by Amanda on September 30, 2009
Commas are the one thing that always confuses me. Knowing exactly where to put them and where not to put them can be a little tricky. Most comma situations are easy to use. These include commas in numbers, after dates, and after geographical locations. The tricky situations and errors arise out of the two main ways in which we use commas. Today’s article will focus on these.
Commas Separate List Items
Commas are always used to separate items in a list. These items can be real things, or places you go. Below are some examples:
- I need some bread, sugar, milk, and eggs from the shop today.
- I have lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, and eye shadow in my handbag.
- Yesterday I went to school, played soccer, went to the park, and then went home for my dinner.
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by Amanda on September 23, 2009
For this week’s grammar tips I want to share with you 10 of the best English Grammar websites out there. These websites all refer to UK English grammar so they might not be 100% correct for US readers. Grammar has such a broad spectrum of lessons that you can learn and these ten different websites are sure to have everything you could possibly need. There are some really great grammar quizzes that you can take too. Just goes to show that you don’t have to take a writing class from an online school to learn this stuff. Grammar quizzes are a great way of assessing where you need to brush up your skills. I hope you find these 10 websites as useful as I have.
Grammar Quiz – This website is packed full of great grammar stuff and once you have finished reading everything you can test your skills with their huge selection of grammar quizzes.
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by Amanda on September 16, 2009
It’s Wednesday again and that means it is grammar time. Today it’s part two of the most common grammatical errors and we will be looking at pronoun errors, apostrophe usage, verb agreement, and misplaced modifiers.
Pronoun Errors
Pronoun errors occur when the pronoun you are using does not agree in number with the noun to which you are referring to. If the noun you are using is singular, the pronoun you use must be singular to. If the noun you are using is plural, the pronoun must also be plural.
Here’s an example:
Incorrect: Everybody must bring their own laptop.
Correct: Everybody must bring their own laptops.
Correct: Everybody must bring his or her own laptop.
Apostrophe Mistakes:
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by Amanda on September 9, 2009
Welcome to the first post of the Grammar Wednesday feature here at The Hidden Writer. I have chosen the five most common grammatical errors in the English language to use as a series of posts for the next five weeks. If there is something in particular that you would like to see featured in future posts please don’t hesitate to ask. The source for this post is http://www.yourdictionary.com/grammar-rules/5-most-common.html
Once you understand the five most common errors you will be able to improve your writing and it will also make editing your own work easier. So let’s start this week with number one in this series.
1. Run-on Sentence or Comma Splice
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