Chapter 13 - EduVenture

CHAPTER 13

Agreement, Pronoun, Modifier, and Parallelism Errors

SUBJECT–VERB AGREEMENT A

verb should agree in number with its subject

 Look   

before the verb to find subject unless

The sentence begins with there/here is/are/has been, etc. The question construction is used The subject is delayed

 When

nouns come between the subject and verb, ignore these nouns in finding the subject

SUBJECT–VERB AGREEMENT, CONT’D  Rules

for compound subjects (two nouns/pronouns form subject) If nouns are joined by and, consider the subject plural  If joined by and, and referring to one concept, consider the subject singular  If joined by or, nor, either. . . or, neither. . . nor, the verb agrees with the second noun  If joined by as well as, in addition to, together with, and similar phrases, the verb agrees with the first noun 

SUBJECT–VERB AGREEMENT, CONT’D  Indefinite  

pronoun subject

Most indefinite pronouns are considered singular e.g., anyone, everybody, something require singular verb

PRONOUN–ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT A

pronoun should agree in number with the noun or indefinite pronoun it replaces (the antecedent)

 Compound   

antecedent

If nouns are joined by and, the pronoun is usually plural If joined by or, nor, either. . . or, neither. . . nor, the antecedent is the second noun If joined by as well as, in addition to, together with, and similar phrases, the antecedent is the first noun

PRONOUN–ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT, CONT’D  Collective 

If the antecedent is a collective noun, the pronoun is singular unless the noun refers to individuals within a group

 Indefinite 

noun antecedent

pronoun antecedent

If the antecedent is a singular indefinite pronoun, the pronoun that replaces it should be singular

PRONOUN–ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT, CONT’D  Generic

singular noun antecedent (refers to both genders) 

If antecedent is generic singular noun, the pronoun that replaces it should be singular

 Pronouns

replacing indefinite pronoun or generic noun antecedent should be singular and include both genders (e.g., he and she. . .)

PRONOUN REFERENCE, CONSISTENCY, AND CASE  Pronouns

should clearly refer to their antecedents 

Common errors  



Ambiguous reference (antecedent is unclear) Broad reference (antecedent is group of words or idea rather than specific noun) Missing antecedent (no grammatical antecedent in sentence)

PRONOUN REFERENCE, CONSISTENCY, AND CASE, CONT’D  Be

consistent—do not unnecessarily change the person of a pronoun 

First person: I, me, my, we, us, our



Second person: you, your



Third person: he, she, it, his, her, its, they, them, their

PRONOUN REFERENCE, CONSISTENCY, AND CASE, CONT’D  Pronoun

case (form) can change to reflect grammatical function 

Personal pronouns  



Use I, we, they for subjects and subject completions Use me, us, them for objects of verbs and objects of prepositions

Interrogative pronouns  

Use who for subjects and subject completions Use whom for objects of verbs and objects of prepositions

PRONOUN REFERENCE, CONSISTENCY, AND CASE, CONT’D 

Relative pronouns 



Use who for subjects of relative (adjectival) clauses and subject completions in relative clauses Use whom for objects of verbs and objects of prepositions in relative clauses

MODIFIER ERRORS  Adjectives

and adverbs modify nouns and verbs; they may be one word or a phrase

 Misplaced

modifiers



Commonly found at the end of sentences



Are out of place in a sentence, seeming to modify a word they are not intended to modify



Need to be moved next to the word they are intended to modify to avoid confusion

MODIFIER ERRORS, CONT’D  Dangling

modifiers lack a suitable word to

modify  Commonly

found at the beginning of sentences as participial phrases

 To

fix dangling modifiers



Add missing information to dangling phrase



Add missing information to independent clause

PARALLELISM  Parallelism

requires use of similar forms for items placed in parallel positions in a sentence

 Parallelism

helps create coherence

 Strategy

for parallelism in compounds (two elements) 

Identify items that should be parallel (have similar forms) by looking for joining word(s) 



e.g., coordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions, comparisons

Ensure each item has same form (e.g., two nouns, two complete verb forms, two prepositional phrases)

PARALLELISM, CONT’D  Parallelism

 Strategy

in series (three or more items)

for parallelism in series



Identify start of series and each item in series



Ensure each item has same form (e.g., two nouns, two complete verb forms, two prepositional phrases)