Dangling Modifiers
Inconsistent Verb Tenses
Noun Strings
Faulty Agreement in Number
Unclear Antecedents for "This," "Which," and "It"
Failure to Use Possessive Case with Gerund
Misuse of "That" and "Which"
Parallelism
Run-ons (or Fused sentences) & Comma Splices
Subject-Verb Agreement
Semi-Colons
Sentence Fragments
Dangling Modifiers
A dangling modifier is a phrase or clause that - because of its proximity - seems to modify a word it could not logically modify. One of the most common dangling modifiers occurs in the following sentence: "Hopefully, the project will succeed." "Hopefully" is an adverb that appears to modify the noun "project," the subject of the sentence. But how can a project be hopeful? To fix the sentence, we need to show who's really doing the hoping: "We hope that the project will succeed."
Another very common dangling modifier appears in the following sentence construction: "Based on our observations, the project will succeed." Again, the modifier - "based" - cannot logically modify the noun to which it is attached - "project." "The project" is not "based on our observations." To fix the sentence, we need to say, "On the basis of our observations, we believe the project will succeed."
Inconsistent Verb Tenses
Make sure you use past tense consistently throughout a sentence and use past perfect tense when it is called for. For example, in the following sentence there is a lack of consistency in tense; it shifts from past to present: "Government officials said that they are correcting the problem." Since the verb in the main clause is stated in the past tense - "said" - the verb in the subordinate clause - "are correcting" - should also be stated in the past tense. The sentence should read "Government officials said that they were correcting the problem." If, however, the action of the dependent clause was completed before the action in the main clause, use past perfect tense in the dependent clause. For example, "Government officials said that they had corrected the problem.
Purdue University: Simplest to use. In "Search" type "Verb Tense." Click on "Verb Tense Consistency."
University of Richmond: Helpful explanations and examples.
Lynchburg University: Explanations and practice sentences.
Noun Strings
Try to avoid long strings of nouns, such as the following, that show no grammatical relationships among the many nouns: "Army Fiscal Year 1990 Apache Helicopter Spare and Repair Parts Budget Request." Add possessive case and prepositions to clarify how the nouns relate to each other. Revision: "The Army's Fiscal Year 1990 Budget Request for Spare and Repair Parts for the Apache Helicopter."
Faulty Agreement in Number
One of the most common pronoun agreement problems occurs when one tries to avoid the sexist use of pronouns. For example, the following sentence is inconsistent in number: "Each student must clean their own room." The plural pronoun "their" does not agree in number with the singular "Each student" and the singular "room." To fix the sentence, you could say "Each student must clean his or her own room." If you find the "his or her" construction awkward, make all pronouns and associated nouns in the sentence plural: "All students must clean their own rooms."
Unclear Antecedents for "This," "Which," and "It"
An "antecedent" is the noun a pronoun refers to. When using "this," "which," or "it," make sure there is no question about what the pronoun's antecedent is. In the following case, the antecedent for "this" is unclear: "The company needs accurate data for its estimates. This is the purpose of the task force." Similarly, the antecedent for "which" is unclear in this passage: "The company needs accurate data for its estimates, which is the purpose of the task force." To make the passages clearer, change them to: "The company needs accurate data for its estimates. Providing such data is the purpose of the task force."
In the following sentence, the antecedent for "it" is unclear: "When the government workers who should be classed as administrators are enumerated, it reaches staggering proportions." Revise to eliminate the vague pronoun as follows: "When the government workers who should be classed as administrators are enumerated, the total is staggering."
Capital Community College Foundation: Well-organized, extensive information and several follow-up quizzes.
Lynchburg University: Very detailed overview of pronoun usage.
Literacy Education Online: Help with self-editing.
Purdue University: Guidelines with helpful tips and examples.
Bedford St. Martins: Frequent pronoun mistakes.
English Plus: Different pronoun problems and solutions.
Failure to Use Possessive Case with a Gerund
A gerund is the present participle of the verb (the verbal form ending in "ing") when used as a noun. The possessive case should be used for modifiers of a gerund: "I would appreciate your attending the meeting." "It is all contingent on the President's signing the bill." If, however, you find this construction awkward or impossible, reword the sentence. For instance, to avoid awkward construction such as the following, revise: "This is one of several steps taken by the Secretary to prevent the ceiling on expenditures' being broken again next year." Revision: "This is one of several steps taken by the Secretary to prevent the ceiling on expenditures from being broken again next year."
Misuse of "That" and "Which"
The key to determining when to use "that" and when to use "which" is in deciding whether the clause or phrase that follows is essential to defining what you mean (it's "restrictive") or is simply parenthetical information (it's "nonrestrictive"). Use "that" with restrictive phrases or clauses and "which" with nonrestrictive phrases or clauses. For example, if I am holding up only one book and say "I'll give you this book, which explains grammatical rules," you don't need to know that the book is about grammar to know which book I mean. If I'm holding up a history book and a grammar book and I say "I'll give you the book that explains grammatical rules," you need to know that the book explains grammatical rules to know which book I mean.
As a rule of thumb, use "which" and set the phrase or clause off by commas if the information that follows is parenthetical or unessential to the meaning of your sentence. Use "that" and don't set your phrase or clause off by commas when the information that follows is essential to the meaning of your sentence.
Parallelism
Parallel structure means using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. This can happen at the word, phrase or clause level. The usual way to join parallel structures is with the use of coordinating conjunctions such as "and" or "or."
Purdue University: Overview and examples.
Bartleby Project at Columbia University: Helpful discussion and many examples.
Lynchburg College: Many examples with explanations and practice exercises.
University of Richmond: Purpose of parallel structure.
Literacy Education Online: Self-editing help.
Run-ons (or Fused Sentences) & Comma Splices
Purdue University Online Writing Lab: This site explains dependent and independent clauses and how misunderstanding of these cause comma splices or fused sentences.
Bucknell University: Simple, clear steps and easily accessible information.
University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign: Very few simple steps to access specific information.
Andrews University Writing Center: The site is very clear and comprehensive, with many selections.
Princeton University Writing Center: This website explains how joining independent clauses with commas causes a comma splice.
Subject-Verb Agreement
University of Wisconsin-Madison: Go to "Writers Handbook" in brown-colored circle; click "Grammar and Punctuation;" click "Subject-Verb Agreement."
Purdue University: Simple interactive tutorial.
Semi-Colons
Purdue University Online Writing Lab: Most comprehensive site for semi-colon information. Scroll down through this section on "Punctuation" for "Semi-colons."
Princeton University Writing Center: A simple, brief explanation of the semi-colon.
University of Wisconsin at Madison: A quick, clear breakdown of when to use and not to use semi-colons.
Sentence Fragments
Purdue University Online Writing Lab: Simple, straightforward.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center: Easy and straightforward.
