Conventions of Standard English: Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation
Conventions questions test standard written English: sentence boundaries, subject-verb agreement, pronoun case and reference, verb tense, modifiers, parallelism, and punctuation (commas, semicolons, colons, dashes, apostrophes).
Concepts you must command
- Sentence boundaries: a comma cannot join two independent clauses (comma splice); use a period, semicolon, or conjunction.
- Agreement: the verb agrees with its subject, not with an intervening phrase; indefinite pronouns (each, everyone, neither) are singular.
- Pronoun reference: every pronoun needs one clear antecedent, and case must match its function (subject vs. object).
- Tense consistency: keep verbs in a consistent timeframe unless the meaning requires a shift.
- Modifiers: place modifiers next to what they describe; dangling modifiers lack a logical subject.
- Parallelism: items in a list or comparison share grammatical form.
- Punctuation: semicolons join independent clauses; colons introduce after a complete clause; commas set off nonessential elements; apostrophes mark possession, not plurals.
Traps
- Interrupting phrases that hide the true subject.
- Comma splices disguised by a long second clause.
- Misplaced "only" or "almost" that changes meaning.
- Apostrophe confusion: "its" vs. "it's," plural vs. possessive.
Worked rule of thumb
For any punctuation choice, first label each side: independent clause, dependent clause, or phrase. Two independent clauses cannot be joined by a comma alone. Example: "The study was long, it produced clear results" is a splice; fix with a semicolon ("…was long; it produced…") or a conjunction ("…was long, but it produced…").