Grammar stuff

I apologize for not blogging more often lately. It's been a severely busy semester because of various things related to my upcoming book publication (like reading and re-reading the manuscript) and other things. The "break" wasn't really a break, but I'm sure most of you spent your time, or part of it, working as well. I hope you got some rest, though, or had some fun...or both.

This is later than usual for me, but here are some notes on the last essays you wrote in English 1101. My hope is that by explaining these to you in writing, you might be able to use the information in writing your out-of-class essays on Frankenstein.

I write a lot of commentary on these essays, and I truly hope you've read them carefully and will take the comments to heart. They are intended, not to punish you for what your essay lacks, but to suggest how you can improve your writing technique for future essays (for both English and other courses, and life in general). The next essay is due soon, and there'll be two more later in the month--an in-class on The Divine Ryans when we finish that novel, and, late March or early April, the research essay will be due. I'll be giving you the topics for the research essays next week so you can start thinking about it.

A lot of you are having problems with sentence structure, including comma splice, sentence fragment, and tense shift. Below, I've posted (re-posted, really) some suggestions about how to recognize these problems and how to fix them. I hope it helps.

First of all, I don't make these things up. Sentence fragment, tense shift, and comma splice are real words and have real consequences for your writing. You should have learned about them in high school English and/or English 1080, but either no one showed you or the lesson just didn't take. Or maybe in the time since you last wrote an essay, you forgot how to do it. That's all understandable, but what can we do about it?

First, you might notice that I used some abbreviations on your essays:

1. "T.S." means tense shift.
2. "C.S." means comma splice.
3. "S.F." means sentence fragment.

Here's what those terms mean:

1. Tense shift just means that you're switching from speaking in the present voice to speaking in the past voice. You're using "was" when you should be using "is". You're ending words in an "-ed" suffix instead of ending them in "-es" or just "s". Just be consistent. Somtimes, it's fine to use past tense, but most of the time you should consistently use the present tense when talking about fiction, as if the action were happening right now as you read it. So if you said something like "Justine caused her own death," it should read: "Justine causes her own death."

2. Comma splice means that you're joining (i.e. "splicing") together two sentences using a humble comma. The comma wasn't intended for such heavy labor. It's like using a screwdriver as a chisel. You can do it, but eventually there will be breakage. Your sentences get too long and, usually, tough to follow.

Here's how to recognize a comma splice: read what you've written on both sides of the comma; if both sides read like a complete sentence, then you've used a comma splice, which is a major grammatical error, not to mention confusing. See, a comma tells you to pause. But periods, for the sake of clarity, require you to stop. (See what I mean there in that last sentence?)


So how do you fix a comma splice, supposing you should see one?

1. Use a period and make two separate sentences.

2. Or use a semi-colon, which is designed to join/separate two complete sentences that are related to each other in thought/theme.

3. Or use a co-ordinating conjunction (e.g. “but,” “however,” “and,” “because,” and so on) and (sometimes) use a comma with it. That's probably the easiest and most common fix. You'll have to get used to recognizing comma splices in your sentences. That's the only way to eradicate the problem from your writing: practice. After a while, it will become natural. I've seen it happen for thousands of students in a matter of weeks and it can happen for you. Depends on how bad you want it.

Here's an example of a comma splice:

Comma Splice: Victor creates an ugly creature, he runs away from it in horror.

Fix: Victor creates an ugly creature. He runs away from it in horror. (Period)

Fix: Victor creates an ugly creature; he runs away from it in horror. (Semi colon)

Fix: Victor creates an ugly creature and runs away from it in horror. (Conjunction: "and")

Fix: After Victor creates an ugly creature, he runs away from it in horror. (Conjunction: "after")


3. Sentence Fragment just means that what you've said (and obviously think is a full sentence because it starts with a capital letter and ends in a period after a string of seemingly meaningful words) is not a complete sentence. It's a fragment of a sentence, a mere piece of one: a pretend sentence in disguise, and it's up to you to start recognizing its covert behaviour. It shouldn't be hanging out with the other sentences because, well, it just isn't one and it should just solve the problem by BECOMING one. Their main offense is that they just don't make sense on their own, sort of like Nick Lachey. That's how you fix a sentence fragment: either make it a full sentence by itself OR join it to the preceding clause. That's right: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Here's an example of a sentence fragment.

Sentence fragment: Elizabeth Lavenza, staying at home, much like Margaret Saville, writing letters to a man who is far away.

Looks, smells, sounds, and feels like a sentence, doesn't it? And yet, on closer look, it isn't quite complete. It needs something else, doesn't it? The sentence lacks context.

So the fix is in: Elizabeth Lavenza stays at home, much like Margaret Saville, writing letters to a man who is far away.

See the difference a simple verb can make? All I did was exchange "staying" for the verb "stays," and now it all makes sense because we can (sort of) see Elizabeth doing what we've implied she is doing. Fixing sentence fragments is usually just a matter of revising your verb (the word that implies action).

OR you could fix a sentence fragment by using a comma to adjoin the fragment to the sentence preceding it. For example, let's say you (okay, somebody else. Denial has its uses.) wrote this:

Alphonse sends Henry with him on the journey. Which shows how worried he is about Victor.
You no doubt recognize that the second "sentence" is an imposter: a mere sentence fragment.

Here's a quick fix: Alphonse sends Henry with him on the journey, which shows how worried he is about Victor.

Notice that all it takes is a simple comma (also notice that what follows the comma is NOT a complete sentence, so we haven't created a dastardly comma splice, and so everyone sleeps well).

Anyway, I hope this helps. If you're still confused, just come see me or get in touch, okay?

There's no need to feel like you're out there on your own with nowhere to turn. Help is available. :-) And my e-mail address is toll-free. Act now and you'll get free advice about plot summary (which means you're telling me what happens instead of why such details are important for your thesis). Offer available for a limited time only (till April 15, 2011).

Next time, hopefully this weekend, I'll likely be blogging about quotation methods.

Till later,
GC