Unit 3: Writing and Sentence Skills

Grammar Review

This review covers the main topics of grammar as they pertain to any writing questions on a civil service exam.

Subject-Verb Agreement

The form of a verb must agree with its subject in person and number.

Agreement of Person

When we talk about person, we are talking about whether the subject and verb of a sentence show that the author is making a statement about him or herself ( first person ), the person he or she is speaking to ( second person ), or some other person, place, or thing ( third person ).

The first person subjects are I and we.

Example : We are bicycling from New York to Vermont. I am training every other day.

The second person is you.

Example : Are you sure you wouldn’t like to join us?

The third person subjects are he, she, they, it, and names of people, places, and things.

Example : The dog yaps day and night.

Agreement of Number

When we talk about number, we are talking about whether the subject and verb show that one thing ( singular ) or more than one thing ( plural ) is being discussed.

Incorrect : The children catches the bus to school every morning.

Correct : The children catch the bus to school every morning.

Be especially careful when the subject and verb are seperated by a long string of words.

Incorrect : Truth, the ultimate goal of all researchers, are elusive.

Correct : Truth, the ultimate goal of all researchers, is elusive.

Pronouns

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. The antecedent of a pronoun is the word to which the pronoun refers. A pronoun must clearly refer and agree with its antecedent.

Example : Research shows that green tea prevents cavities because it reduces bacteria.

Occassionally, the antecedent will appear in a sentence after the pronoun.

Example : Because it helps prevent cavities, green tea is a healthy beverage.

Pronouns must agree in number with their antecedents. A singular pronoun should stand for a singular antecedent. A plural pronoun should stand for a plural antecedent. Here is a typical pronoun error.

Incorrect : The school refused to let Ann Marie attend the class field trip because their rules required her to have a permission letter.

What does the plural possessive their rules refer to? The singular noun school. The singular possessive its is what we need here.

Person Agreement

A first person pronoun should stand for a first-person antecedent, and so on.

Example : Caroline and Joe completed their laboratory report yesterday.

Relative Pronouns

Never use the relative pronoun which to refer to a person. Use who, whom, or that.

Incorrect : The woman which is waving is my sister

Correct : The woman who is waving is my sister.

Pronouns and Case

A more subtle pronoun error is that the pronoun is in the wrong case.

When to Use Subjective Case Pronouns

As the name implies, use the subjective case for the subject of a sentence or clause.

Example : She is a daring mountain climber.

Incorrect : Danny, Cary, and me are going to the town fair.

Example : Sylvester, who is afraid of the dark, sleeps with a nightlight on.

Use the subjective case after a linking verb, such as to be.

Example : It is I.

Use the subjective case when making comparisons to the subject of a verb that is not stated but

understood.

Example : Wilson is faster than they ( are ).

When to Use Objective Case Pronouns

Use the objective case when the pronoun is the object of a verb, of a preposition, or of an infinitive or gerund.

Example : I told him.

Example : I smiled at her.

Example : I sat between Mark and her.

Example : Sylvester, whom I gave a nightlight, thanked me.

Example : To give him a nice gift, we all contributed five dollars.

Example : Writing her was a good idea.

Myself/Me and Yourself/You

Use the reflexive pronoun if the subject is acting on his/her/itself or the action was performed by oneself ( alone ).

Incorrect : He met with Barbara and myself. ( Should be Barbara and me )

Correct : I discoverd the answer myself.

Sentence Structure

A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought. To express a complete thought, a sentence must contain a subject and a verb.

Example : Lions roar.

Example : Searching through the cupboards, John found an old can of soup.

Every sentence contains at least one clause — a group of word that contains a subject and verb. Lions roar, and John found are both clauses.

A phrase is a group of words that does not have both a subject and a verb. Searching through the cupboards is a phrase.

Sentence Fragments

On writing questions, some of those innocent-looking groups of words beginning with capital letters and ending with periods are only masquerading as sentences. In reality, they are sentence fragments: grammatically incomplete because they lack a subject or verb or are not complete thoughts.

Incorrect : Arches and vaulted ceilings typical of Romanesque architecture.

This is not a complete sentence because there is no verb.

Incorrect : Because we arrived late.

Even though this fragment contains a subject ( we ) and a verb ( arrived ), it is not a complete sentence because it doesn’t express a complete thought. We don’t know what happened because we arrived late.

Careful : Don’t let strings of long difficult words distract you. Read carefully to be sure whether or not there is a verb.

Run-on Sentences

A run-on sentence is actually two ( or more ) complete sentences stuck together with just a comma or with no punctuation at all.

Incorrect : The team practiced diligently, it received a gold ribbon.

Incorrect : The team practiced diligently it received a gold ribbon.

There are a number of ways to fix this kind of problem.

Join the clause with a semicolon.

Correct : The team practiced diligently; it recieved a gold ribbon.

Join the clauses with a coordinating conjunction ( and, but, for, nor, or, so, or yet ) and a comma.

Correct : The team practiced diligently, and it received a gold ribbon.

Join the clauses with a subordinating conjunction ( after, although, if, since, or while ).

Correct : Since the team practiced diligently, it received a gold ribbon.

Finally, the two halves of a run-on sentence can be written as two seperate complete sentences.

Correct : The team practiced diligently. It received a gold ribbon.

Verbs

English has six basic tenses, and each of these has a simple form and a progressive form.

Using the Present Tense

Use the present tense to describe a state or action occurring in the present time.

Example : I am happy.

Example : He works at the municipal building.

Using the Past Tense

Use the simple past tense to describe an event or state that took place at a specific time in the past and is now finished.

Example : The class dissected a frog in biology class yesterday.

Using the Future Tense

Use the future tense to describe actions expected to take place in the future.

Example : It will rain tomorrow.

Example : I will call you tonight.

Future actions may also be expressed this way:

Example : I am going to call you tonight.

Using the Present Perfect Tense

Use the present tense for actions and states of being that start in the past and continue into the present time.

Example : I have been attending Jefferson Junior High for the last two years.

Use the present perfect for actions and states of being that happened a number of times in the past and may happen again in the future.

Example : We have visited the planetarium several times.

Use the present perfect to describe an event that happened at an unspecified time in the past.

Example : Anna has given me her opinion already.

Using the Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense is used for past actions or states that were completed before other past actions or states.

Example : When the alarm clock rang this morning, I noticed that I had set it for eight o’clock.

Using the Future Perfect Tense

Use the future perfect tense for a future state or event that will take place before another future time or event.

Example : By Saturday, I will have finished the entire novel.

Using the Proper Past Participle Form

Perfect tenses use a participle form of a base verb.

Example : I have planted tomatoes in the garden.

The past participle is formed by adding -ed to the base form, unless it is an irregular verb. Irregular verbs have two different forms for simple past and past participle tenses. If you use the present, past, or future perfect tense, make sure that you use the past participle and not the simple past tense.

Incorrect : I have swam in that lake before.

Correct : I have swum in that lake before.