Learn to Write Proper English by
Avoiding Grammatical Mistakes

Learn to write proper English by being on the lookout for those errors that sabotage your writing. You can liken your writing to a vegetable garden. You’ve taken steps to till the soil, plant seeds, water appropriately, and keep pests away. But one day you discover your garden has been overrun with weeds!

This can also happen when you’ve written a story or an essay. Learn to write proper English by knowing that negative elements can enter and strangle the life out of your story without you realizing it.

Learn to Write Proper English by Avoiding
Run-On Sentences

Run-on sentences have no place in your writing. These are akin to weeds. Let’s define this type of writing mistake.

Sears tells us regarding a run-on sentence, that this type of sentence “has at least two complete thoughts (two independent clauses . . . ), but it lacks the necessary punctuation between the thoughts” (245).

If you fail to use correct punctuation, your reader will become confused. And the last thing you want is to lose your reader. 

Run-on sentence example:

The party will end when the last guest leaves if you don’t specify an end time, people will delay leaving.

Notice that the two independent clauses are two complete sentences.

The party will end when the last guest leaves.

If you don’t specify an end time, people will delay leaving.

While this is a common mistake in writing, it is fairly easy to spot. Make sure you do not have two complete sentences. If so, there are ways to correct it, which we will get into further.

Being on the Look Out for Comma Splices
is Another Way to Learn to Write Proper English

Sears explains that a comma splice, another type of run-on sentence, has “two complete thoughts that are joined (spliced together) by just a comma . . . [T]he comma should be replaced by something else—a different punctuation mark, additional words, or both” (246).

Comma splice example:

Marcus bought cars and clothes with his inheritance, his brother Brad bought a two-story home with his inheritance.

At first glance, this sentence gives the reader a complete thought that she can follow; however, these two independent clauses or complete sentences need something stronger than just a comma.

There are three ways the sentence with the comma splice can be corrected. 

1. We can make them two complete sentences by using a period:

Marcus bought cars and clothes with his inheritance. His brother Brad bought a two-story home with his inheritance.

2. We can use a semicolon alone, or we can use a semicolon with a connecting word and a comma:

Marcus bought cars and clothes with his inheritance; his brother Brad bought a two-story home with his inheritance.

Marcus bought cars and clothes with his inheritance; however, his brother Brad bought a two-story home with his inheritance.

3. We can use a comma with conjunction:

Marcus bought cars and clothes with his inheritance, but his brother Brad bought a two-story home with his inheritance.

Acquainting Yourself With The FANBOYS is Yet 
Another Way to Learn to Write Proper English

Are you familiar with conjunctions? There are seven very common ones known as the FANBOYS:

F: for

A: and

N: nor

B: but

O: or

Y: yet

S: so

Let’s look at this sentence again. Marcus bought cars and clothes with his inheritance, but his brother Brad bought a two-story home with his inheritance. We see that the conjunction but is used to correct the comma splice run-on sentence. We can just as easily use the conjunctions and and yet, but the other FANBOYS would not be appropriate to use in our sentence.

Sentence examples using each initial from the FANBOYS.

It was no use for Carl to run, for the train had already left the station.

Tessa and Darla played tennis yesterday.

Neither snow nor sleet kept the mailman from delivering my important letter.

I was on time for class, but I forgot my homework.

I can pick up the boys from school, or I can ask my daughter to do it.

She was the silliest girl in school, yet she was the smartest.

Ronald cleaned his room in record time so that he could go to the dance.

FANBOYS are conjunctions and are a part of transition words. Learn more transition words here.

In Our Quest to Learn to Write Proper English, 
Know How to Use Subordinating Conjunctions

Also, note that our sentence example—Marcus bought cars and clothes with his inheritance, but his brother Brad bought a two-story home with his inheritance—could be corrected in still another way. We could use subordinating conjunctions before our sentence, and keep the comma.

We learn that the subordinating “conjunction includes words like because, if, although, since, until, and while. A subordinating conjunction is used to introduce a dependent clause” (Lou).

Subordinating conjunction examples:

While Marcus bought cars and clothes with his inheritance, his brother Brad bought a two-story home with his inheritance.

Although Marcus bought cars and clothes with his inheritance, his brother Brad bought a two-story home with his inheritance.

Even though Marcus bought cars and clothes with his inheritance, his brother Brad bought a two-story home with his inheritance.

In our quest to avoid run-on sentences, we’ve been on the lookout for them. Just as a gardener must take care of his vegetables so that they yield him quality food, a writer must tend to her garden to make sure she reaps quality words and sentences for her great essays and stories.

Images: Dream by Wombo