15 Golden Rules of Grammar

Grammar  may appear to have been invented just to stifle your creativity and make you stumble as a writer, but it does have a positive purpose. Without the rules of grammar your reader would often have a tough time understanding what you are trying to communicate. You do want the reader to be able to follow what you are writing, right? Here are some grammar basics that can help you out on that front.

#1: Know the essential parts of the sentence.

n  A sentence is divided into two parts. The subject (WHAT the sentence is about or WHO the sentence is about) and a predicate (SAYS SOMETHING about the subject and contains a word EXPRESSING ACTION or STATE OF BEING). A simple sentence example? “Marco walks.”

#2 Avoid sentence fragments

n  Sure, there are times when you can consciously use a sentence fragment in your writing. But more often than not you aren’t doing it on purpose, and fragments are largely frowned upon in academic writing. What is a fragment? An incomplete sentence starting with a capital and ending with a period.

n  Consider this example: “They tried to understand Arturo’s objections. Which were unfounded.” You can change these multiple ways. How about adding a subject to the second part of the fragment so it becomes: They were unfounded. Or you could link the sentence parts with a comma after objections. Or simply move the word unfounded up in the sentence to describe Arturo’s objections and get rid of the “Which were.”

#3: Avoid comma splices

n  A comma splice occurs when two or more independent clauses (word groups that could stand alone as separate sentences) are joined simply by a comma.

n  There is typically a coordinating conjunction missing (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So). Use a semicolon instead. Or a period.

n  What coordinating conjunction could be said to be missing from the following comma splice?  “In 1800, a traveler needed six weeks to get from New York City to Chicago, in 1860, the trip by railroad took two days.” After Chicago you could have used a “but,” right? Why not use a semicolon now. Or a period.

#4 A single, rather than a double, negative is correct.

n   A double negative is when two negatives within a clause are used to express one single negation. Example: “He did not keep no records.” All you need to say is, “He did not keep records.”

#5 Clarify meaning by placing modifiers near the word they are meant to modify.

n  A modifier is a word such as almost, only, just, even, hardly, nearly or merely.

n  Look at how the meaning changes in these sentences depending on where the modifier is placed. “Natasha went out with just her coat on.” Or, “Natasha just went out with her coat on.” Or, “Just Natasha went out with her coat on.”

#6 Revise your dangling modifiers.

n  A dangling modifier is a verbal phrases that does not clearly refer to other words or phrases in the sentence. The words can typically be rearranged to make meaning clear.

n  Example: “When only a small boy, my father took me with him to Chicago.” Wait a sec…How young was your Dad? He was a young boy when he took you to Chicago? How about: “When I was only a small boy…”

#7 Verbs must agree with their subjects.

n  What does it mean to agree? They don’t have to share politics or point of view, but they do need to match in form. If your subject is plural, your verb is plural. If your subject is singular, your verb is singular.

n  Examples: “The rose in the vase is wilted.” Or, “The tulips in the garden are blooming.”

#8 Unnecessary shifts are unpleasant

n  What is an unnecessary shift? Examples include changing from singular to plural or from past to present in the same sentence.

n  Examples: “Arlo believes in nuclear power while Mary believed in solar power.” (Can’t they both believe in the same tense?). Or, “If a person is going to improve, you should work harder.” (Let’s make it: “If YOU are going to improve..”)

#9 Strive for parallelism in expressing ideas.

n  Parallelism provides clarity and rhythm as you balance sentence parts of equal structure and value.

n  How can you create parallelism in these examples? “I like to swim, to dance, and having fun.” Let’s try, “I like to swim, to dance, and to have fun.” Or, “He uses his computer for writing and to play games.” Let’s make it: “He uses his computer for writing and playing games.”

#10 Use the apostrophe appropriately.

n  Apostrophes show possession, mark omissions in contractions and form certain plurals.

n  Examples: Possession: Anna’s car, Nona’s house, anyone’s computer, the babies’ toys, the boys’ game, Olga and Nadia’s house.

n  Contractions: Don’t, They’ll, Class of ’99

n  Certain plurals: p’s and q’s, three minus’s

#11 Use quotation marks to set off dialogue and direct quotations.

n  Double quotation marks are used to set off direct quotations, but not indirect ones.

n  Examples: Direct: “People are trapped in history,” writes James Baldwin, “and history is trapped in them.”

n  Indirect: James Baldwin claims that people cannot escape history and that history cannot exist without people.

n  When quoting directly within quotations you use single quotations. Example” Andy said, “Have people ever asked me ‘Do you revise what your write?’ Yes, lots of times, and when they do, I tell them that my motto is ‘A writer’s work is never done.’”

#12 Use proper punctuation to transfer meaning from spoken to written language.

n  Use the period to mark the end of a declarative or mildly imperative sentence.

n  The question mark is used after direct (but not indirect questions). “What in the world is Jenn doing?” Or, “They want to know what Bryan is doing.”

n  The exclamation point occurs after an emphatic interjection or other expression showing emotion such as surprise or disbelief. Yikes! Zounds!

#13 A hyphen can be used to link words.

n  Use the hyphen to link two or more words to form a compound functioning as a single word.

n  Examples:  “..a well-built house.” Or, “I hard-boiled the egg.” Or, “…the make-believe city of Camelot.”

#14 Capitals start every sentence and directly quoted speech.

n  Examples: Procrastination is my specialty.

n  Oh, really! Do you want to become more efficient? Not right now.

n  He says, “Stop dieting and start exercising.”

#15 Revise your run-on sentences.

n  Ask yourself these questions to help recognize run-ons:

n  Does the sentence contain two independent clauses? No. You’re OK

n  Are the clauses joined with a comma and a coordinating conjunction? Yes. You’re OK.

n  Are the clauses joined with a semicolon, colon or dash? Yes. You’re OK.

n  Example: “Gestures are a means of communication for everyone, they are essential for the hearing impaired.” You could fix this run-on many ways. How about putting a “but” before “they are?” Or a semicolon in place of the comma before “they are?” Or, perhaps, adding “however,” before “they are?” Each would work.