English Writing Skills: Grammar

Syntax refers to the different parts of a sentence and the order in which they must be placed for that sentence to make sense. For some simple syntax reminders, watch the practice sentence grow as we add more parts.

Subject:                                                                                                                                                   "My grandmother."

The entity, place, object, or idea the sentence is about.

Subjects are typically nouns.

Verb:                                                                                                                                                      "My grandmother baked."

The action being performed by the subject.

Direct object:                                                                                                                             "My grandmother baked cookies."

The entity, place, object, or idea being targeted by the verb.

Direct objects are typically nouns.

Indirect object:                                                                                                                     "My grandmother baked me cookies."

An entity, place, object, or idea that is also targeted by the

verb, but in an indirect way. 

Indirect objects are typically nouns.

Adjectives:                                                                                                 "My elderly grandmother baked me delicious cookies."

Adjectives describe subjects, direct objects,

and indirect objects.

Adverbs:                                                                                          "My elderly grandmother lovingly baked me delicious cookies."

Typically describe how verbs are performed.

Adverbs can also describe adjectives.

                                                                         "My exceedingly elderly grandmother lovingly baked me mouth-wateringly delicious cookies.

Now that we have reminded ourselves about basic sentence structure, it is important to properly match up the different parts of the sentence. Subject-Verb Agreement is, essentially, conjugating the verb to match the subject. I'm sure you remember practicing this in English class:

I-------want
  He----wants
 She--wants
  It------wants
We---want
They-want

Fairly basic. However, it is precisely because it is so basic that we can overlook it when we rewrite part of a sentence. Consider the following:

"While the folks at Disney want to pursue their purchase of Fox, it raises some questions regarding a possible monopoly."

The use of folks here sounds too informal, so let's remove that from the sentence.

"While Disney want to pursue their purchase of Fox, it raises some questions regarding a possible monopoly"

We changed the subject but forgot to also change the verb, leaving the two in quite the disagreement.

This is, of course, an overly simplistic example. However, on the eve of a due date, under the stress of materializing five more pages, subject-verb agreement can easily slip your mind. Pause. Take a breath. Recheck the basics, just in case. You'll be glad you did.

Verb tense is how the verb tells the reader when it performed whatever action it performed. Think of the verb as the time traveler of the sentence. Let's take a look at tenses using a verb that is very familiar to you.

Simple Tenses

Simple tenses are the easy ones to remember. Imagine yourself in this moment in time and then freeze it. Every time you speak a sentence you are freezing yourself in the moment of Now. Any verb you are able to perform is relative to this sentence in this moment of time.

Simple Present: "I study."
Simple Past: "I studied yesterday."
Simple Future: "I will study tomorrow."

By using one of these tenses, you are referring to a single event in time. This is in contrast with the next tense below.

Continuous (aka Progressive) Tenses

The continuous tense typically denotes a verb while it is in the process of being completed, as well as relative to when you are speaking the sentence.

Present Continuous: "I am studying. I am always studying."
Past Continuous: "I was studying. I was studying yesterday when the fire alarm went off."
Future Continuous: "I will be studying. I will be studying next week while my friends are at the concert."

Perfect Tenses

The perfect tenses are the most difficult to master because their relationship to you, the speaker, is different. When you used the simple past tense of study ("I studied") the only thing that mattered was that it was accomplished before you froze yourself in the moment of speaking (see above). It didn't matter how long ago you studied or for how long you studied, it only mattered that you studied before now. Using the perfect tense verb forms suddenly makes those things important. Let's take a look.

Present Perfect: "I have studied." 

The present perfect tense refers to a verb that completed its action in your past but may have an effect on your present. "I have studied for today's exam." Even though the verb has completed its action, the implication is that it is affecting the speaker's current state. Consider these similar sentences: "I didn't see Star Wars." The use of the simple past tense suggest that the event of the verb is finished and in the past. "I haven't seen Star Wars." The difference is subtle but there. Usually, the rest of the sentence, or the follow up sentence, helps you understand the difference. "I didn't see Star Wars when it came out." vs. "I haven't seen Star Wars, so I don't know what you're talking about."

Past Perfect: "I had studied."

The past perfect tense refers to a verb that completed its action before a point in your past. "I aced my exam last week. I had studied my notes for months." You in your frozen moment are no longer the frame of reference. The exam happened in your past before speaking the sentence, and the past perfect verb refers to a time before your exam. Let's try the opposite direction.

Future Perfect: "I will have studied."

In this case, the future perfect tense refers to a verb that completed its action before a point in your future. "By the time I graduate, I will have studied for an obscene number of hours." Your graduation is in your future. It hasn't happened yet, but the future perfect form of the verb will occur before that event and after this moment.

As if that isn't confusing enough, we're not done yet!

Perfect Continuous Tenses

The perfect continuous set of tenses is a mashup of the previous two sets of tenses. The new frames of reference we just learned are still in effect, but now we are also talking about a verb that is in the process of being completed.

Present Perfect Continuous: "I have been studying."

The present perfect continuous refers to a verb that has been in progress up until the point that you are speaking the sentence. "I have been studying for two weeks and I am ready for today's exam."

Past Perfect Continuous: "I had been studying."

The past perfect continuous tense refers to a verb that was in the process of completing its action up until a point in your past. "I had been studying when the fire alarm went off." The difference here compared to the past continuous tense above is that, in this case, the verb has completed its action by the point in time being described. Consider the difference: "I was studying yesterday when the fire alarm went off, but I was able to concentrate anyway." vs. "I had been studying when the fire alarm went off and was forced to evacuate the building." Both cases show a verb in the act of completing its action before a moment in the speaker's past, but while the past continuous tense can continue on after that moment in time the past perfect continuous tense stops at that exact moment. Let's try the opposite direction.

Future Perfect Continuous: "I will have been studying."

The future perfect continuous tense refers to a verb that is in the process of completing its action up until a point in your future. "By the time I graduate, I will have been studying for two years. Or will it have been three?" In this case, the verb is in progress right up until the future moment indicated.

Avoiding Tense Shifts

That was a lot of information to cover, but hopefully it made sense. The reason you need to remember verb tenses is because it is very easy for a writer to accidentally change tenses from one sentence to another. Consider the following:

"Having yawned more times than she could count in the last few minutes, the student slowly closed the cover of her book, bid her classmates a sleepy farewell, and stood up out of her chair. She then walks around the table to the double set of automatic doors and exits the library into the dark, windy expanse of the city."

The shift from simple past tense in the first sentence to simple present tense in the second sentence can be very distracting to the reader and is something to avoid in your writing. So be sure to keep an eye out for tense shifts. And always evacuate when you hear the fire alarm. Even during finals.

Let's start with an easy one. The period, aka the Full Stop. Generally, you will be using the period to end a sentence, like the one you are reading right now. And this one. This one too. However, periods are also used to abbreviate the following parts of a sentence:

Titles, Ranks, and Honorifics: Mr., Mrs., Dr., Sgt., Rev.
Post-Nominals (Name suffixes, degrees, etc.): Jr., Sr., M.A., B.A., Esq., D.D.S.
Initials within a name: J.R.R. Tolkien, James T. Kirk, H.R. Pufnstuff
Latin Phrases: i.e., e.g., et al., etc.

The comma has numerous uses. However, we will only  be looking at a few common uses that you will need to write your paper.

List of items in a series*: "I am tired of seeing movies with vampires, wizards, or people in capes and spandex. Said nobody ever."

*The Oxford Comma: When reciting a list of three or more items, it is common for some people to leave out the comma between the second to last item and the conjunction connecting the final item. In the above example that would be the comma between wizards and the conjunction 'or'. While this is acceptable in casual written communication, APA dictates that you use it for academic and other formal writing.

After starting a sentence with a dependent clause, phrase, or word before the main clause:

"Before the internet was developed, dialing POPCORN on a telephone used to provide you with the current time of day."

"According to the weather man, I wasn't supposed to need an umbrella tonight."

"First, put your phone down while I'm talking to you."  *shudder*

Between two independent clauses when connected by a conjunction (and, but, so, etc.):

"I spent $300 on textbooks, and then I found out I could access the material for free through the library."

"I tried to enter the library without a school ID, but the librarian made me go to the Hub to purchase one."

When inserting a word, clause, or phrase, into the middle of the sentence that does not change the meaning:

"She sacrificed her queen to capture my knight, the horsey-looking one, and she still won the game."

When using multiple adjectives:

"The peaceful, energy efficient dog slept while the quick, brown fox jumped around for no reason at all."

The colon is mostly used in sentences that introduce another piece of information.

"There's only one cat who won't cop out when there's danger all about: Shaft."

Introducing a list:

"The Hogwarts Houses, from best to worst, are: Gryffindore, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff."

Introducing a quote:

"Then Rick said something that blew my mind: 'When smart people get happy they stop recognizing themselves.'"

Semicolons have two common uses.

When listing multiple items that include commas:

"Dates on the photographs are: February 29, 1916; April 1, 2320 BCE; July 4, 1776; and October 31, 1980.

Between two dependent clauses

"I took both a bus and BART to school; I was still late to class."

Let's take a larger look at sentence structure by disecting it into phrases and clauses.

Phrases are short sections of a sentence that usually center on a major part of speech. Not only do they not form complete thoughts, they also don't contain both a subject and a verb. There are several types of phrases.

Noun Phrase: This type of phrase contains a noun and the adjectives that describe it. "The red book." "The marble desk." Noun phrases can be either the subject of the sentence or a direct object.

Verb Phrase: This type of phrase contains the verb and other parts of the sentence such as the direct object. "dropped the mic."

Prepositional Phrase: This type of phrase contains neither the subject nor the verb, but rather qualifies part of the sentence. This can be done to show location--"under the window", place in time--"after class", difference--"Instead of that", and other contexts. A partial list of prepositions can be found here.

Dependent Clauses contain both subjects and verbs, including all of the types of phrases above, and may even seem like complete sentences. However, dependent clauses cannot be complete sentences because they don't contain complete thoughts. Consider the following:

"While I was sleeping peacefully in the back of the warm classroom."

It has all of the parts of a sentence that you would expect to see: A subject, a verb, an adverb, an adjective, and even a prepositional phrase. But it doesn't form a complete thought. In fact it is merely context for the real sentence which hasn't appeared yet. How do we know? That little word at the beginning of the clause--"while". Because of that one word, we know that the speaker is going to tell us more.

"While I was sleeping peacefully in the back of the warm classroom, my professor gave the rest of the class answers to some of tomorrow's homework."

Dependent clauses usually provide context for, or otherwise qualify, independent clauses. In the above example it is not necessarily important to know why the speaker didn't get answers to the homework because the goal of the sentence is to state that the other members of the class did. However, by adding the dependent clause to the beginning of the sentence, the reader has been provided context as to why the speaker didn't get those answers along with his or her classmates. There are many ways for dependent clauses to qualify independent clauses, including the following:

Concurrence: "While I was sleeping peacefully in the back of the warm classroom, my professor gave the rest of the class answers to some of tomorrow's homework."

Accuracy/Authority: "Unless TV and movies have lied to me, it should be OK to stick my tongue onto this frozen lamppost."

Cause and Effect: "Because I am missing the tip of my tongue, food does not taste as good as it used to."

If/Then Statements: "If I have to sit through another droning lecture from my professor, I am going to run outside and scream."

Contrasting Ideas: "Though convention may dictate that Die Hard is not a Christmas movie, popular opinion has determined it to be a holiday classic."

Independent Clauses contain both a subject and a verb as well as a complete thought. Generally speaking, independent clauses can be written on their own as complete sentences: "My level 11 rogue climbed the tower." This sentence has everything it needs to stand alone. You can also combine two independent clauses into one sentence by using a conjunction (and, but, so, etc.): "My level 11 rogue climbed the tower, but the jewel was not in its glass display case."

It is very easy to manipulate clauses in order to add more meaning to your sentence. Compare the above sentence to this: "Because the jewel was not in its glass display case, my level 11 rogue climbed the tower needlessly. Rather than simply state facts, the sentence now includes subtext and qualification. If your sentence seems bland, or sounds stilted, or just feels off somehow, try playing around with the clauses of the sentence to see if there is a better way to join them together. Just don't forget to check your subject-verb agreement and verb tenses.

Homonyms

Homonyms are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have unique definitions. Here are some homonyms that commonly confuse writers:

There/Their/They're

There: Commonly refers to a location or place. This could be literal--"Stand over there."--or metaphorical--"Graduation is only three months away, I'm almost there".

Their: Refers to ownership by two or more people.  "My friends let me borrow their car for the weekend."

They're: A contraction of they are, commonly referring to the current state or location of two or more people or things. "I was looking for my classmates, but now I know they're in the building nextdoor." "My professor thought I would like these books, but they're too abstract."

For the entire article visit Merriam-Webster.

To/Too/Two

Two: The number 2.

To: Can refer to the direction of motion. "I went to the movies." "The answer just came to me." To is also part of an infinitive (an infinitive is a verb phrase that has not been conjugated). "I have work to do." "To live would be an awfully big adventure."

Too: Can be used instead of also. "I wanted to leave early too." "I too would like a ticket." Too can also refer to a quality or state in high degree. "That drink was too strong." "The librarians are too quiet, what are they plotting?"

For more information on Homophones go to Merriam-Webster.

Your (possessive): Your toy is over there.

You're (you are): You're the nicest person I have ever met.

It's/Its

It's: A contraction of it is or it has, referring to the state or location of an object. "It's under the table." "It's getting hot in here." "It's been two weeks since you looked at me."

Its: Refers to ownership by a single object or entity. "That department needs to remember its priorities." "I bought a new phone but its charge cord is missing."