentence doesn’t make sense, you’ll be able to explain it to others.

      The early chapters in this book are about essential grammar. There are not many terms to understand, and you should not memorise mere definitions. It is more important to get a feel for how nouns differ from verbs, when to use adverbs and when to use adjectives, which punctuation marks to use where, and so on. If you can do this, you will be on the way to understanding the difference between good and bad writing. That understanding will certainly help you to write better, and help you to help others to write better.

      A quick skim of Part A – The basics may be all you need to bring the terms and the functions of the various parts of the sentence to mind. Or you may wish to work right through, completing all the activities along the way. If you make a lot of mistakes in an activity, you may need to revise the whole section – talk to your instructor or consult a full grammar text. It is not a good idea to skip over something you haven’t fully understood. When you have completed the section, you should be more confident that your writing will be grammatically acceptable.

      Theory is kept to a minimum – indeed, there is only as much of it as is necessary to remind you of the terms and the way words work in the most straightforward of sentences.

      Chapter 2 is a grammar assessment for you to try. It will show where some of the gaps are in your understanding of the basics. After this activity, we will look at the smallest units of writing: words – how to spell them and how they function in sentences.

Part A – The basics

      2 Grammar self-assessment

      Here is an activity to assess your knowledge and competence in each of these areas. The solutions are given below.

      There are no marks for this grammar assessment, but you might like to note how many errors you made overall. Chapter 9 provides a grammar reassessment, so that you can compare your results before and after working through Part A.

      2.1 Activities

      2.1.1 Parts of speech

      This first section asks you to identify certain words by their functions in sentences. See how many you can find correctly before reading about them all in Chapter 4, Parts of speech.

      1 Underline the nouns in the following sentences. For example:

      Jack and Jill went up the hill.

      The jury at the trial in the city is still considering its verdict.

      My canary is an excellent whistler.

      2 Underline the pronouns in the following sentences:

      He made himself a cup of coffee and then left it on the window ledge.

      These are the books I need, but I don’t need those over there.

      3 Underline the verbs (or verb phrases – that is, verbs consisting of more than one word – in the following sentences; and if you can, also label each as active (A) or passive (P):

      He read the label carefully as he had been caught by misleading labels before.

      Unless you have enrolled as a full-time student, you will not be given a grant.

      4 Underline the adjectives (or adjective phrases – that is, adjectives consisting of more than one word – in the following sentences; and if you can, also label each as positive (P), comparative (C) or superlative (S):

      This beautiful rose is the prettiest in my garden which is newer than yours.

      His report was the shortest I received, although he was very slow pre­­paring it.

      5 Underline the adverbs in the following sentences:

      Ann works quietly and efficiently, but nobody works more quickly than Peter.

      They are very happy to be home and quite content to live quietly now.

      6 Underline the prepositions in the following sentences; and if you can, also draw a circle around one whole prepositional phrase:

      The customer in the blue raincoat bought the picture of the old English village.

      Under this building is a secret passage leading into the bank next door.

      7 Underline the conjunctions in the following sentences:

      Although it rained, we enjoyed our picnic because we kept dry in the big beach shelter.

      Your essay is not marked yet, but it will be ready tomorrow or the next day.

      2.1.2 Sentences or fragments

      Say whether the groups of words that follow are whole sentences (S) or only fragments (F) – groups of words that are incomplete as sentences in some way. If there are any fragments, add whatever words are necessary to complete the sentences, either to the beginning or end. Do this without altering the wording of the original groups of words.

      1 Although it rained

      2 Despite the length of the journey and the number of people she had to see on the way

      3 If only you had told me yesterday

      4 Please shut the door

      5 Before I went out into the freezing cold of the winter day

      2.1.3 Check of some areas of spelling and grammar

      There are several errors in each of these sentences. Make all necessary corrections. Avoid altering words or word order unless necessary.

      1 Its bad manners to except an invitation when your all ready commited to another function.

      2 After trying in vain to contact you by phone, this letter will confirm your appointment as head of the communication department.

      3 The ladies’ shoes department is on the first floor and the mens’ are on the second floor.

      4 When he announced the name of the winner so quickly, it supprised everyone.

      2.2 Solutions

      2.2.1 Parts of speech

      1 jury, trial, city, verdict; canary, whistler

      2 He, himself, it; These, I, I, those

      3 read (A), had been caught (P); have enrolled (A), will be given (P) (not is not part of the verb phrase: it is an adverb expressing negation)

      4 beautiful (P), prettiest (S), newer (C); shortest (S), slow (P)

      5 quietly, efficiently, more quickly; very, quite, quietly, now

      6 in (in the blue raincoat), of (of the old English village); under (under this building), into (into the bank next door)

      7 although, because; but, or