An Editi for Stud ANN SECOND FE GRAMMAR TROUBLESPOTS is a guide to the rules of grammar that are most problematic to students. The text: + Covers the most prevalent errors that students make, allowing students to work independently to correct their own common errors. + Provides students with practice exercises to ensure an understanding of rules. + Focuses students’ attention on specific problem errors without wasting time with tediously comprehensive grammar reviews.
+ Follows a similar format for each troublespot, with flowcharts, rules, explanations, examples, and exercises for easy accessibility. Second Edition Grammar Troublespots An Editing Guide for Students ANN RAIMES Hunter College, The City University of New York =| ee CAMBRIDGE Si‘S) UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK _ http: //www.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA http: //www.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1998 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published by St.
Martin’s Press Inc. 1992 Reprinted 1998 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available ISBN 0-521-65759-8 Student’s Book Acknowledgment p. Preface: To the Instructor Grammar Troublespots: An Editing Guide for Students, second edition, offers a modified version of the grammar editing section that is included in Exploring Through Writing: A Process Approach to ESL Composition, second edition (St. There it is part of a whole course built around reading, pictures, and guided instruction through the writing process.
Here it is designed either to be used independently by students as they edit their college writing assignments or to accompany whatever course material a writing instruc- tor selects. This book then functions as an editing guide, presenting ways of look- ing at and critically examining any piece of writing in order to edit it for standard grammar and syntax. In a writing course, it is recommended that students work through a few sections in class, perhaps Troublespots 1, 5, and 11, either as a whole-class or group activity, each time using authentic pieces of student writing from that class to examine and edit. In this way, as teachers and students ask questions about the sentences on the page in front of them, students see models for the process of examining their own work and applying grammatical principles.
Grammatical vocabulary is introduced for editing purposes but is kept simple; for example, subject, predicate, noun, verb, article, clause, singular, and plural are clear, key concepts for editing purposes. Once students have used several flowcharts and have become familiar with the limited grammatical terminology used in the book, they are able to use the rest of the book independently or as they are referred to specific chapters by their instructor. The Second Edition In response to instructors’ feedback, the following changes have been made: Information on questions, negatives, commas, and apostrophes has been included in other troublespots, while new sections have been added to pay more attention to punctuation, verb tenses, modal auxiliaries, in- finitives, and prepositions. Explanations and exercises are differentiated and numbered separately in each troublespot.
More exercises have been included. Also in response to instructors’ requests, the structure of the book—the many illustrative charts and boxes, and the flowcharts that constantly send stu- dents back to examine their own writing in concrete and specific ways—has been retained. Ann Raimes Contents Preface: To the Instructor 11 Introduction 1 Troublespot 1 Basic Sentence Structure 2 Troublespot 2. Connecting Sentences with Coordinating Conjunctions and Transitions 11 Troublespot 3 Combining Sentences with Subordinating Conjunctions 18 Troublespot 4 Punctuation 25 Troublespot 5 Verb Tenses: Tense and Time 32 Troublespot 6 Verb Tenses: Present-Future 39 Troublespot 7 Agreement 47 Troublespot 8 Verb Tenses: Past 53 Troublespot 9 Active and Passive 59 Troublespot 10 Modal Auxiliaries 65 Troublespot 11 Verb Forms 72 Troublespot 12 Nouns and Quantity Words 79 Troublespot 13 Articles 85 Troublespot 14 Pronouns and Reference 93 Troublespot 15 Adjectives and Adverbs 99 Troublespot 16 _—_‘ Infinitive, -ing, and Participle Forms 106 Troublespot 17 Prepositions and Phrasal Verbs 116 Troublespot 18 Relative Clauses 125 Troublespot 19 Conditions 132 Troublespot20 Quoting and Citing Sources 136 Troublespot 21 Reporting and Paraphrasing 141 Works Cited 146 Appendix 147 Answer Key 152 Index 169 Introduction Grammar Troublespots, second edition, offers you help with some impor- tant “grammar troublespots” of English that might cause you difficulties in your writing.
It is not intended to be a complete review of English grammar, nor is it intended to cover everything you need to know to correct all errors in a piece of writing. Rather, the book concentrates on rules, not exceptions, so it will help you apply general principles. It will also aid you in finding ways to examine and evaluate your own writing in terms of grammatical accuracy. In Grammar Troublespots you will discover explanations for some conven- tions of standard written English— areas of the language that operate systemati- cally, according to rules.
These explanations are accompanied by exercises (an Answer Key is included at the back of the book) and by flowcharts that give you specific questions to ask as you evaluate your own writing. By focusing your attention directly on the problem area, these questions will help you find and correct your own errors, either independently or with the help of an instructor. Sometimes, such focusing is precisely what a writer needs in order to find—and correct— errors. The editing advice given frequently suggests that you seek help: from a classmate, from your instructor, or from a dictionary.
Certainly a dictionary such as Oxford Student’s Dictionary of American English (Oxford University Press, 1983) or The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: New Col- lege Edition (Houghton Mifflin, 1983) is an invaluable tool for checking not only spelling but also irregular plural forms, verb forms, and idioms. Experienced writ- ers often seek advice, so make sure to use the resources around you. Throughout this book, a sentence preceded by an asterisk (*) indicates an example sentence that is not acceptable in standard edited English. Troublespet | TROUBLESPOT I Basic Sentence Structure Exercise 1 The following lines appeared in students’ essays describing vacation spots and beach scenes.
Which ones are standard sentences in written English and which ones are not?. the sun is shining. They walk slowly and quietly $© Œœ ~1 Œ Ct< G2 b2. Watching themselves make steps on the white sand.
You can hardly see any sand. Because there are so many people and so many umbrellas. You can imagine walking on the white glittering sand. The feeling of cool sand running through your toes.
There is a big coconut tree. Some leaves on the sand. Croix beach in the Virgin Islands. The tree on the beach it is very big.
Shade from the sun some umbrellas provide. On that beach, two people who are enjoying the beautiful weather. The sun shining. The people who are sitting on the beach feel very relaxed.
Write a correct version of each numbered line that is not a sentence. You can correct the grammar or punctuation, or combine one numbered line with the one that comes before or after it in the list. (See Answer Key, p.) When you have finished, list what you consider the requirements of a sentence to be. 2 Troublespot TROUBLESPOT 1: BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE 1 3 A.
Subject and Predicate In the following short sentence Babies cry. we find elements common to all sentences. The sentence has a topic: The topic is babies. Frequently, the topic of the sentence is the grammatical subject of the sentence.
The sentence makes a comment about the topic: We learn that babies (our topic) cry. This comment forms the predicate of the sentence. Some more examples follow: Subject Predicate Babies cry. The babies next door cry a lot.
Her baby does not cry much. My brother likes ice cream. Some big towels are lying on the sand. The tree on the beach is very big.
Crowds can spoil a vacation resort. The two people walking on the beach look very happy. I have never been to the Caribbean. Note that a sentence other than a command must contain a subject and a predi- cate.
The predicate must contain a complete verb, one that indicates time. For example: She has been working. They will work. He has worked.
(See Troublespots 5 and 11 for further examples of verbs and verb tenses.) Exercise 2 Divide the following sentences into subject and predicate. We lived in Shin-Ying. The front door of the house faced the front gate of the elementary school. My mother taught at the school.
Troublespot 4 1 GRAMMAR TROUBLESPOTS 4, Cleaning up the fallen leaves was my job. My family sat around under the grapevine. (See Answer Key, p. Avoiding Sentence Fragments A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence.
It can occur when a subject is missing, when there is not a complete verb, or when there is no subject— predicate structure in an independent clause. Examples of fragments in Exercise 1 are items 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, and 14. Exercise 3 Some of the following student writing samples contain a group of words that is not a sentence, even though it has a capital letter and end punctuation. It is only part of a sentence (that is, a sentence fragment).
Determine which groups of words are fragments. Then decide how you could turn the fragment into a complete sentence or include it in another sentence. (a) The dark scenery could frighten us. (b) Because there are many trees.
(a) He is working at the gas pumps. (b) To try to fix what is wrong. (a) The soft crashing waves and the shade cast by a tall palm tree make this an attractive spot. (b) One that we would really like to re- turn to.
(a) People are lying on the beach and getting a suntan. (b) Because it is a holiday, the beach is packed. (a) On that peaceful beach, two young people strolling along the wa- ter’s edge. (b) They look happy.
(See Answer Key, p. Requirements of a Written Sentence Compare your list of the requirements of a sentence (in Exercise 1) to the requirements shown in the accompanying box. How many of these requirements did you write on your list? Troublespot TROUBLESPOT 1: BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE i 5 REQUIREMENTS OF A WRITTEN SENTENCE A capital letter at the beginning A period, a question mark, or an exclamation point at the end A subject, stated only once (There and it can act as filler subjects.) A complete verb phrase—that is, any auxiliaries, such as is, were, has, had, will, can, might, would, should, have, would have, and will be, along with the verb forms used to form the verb phrase (See Troublespot 11, “Verb Forms.”) Standard word order: in English, the regular sequence is S + V + O (subject + verb + object), with insertions possible at several points in the sequence An independent core idea that can stand alone (This is known as a main clause or, as we Call it in this book, an independent clause. Word Order Every language has its own conventions for word order.
The normal word order in an English sentence is 5 Vv O/C subject verb object or complement (after link- ing verbs like be, feel, look) Children like cookies. eats a lot of candy. My old boss has bought a new Car. He is a teacher.
They look happy. Do not separate verb and object: S V-O He bought a new car yesterday. or Yesterday he bought a new car. NOT *He bought yesterday a new car.