Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences: A Guide to Avoiding the Most Common Errors in Grammar and Punctuation
Janis Bell
Language: English
Pages: 176
ISBN: 0393337154
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
An extraordinary handbook: with clarity and humor, it tells the story that even good writers have been longing to hear.
This is not a comprehensive tracking of every nut and bolt that ever came loose within an English sentence; it is a focused discussion of the narrow range of problems that American writers typically face. From confusion over grammar to tangles with usage, to questions about punctuation, Janis Bell addresses them with transparency and grace. She discusses the issues, gives plenty of examples, provides quizzes and answers, and makes sure that readers are engaged throughout.
of paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 are alike in that each tells what the author presently concludes.) In the second sentence, Lets should be Let’s because the author means “let us.” In the fourth sentence, laid should be lay because the author needs the past tense of lie. Paragraph 5 contains three errors. In the first sentence, loose should be lose. In the second sentence, ensures should be assures. In the third sentence, was should be is because the author is talking about evidence that still doesn’t
word and a town); about word (it is well known); and about town (it is little known). Some of the modifiers in the third example are simple adjectives (words describing nouns) and adverbs (words describing verbs) that are easy to recognize and easy to handle. No one would have any difficulty, for example, with serious thinking, my dear brother, lived comfortably, or recently moved. The adjectives are one word each and they appear directly before the nouns they describe; the adverbs end in ly (as
usually well mannered; however, sometimes she eats out of her hat. Chiquita is usually well mannered; sometimes, however, she eats out of her hat. Chiquita is usually well mannered; sometimes she eats out of her hat, however. Adverbs are followed by commas. (No conjunction is followed by a comma, even when it begins a sentence.) Connectives Leading to Examples or Explanations To tell your reader that you’re about to give an example or a full explanation, you offer road signs: like, such as,
end of this chapter. Two nouns in subject position When do two singular nouns become a plural subject? Only when they are joined by and. Here is an example: Che and Fidel are about to start a revolution. There are several words that sound equivalent to and but they do not have the power to join two singular nouns into a double subject. These include as well as, along with, together with, and plus. When two singular nouns are connected by any of these words, the result is a singular subject.
Instead, they express chronological past actions in the same tense, as if they had all happened at the same time. Here are the four sample sentences again, with all verbs in simple past tense: Natasha said that she applied for a dance scholarship to kindergarten. She did not receive a scholarship because she did not reveal her true age on the application. She claimed that she was five when, in fact, she was thirteen. Her parents kept her out of school until she could manage to sit still. If