Grammar UnitEnglish 150

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE

Active and Passive Voice The term voice, when used in English

grammar, refers to the structure of a sentence. There are two “voices” in English grammar

active voice passive voice.

Active Voice In an active voice sentence, the agent

(the one who does the action in the sentence) is stated explicitly as the grammatical subject.

The thing that the agent does something to (the direct object) comes after the verb.

Passive Voice In a passive voice sentence, the thing

that the agent does something to, is placed as the grammatical subject of the sentence.

The agent (the one who does the action) is placed after the subject, usually in a prepositional phrase. In fact, sometimes the agent is hidden, not even mentioned.

When to Use the Active Voice Use the active voice in most of the

writing you do in school and at work. Studies in readability indicate that

active voice sentences, where the agent is stated first, are easier to understand than passive voice sentences.

COMMA SPLICES

Comma Splice vs. Fused Sentence A comma splice is a comma that joins

(splices) two independent clauses. A clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb.

Independent Clauses Example of an Independent Clause:

Robert ate worms.

This is a clause. Robert is the subject, and ate is the verb. This clause is "independent" because it can stand alone as a sentence.

Now let's take another independent clause: Mary dislikes Robert.

Comma Splices If you take two independent clauses and

join them with a comma, you have a comma splice:

Robert ate worms, Mary dislikes Robert.

To splice means to join, and in standard American English, you're not supposed to use comma splices in writing. It is a formal rule. Comma splices are easy errors for teachers and editors to notice.

How to Fix a Comma Splice Make two sentences instead of one:

Robert ate worms. Mary dislikes Robert. Use a semicolon (;).

Robert ate worms; Mary dislikes Robert. Use a subordinating conjunction (because, when,

since, although,...). Because Robert ate worms, Mary dislikes Robert.

Use a semicolon plus a conjunctive adverb (therefore, then, however,...).

Robert ate worms; therefore, Mary dislikes Robert. Use a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or,

yet, so) after the comma. Robert ate worms, so Mary dislikes Robert.

CONFUSING SENTENCES

Confusing Sentences What is a confusing sentence? The entire sentence lacks a certain

logic. It’s as if the writer transferred his or her thoughts quickly to the paper and then forgot to revise.

3 Guidelines to Clarity Determine who the “main character” in

the sentence is. The “main character” is usually the

person who does the action. Sometimes we call this “person (or thing) who does the action” the agent.

Start the sentence with the person who does the action. In other words, start the sentence with the agent.

3 Guidelines to Clarity Determine what the agent is doing. What the agent is doing is usually

stated as the main verb. Look for verbs that actually say

something, strong verbs, rather than the verb “to be.”

3 Guidelines to Clarity If there are embedded clauses within

the sentences, do the same with those clauses.

DANGLING PARTICIPLES

Participles Participle: A verb form used as an

adjective. It usually ends in ing, en, or ed.

Example: Laughing, Julio fell out of his chair.

Gerunds Gerund: A verb form used as a noun. It

ends in ing – always.

Example: Laughing makes me cry sometimes.

Dangling Participles Dangling and misplaced participles often give

rise to absurdly humorous scenarios. A “dangling participle” has no noun in the

sentence to which the participle would logically attach.

A “misplaced participle” does have a noun, but that noun does not come directly after the participle, thus creating a confusing sentence.

For our purposes, “dangling” and “misplaced” are equivalent.

Fixing a Dangling Participle Turn the Misplaced or Dangling Participle Into a

Dependent Clause.

This means that you take the ing word (the participle), give it a subject, turn it into a verb, and attach it to the main clause. Let’s take the example above, with Amaury’s unfortunate slip on the wet sidewalk.

Correct: When Amaury slipped on the wet sidewalk, the keys fell from his pocket.

Here we have taken the original participial phrase (Slipping on the wet sidewalk), and we have turned it into a dependent clause. We understand that “Amaury slipped,” not the keys.

Fixing a Dangling Participle Make the Thing Being Modified by the Participle, the

Subject of the Main Clause.

This means we take what is being modified by the ing phrase and place it first in the sentence, right after the comma. Again, let’s use the example of Amaury’s unfortunate slip.

Correct: Slipping on the wet sidewalk, Amaury lost his keys when they fell from his pocket.

Note that “Amaury,” the person, NOT “Amaury’s keys” is placed after the comma. You may be tempted to write “Amaury’s keys,” but then you would have the same problem. Keys, even “Amaury’s keys,” do not slip on wet sidewalks; people, like Amaury, do.

Fixing a Dangling Participle Place the Participle as Close as Logically

Possible to the Noun it Modifies.

Misplaced: Crying and screaming, Mrs. Williams led three-year old Mindy away from the toy store.

Correct: Mrs. Williams led three-year old Mindy, crying and screaming, away from the toy store.

PARALLELISM

Parallelism A sentence exhibits parallelism if similar

ideas are expressed using the same syntactic and grammatical structure.

Writers use parallel structures to communicate ideas that have the same importance using the same grammatical structure.

Parallelism Parallelism is most common using

gerund phrases (verb + ing) or infinitives (to + verb).

Faulty parallelism occurs when writers do not use a parallel structure to communicate a series of ideas.

Faulty Parallelism Faulty Parallelism:

Without good pitching, the Marlins can be expected to lose more than eighty games, to draft early in next year’s draft, and attendance will suffer greatly.

Faulty Parallelism What are the ideas that seem to have

the same importance?

The Marlins will lose more than eighty games

The Marlins will draft early in next year’s draft.

The Marlins’ attendance will suffer greatly.

Correct Parallelism Correct Parallelism: Without good

pitching, the Marlins can be expected to lose more than eighty games, to draft early in next year’s draft, and to suffer greatly in attendance.

Correlative Conjunctions The term parallelism also applies to using

correlative conjunctions and comparisons properly.

Correlative Conjunctions: both, and; not, but; not only, but also; either, or; whether, or; neither, nor.

These conjunctions connect words, phrases, and clauses that have the same level of meaning in the same sentence. Use the same grammatical structure with both elements of the correlative.

Comparisons Use a parallel structure when you

connect two words, phrases, or clauses with a comparison word, including than or as.

Faulty Parallelism: Sharon’s grade point average is much higher than her brother.

PRONOUN / ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT

Agreement and Number In English grammar we have a term

called number, and, unlike number in math, number in grammar means one of two things: singular (only one) plural (more than one).

Correct Agreement Correct: Students lost their privileges.  The original noun is Students, which is

plural; the possessive pronoun, their, refers (or points back) to Students. The word Students is the antecedent, and both Students and their are plural in number. No problem here.

Singular Words

Certain words are ALWAYS singular, even though they may seem plural.

Anybody

Each

Everybody

Somebody

Someone

Solution Your best solution is to rewrite the

sentence and turn singular nouns into plurals.

That way you are grammatically correct and you do not use sexist or clunky language.

Better: Students who went on the field trip were supposed to bring their permission form.

Omit the Pronoun We can also rewrite the sentence omitting

the pronoun.

Better: Everyone who went on the field trip was supposed to bring a permission form.

Each method works. If you have enough creativity, sentences can be written in many different ways. Some ways work better than others.

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