Conventions of Written Language
Conventions of Written Language covers grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization and spelling. Items arrive in two shapes: a sentence you must correct, and an editing passage where several kinds of error compete for your attention.
Sentence boundaries first
- A clause has a subject and a verb. An independent clause stands alone; a dependent clause (beginning with because, although, if, when, which, that) cannot.
- Fragment: missing subject, verb, or a complete thought.
- Fused sentence: two independent clauses with no punctuation between them.
- Comma splice: two independent clauses joined by only a comma.
- Four fixes: period, semicolon, comma plus a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), or subordination.
Agreement
- Subject–verb: ignore prepositional phrases in between - "The box of old photographs was…" Indefinite pronouns (each, either, neither, everyone, anybody, nobody) are singular; both, few, many, several are plural.
- Compound subjects joined by "and" take a plural verb; with "or/nor," the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Collective nouns (team, audience, class) are usually singular.
- Pronoun–antecedent: a singular antecedent takes a singular pronoun; watch for ambiguous it, they and this.
Punctuation tested most often
- Comma: items in a series; after an introductory phrase or clause; around nonessential information ("My coach, who retired in May, still runs with us"); before a coordinating conjunction joining two independent clauses; direct address.
- Semicolon: between related independent clauses; between list items that already contain commas.
- Colon: after a complete sentence, before a list or explanation.
- Apostrophe: singular possessive adds 's (the dog's bowl); plural possessive adds ' after the s (the dogs' bowls); "its" is possessive, "it's" means "it is."
- Quotation marks: commas and periods go inside; short works in quotes, long works in italics.
- Hyphen: compound adjectives before a noun (a well-known author) but not after (the author is well known).
Capitalization
Proper nouns, languages, named regions (the North), titles of works, the first word of a quotation, days and months - but not seasons, and not directions (drive north).
Worked example
"The box of old photographs, which had been in the attic for years were covered in dust." Reasoning: two errors compete. First, "which had been in the attic for years" is nonessential, so it needs a comma on both sides - the closing comma after "years" is missing. Second, the subject is "box," not "photographs," so the verb must be singular. Corrected: "The box of old photographs, which had been in the attic for years, was covered in dust."
Traps that cost marks
- Treating however or therefore as a conjunction, producing a comma splice.
- Remembering the opening comma of a nonessential clause but forgetting the closing one.
- Confusing its/it's, their/there/they're, whose/who's.
- Missing agreement errors hidden behind a prepositional phrase.