Writing Conventions and Grammar
Writing Conventions and Grammar tests control of standard edited English at sentence level: agreement, pronoun reference and case, modifier placement, punctuation, parallelism, tense consistency, and sentence boundaries. The exam rewards the smallest correction that makes the sentence grammatical and unambiguous.
Core rules and concepts
- Agreement: find the true subject and ignore prepositional phrases. With 'neither ... nor', the verb agrees with the nearer subject: 'Neither the manager nor the assistants were aware.' Indefinite pronouns such as 'each', 'everyone', and 'nobody' are singular.
- Pronoun case: use subject case for subjects ('he and I drafted'), object case after prepositions ('between you and me'), and possessive before gerunds ('their delaying').
- Modifiers: place 'only', 'almost', and participial phrases next to what they modify. A dangling modifier lacks a logical subject in the main clause.
- Punctuation: use a semicolon between independent clauses; a colon after a complete clause to introduce a list or explanation; commas around non-restrictive elements, not restrictive ones.
- Parallelism: items in a list and after correlatives such as 'not only ... but also' must share grammatical form.
Worked example
Sentence: 'Neither the manager nor the assistants was aware that the proposal, which had been revised twice, were still incomplete.' Reasoning: with 'neither ... nor', agreement follows the nearer subject, 'assistants', so 'was' becomes 'were'. The relative clause 'which had been revised twice' is non-restrictive and correctly comma-set. The main clause subject 'proposal' is singular, so 'were' becomes 'was'. Corrected: 'Neither the manager nor the assistants were aware that the proposal, which had been revised twice, was still incomplete.'
Traps that cost marks
- Joining independent clauses with only a comma.
- Treating 'none' or 'data' as automatically singular or plural without checking the sentence's logic.
- Using 'however' as a conjunction rather than a conjunctive adverb.
- Making a list parallel in meaning but not in grammatical form.