This is a guest article by Umesh Joshi. If you want to submit a guest article of your own, be sure to read the guest article guidelines.
We all enjoy conversational writing and find it very engaging, but at the expense of fractured grammar, it might not be acceptable. So, to help you drill your way to reader’s heart, here’s a quick fix.
Subject-verb agreement
The subject and verb of a sentence must match up with each other in number whether they are plural or singular. If subject is singular, its verb must be singular and vice versa.
For Example:
Incorrect: Her dogs loves to play in the park.
Correct: Her dogs love to play in the park.
We often get confused with the words that come in between the subject and verb. For example:
Incorrect: The king, who is known for his helpers, are a good man.
Correct: The king, who is known for his helpers, is a good man.
Passive voice
Instead of being placed at the beginning, an object is placed at the end of the sentence in passive voice. With passive sentences, your content seems weak and unclear.
Sounds different? Check this (the same paragraph in active voice):
A sentence becomes passive when the object (noun that receives the action) is placed at the beginning of the sentence instead of the end. Usage of passive sentences makes your content weak and unclear.
You can clearly mark the difference in the above paragraphs.
Comma splice
When two independent clauses are connected by a comma they form a run-on sentence. People often confuse long sentences to be run-on sentences, but, in reality structural flaw is independent of length of sentence.
For example:
Incorrect: She kept waiting for him at the restaurant, he didn’t come.
Correct: She kept waiting for him at the restaurant, but he didn’t come.
When only a comma is used to connect two independent sentences, it need to be accompanied by conjunctions (so, but, and, or, yet).
Apostrophe misuse
Apostrophe is meant to be used either for contractions or to show possession.
For example:
Incorrect: Its not my cup of tea.
Correct: It’s not my cup of tea.
Incorrect: Reliance has a way of getting it’s work done.
Correct: Reliance has a way of getting its work done.
“It’s” is often confused with its. “It’s” means “It is or it has” whereas “its” shows possession.
Also, apostrophes are not meant to be used in the case of words like “Dos.”
Most confusing words
- Effect vs Affect
Incorrect: Passive writings do not attract readers, and this might effect the user traffic on your blog.
“Affect” is used as a verb whereas “effect” is more often used as a noun. So, “effect” does not justify above sentence.
Correct: Passive writings do not attract readers, and this might affect the user traffic on your blog.
- Between vs Among
Incorrect: His actions completely justify the fact that he is the most coward man between his colleagues.
“Between” is used to point out the difference between two things or people whereas “among” is used when the reference is for more than two things.
Correct: His actions completely justify the fact that he is the most coward man among his colleagues.
- Me vs. I
Incorrect: The drunk driver hit my friend and I with his car.
But that’s wrong, because “I” is a subject pronoun and cannot be used at the place of an object.
Correct: The drunk driver hit my friend and me with his car.
- Your vs Yours
“Your” is a possessive adjective and “yours” is a possessive pronoun.
Incorrect: Your Sincerely
Correct: Yours Sincerely
Wrap-up
These were just few but most common mistakes which are literally killing grammar deteriorating grammar standards both online and in print. So, from now on watch your words and the sentence structure to see how well it complies to basic grammar rules, and correct people who are doing it wrong. Get started!
Author Bio: Umesh Joshi has a flair to tackle breaking tech news; especially High End Laptops which are good for programming, gaming and graphic design. He writes at laptopforprogramming.com.
View Comments (1)
Nice one.