English Writing Skills (Week 5)

This week, the topic of the chapter 4 that our lecturer have teached is "Mind Your Grammar". After this chapter, I able to get a clear picture of the grammar usage while writing and also able to understand the grammar rules.

    "I don't judge people based on race, creed, colour or gender.

            I judge people based on spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure."

Subject Verb Agreement

1. Basic rule, A singular subject takes a singular verb, a plural subject takes a plural verb.
2. A subject will come before a phrase beginning with of. This is a key rule for understanding subjects. The word of is the culprit in many, perhaps most, subject-verb mistakes.
3. Two singular subjects connected by or, either/or, or neither/nor require a singular verb.
4. The verb in an or, either/or, or neither/nor sentence agrees with the noun or pronoun closest to it.
5. As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and.
6. Sometimes the subject is separated from the verb by such words as along with, as well as, besides, not, etc.
7. Parentheses are not part of the subject.
8. In sentences beginning with here or there, the true subject follows the verb.
9. Use a singular verb with distances, periods of time, sums of money, etc., when considered as a unit.
10. With words that indicate portions—e.g., a lot, a majority, some, all—Rule 1 given earlier in this section is reversed, and we are guided by the noun after of. If the noun after of is singular, use a singular verb. If it is plural, use a plural verb.
11. With collective nouns such as group, jury, family, audience, population, the verb might be singular or plural, depending on the writer's intent.
12. The word were replaces was in sentences that express a wish or are contrary to fact.

Punctuation

>Punctuation is used to clarify the meaning of what is written.

• Full Stop, Question Mark & Exclamation Mark
• Commas 
• Semi-Colons 
• Hyphens & Dashes
• Apostrophes

Confused Words

Commonly confused words

• Accept or Except
• Affect or Effect
• Ensure or Insure
• Less or Fewer
• Practice or Practise
• Principal or Principle
• Some time or Sometime or Sometimes
• Stationary or Stationery