The present tense
•Present tense may be used in parts of the discussion and the conclusion:
The results show that students who are more willing to volunteer
…
The study advances what is known about volunteerism …
•For essays, present tense is commonly used. However, events that occurred in the past (e.g., previous research) would be reported in a past tense. The conclusion drawn from such events would be presented using the present tense:
Montagna et al. (2011) found that … . This indicates that …
Noun/pronoun confusion
•Subjects and pronouns must agree
•Everyone, everything, nobody, someone, no, every, each, either, neither, anyone, none – always singular!
Everyone was happy to donate some of his or |
her time. |
The participants were happy to donate most of |
their |
time. |
|
• It must be clear what the pronoun is referring back to: John told David that he didn’t get the position
(who didn’t get the job???)
Task
•An offender must be fit to stand trial. Thus, they must be able to comprehend what their requirements are.
•It can be useful when an offender presents with such debilitating symptoms that their ability to participate in or understand their trial is reduced.
Answer
•An offender must be fit to stand trial. Thus, they he or she must be able to comprehend what their his or her requirements are.
•It can be useful when an offender offenders presents present with such debilitating symptoms that their ability to participate in or understand their trial is reduced.
Subject verb agreement
•Be wary of words that look singular but are really plurals (usually Latin words)
The criteria for this assignment are especially difficult.
•and takes a plural verb; as well as agrees with the first noun
The teacher and his students were affected |
by |
the gas. |
|
The teacher, as well as his students, was affected |
|
by the gas. |
|
Troublesome |
|
|
|||
words |
• |
advice/advise |
• |
affect/effect |
|
• |
accept/except |
||||
• |
angel/angle |
• |
bare/bear |
• |
brake/break |
• |
breath/breathe |
• |
choose/chose |
• |
cite/sight/site |
• |
complement/ compliment |
• |
conscience/conscious |
• |
dairy/diary |
• |
descent/dissent |
• |
desert/dessert |
• |
elicit/illicit |
• |
fair/fare |
• |
formally/formerly |
• |
hear/here |
• |
its/it’s |
• |
lay/lie |
• |
lead/led |
• |
miner/minor |
• |
moral/morale |
• |
personal/personnel |
• |
precede/proceed |
• |
principal/principle |
• |
rain/reign/rein |
• |
quiet/quite |
• |
right/rite/write |
• |
than/then |
• |
their/there/they’re |
• |
threw/through |
• |
too/to/two |
• |
weather/whether |
• |
were/where |
• |
which/witch |
Overly long sentences
Example:
Consistent with the Australian legal system, offenders with mental illnesses are considered to be unfit to stand trial because of the nature of their illnesses, or found to be not guilty by reason of insanity; nevertheless, a personality disorder is rarely sufficient in terms of the burden of proof the defence is subjected to for either.
Overly long sentences
Improvement:
Consistent with the Australian legal system, offenders with mental illnesses are often considered to be either unfit to stand trial because of the nature of their illnesses, or found to be not guilty by reason of insanity. nevertheless, a A personality disorder, however, is rarely sufficient in terms of meeting the burden of proof requirements that the defence is subjected to for either outcome.
Task
What’s wrong with the following?
The problem of self-harm was targeted and with some psychoeducation and strategies and treatment goals were set.
When an individual’s mental functioning is impaired at the time of a crime, the accused according to section 36 of the Mental Health Act must, on the balance of probabilities, establish they were mentally unwell to the extent they were not in control of their actions when the crime was committed
How can they be fixed?
