Correction
Pronouns
Look at each pronoun to:
•make sure that it is obvious who or what it is referring to.
•check that it is the correct pronoun for the situation – singular, plural, gender.
•Try to avoid he/she, (s)he, he or she
–Instead, use a plural noun and ‘they’
Correction
Pronouns
•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 money. Avoid he/she by making the subject plural
•Avoid misplaced/dangling modifiers – e.g. They only wash dogs in shorts. Walking on the ceiling, he noticed spiders.
•It must be clear what the pronoun is referring back to – e.g. John told David that he didn’t get the position.
Correction
Subject verb agreement
•None of us like grammar / None of us likes grammar
•Either…or, neither…nor - The verb agrees with the noun closest to it.
Neither John nor Dave knows where he is.
Either the government or the people are going to have their way after the results of the referendum are in. (people is plural)
Correction
Grammar – 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 is plural as well as uses 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.
Correction
Spelling
•Set your spellchecker to the English you want to check it in
•Spellcheck does not find all your mistakes
•Keep a list of your common errors (typing and spelling) and use the FIND function on Word to find and fix them
•Spelling | Student Learning Support website
Correction
Tense
•Make sure your tenses are logical
•Try not to change tenses too much except when necessary
•Subjunctive tense:
He wrote as if he were a native speaker.
I demand that he make restitution. (not
he makes)
Correction
Grammar - Modifiers
•Almost, just, even, hardly, nearly, simply, only, merely.
•I nearly wrote 2000 words.
•I wrote nearly 2000 words.
Correction
Punctuation
•Learn about punctuation
•Read it aloud (when you pause, you usually put a comma in)
•Make sure your apostrophes are in the correct place
•Semi-colons
•Full stops – consistency – in dotpoints and slides.
Tips for editing
•Keep a list of your common mistakes
•Use FIND to find mistakes and fix them
•Read it aloud (does it flow & make sense)
•Speak it and record it and then listen to it (if you’re an aural learner)
•Show it to a friend
•Show a section to you teacher
•Take a break before re-reading it – it’s easier to spot mistakes
•Read the essay backwards sentence by sentence to check individual sentences
Further reading
•Student Learning Support website
•Sheridan Baker, The Practical Stylist (with readings)
•Other grammar books in the library or online