Transcript and not

The Art of Editing 2: Back to the Beginning
Painless Traditional Grammar
Editing seminar series for supervisors and students 2012
Dr Liz Tynan
Co-ordinator Research Student Academic Support
JCU Graduate Research School
Starting thought

“Like everything
metaphysical, the
harmony between
thought and reality is to
be found in the
grammar of the
language.”
Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
Editing for good grammar








Subject-verb agreement
Sentence structure, including “parallel structure”
Pronoun use
Verb use
Preposition use
Conjunction use
Definite and indefinite article (the/a/an) use
Dangling modifiers
Traditional Grammar


Traditional grammar is old
grammar – the
grammatical systems
formulated in ancient
Greece and later in Rome.
The Greeks (specifically
the Stoics in the third
century BC) formulated
grammar as an intellectual
system for the first time.
Communication obstacles

Symbolic language is a uniquely human
attribute.

Language has evolved as the main way by
which we project from our internal, subjective
world to the wider external world.

The obstacles in the way of translating our
ideas into words that others can understand
are many.
Traditional grammar: parts of speech








Noun
Adjective
Verb
Adverb
Preposition
Pronoun
Conjunction and
Interjection
Other trad grammar elements

Two “numbers”: singular and plural;

Five “cases”: including subject
(nominative), object (accusative) and
possessive (genitive)

Three “persons”: first, second and third;

Two “voices”: active and passive; and

Up to five “moods”: including
declarative, subjunctive, imperative,
interrogative and infinitive.
Verbal tenses

15 “tenses”: 5 x 3: various forms of
past, present and future.

The large number of verbal tenses in
English helps ensure that nuanced action
can be reported in sentences.
Only four “units”

True traditional grammar has only four
“units”: word, phrase, clause, sentence.

Grammar does not extend beyond the
full-stop; traditional grammar is not
concerned with paragraph structure.
Nouns and “cases”

All the cases relate to nouns and their relative
position in a sentence.

When a noun is in the nominative case it is
the subject (or topic) of the sentence.

Placing the grammatical subject at the start of
a sentence ensures the most efficient delivery
system for written information in English.
Pronouns

Pronouns: “I”, “we”, “it”, “him”, “her”, “their”,
“this” and many others.

Useful for making the language flow more
smoothly: “Anne is going overseas though
she doesn’t yet know exactly where.”

It would sound odd to say “Anne is going
overseas though Anne doesn’t yet know
exactly where”.
Pronouns inflect

Pronouns change their form depending
upon their role in the sentence.
Consider these two sentences:

My husband and I will open this fete.

This fete will be opened by my husband
and I.
Pronoun antecedents

The noun to which a pronoun refers is
known as its antecedent.

Problems arise when pronouns float
around without an obvious antecedent.

In academic writing using pronouns to
start a sentence may be unwise.
Floating pronouns

“A decision was taken not to physically
test the new design but instead use
computer modelling to examine the
strength of the foundation works and to
ensure that all current algorithms were
taken into account. This has meant
that the client will need a full report
upon completion.
Verbs and “tense”

The finite verb indicates whether the
action is taking place in the past, present
or future.

Sentences can only be animated by finite
verbs.

A declarative sentence always has at least
one noun and one verb, in direct
relationship to each other.
Simple finite verbs

Simple finite verbs may be in the past,
present or future tense. For example:
wrote [past]
 writes [present]
 will write [future]

Other verbal tenses

Verbs take different forms depending on
their function in the sentence:

he had written (past perfect)
he is writing (present continuous)
he will be writing (future continuous)


SV sentence

The “subject-verb” sentence has a noun
and a verb.

For example, we can say “Maxine writes.”

This is grammatically correct and contains
a subject, “Maxine”, and a verb, “writes”,
which describes the action.
SVO sentence

In the SVO structure, the verb connects
the topic (subject) of sentence, Maxine,
to the thing being acted upon, the
object.

For example: “Maxine writes a report”.
In this sentence, the object is “a report”.
Information delivery system

The SVO sentence is the most efficient
way to convey information.

The logical simplicity of the SVO sentence
assists both writers and editors.

Understanding the dynamics of this
structure will help you simplify prose and
give it greater explanatory power.
Identifying the subject






Subjects can have more than one element. For
example in this sentence:
The conference and associated workshops will be
held in October.
…the subject is “The conference and associated
workshops…”
Also note that the subject is not necessarily the first
thing you read in a sentence. For example in this
sentence:
“After visiting her suppliers, the managing director
returned to the showroom.”
…the subject is “the managing director…”
Find the right verb

Sentences must be powered by the
right verb.

In our SVO example, the finite verb is
“writes”.

It is recognisable because it can be
changed to indicate past, present or
future tense: wrote, writes, will write.
A common error…

…attempting to use the word
“being” to drive the sentence.

This construction is wrong:

“This being the ideal environment
for coral.”
Fixing the error

The word “being” will not be able to
create an SVO sentence.

This string of words does not have a
finite verb and can only be grammatical
if it is part of a bigger sentence:
“The seawater around the reef is
pristine, this being the ideal
environment for coral.”
Fixing the error, continued

Another way to fix this sentence would be to
change the verb to something suitable.

This may lead to a new sentence such as:
“This is the ideal environment for coral.”
Finally fixing the problem

Even better, considering the need to
emphasise the grammatical subject, to
avoid a floating pronoun and perhaps to
provide the extra information that the longer
sentence offers:
“Coral grows best in pristine seawater.”
More complicated sentences

Grammatically more complicated structures
may have more than one clause.

A clause is a group of words containing a
subject and verb that forms part of a
sentence.

Complex sentences: a main clause and
attached sub-ordinate clause/s.

Compound sentences: containing clauses
of equal grammatical status.
Complex sentence

Subordinate clauses are joined to the main
clause either by a conjunction or, in certain
cases, by a semi-colon:
“Smith and Jones Scientific in Sydney will
supply the test kits, though not before 30
June.”

Here the conjunction is “though”.
Compound sentences
“Smith and Jones Scientific in Sydney will supply
the test kits and we expect to source fieldwork
gear from this company as well.”

In this case both clauses can stand alone
grammatically, once you remove the “and”.
Ugly and disjointed
 X: In a study by Bloggs (1955), on the roots of
Kiwi fruit, it was found that upon prolonged
micronutrient shortage, shoot and roots dry
weight accumulation was impaired.
 √: Prolonged micronutrient shortage in Kiwi fruit
roots was found by Bloggs (1955) to impair
shoot and dry weight accumulation.
SV agreement

The subject of a sentence must “agree” with
the finite verb of the sentence.
This means that we write:

The lawyer discusses her strategy.
…and not:

The lawyer discuss her strategy.

Most people with a reasonable grasp of
English will understand SV agreement here.
Less obvious SV agreement





Our house, as well as all our personal
effects, were destroyed by the fire.
OR
Our house, as well as all our personal
effects, was destroyed by the fire.
The correct sentence has to be the second example,
even if it doesn’t seem right.
Words that intervene between subject and verb do not
affect the number (i.e. singular or plural) of the verb.
SV agreement & collective nouns

An organisation, group or company is treated
grammatically as a collective noun, and collective
nouns always take singular verbs (and pronouns):
The ABC broadcasts from its studios in the city.

The finite verb in this sentence is “broadcasts”,
and it is singular. Do not write “The ABC
broadcast from their studios in the city.”
Active and passive voice

“Maxine writes the report” = active voice,
because it follows the SVO construction.

You can also say “The report is written by
Maxine”, and what was the object now starts
the sentence.

The subject (Maxine) is now called the agent
– “by Maxine”.

The verb has undergone a change, known as
the passive transformation.
Can you always avoid passive voice?

No - it may be necessary, for example, if the
active subject is unknown or not easily stated:

“Walter’s father was killed in the Second
World War”.

We don’t know who or what actually killed
Walter’s father.

There can be no “agent” because we don’t
have enough information to say who carried
out the action of the sentence.
Dodging responsibility
Passive voice may distance the writer from the reader
and from responsibility for the action in the sentence:
“The hospital beds have been shut down.”
 There is no agent in this sentence, which has the
effect of holding no-one responsible. Maybe the
sentence could correctly be rendered as:
“The hospital beds have been shut down by the
Health Department.”
 …in which case it could be rewritten in active voice
as:
“The Health Department shut down the hospital
beds.”

Placing emphasis
Sometimes passive voice is used because it
places at the start the most important element:
 “The magnificent red luxury sports car was fixed
by the mechanic.”
OR
 “The mechanic fixed the magnificent red luxury
sports car.”


Depending on what you want the sentence to do,
you may choose the first – passive – version over
the second active version.
A common misconception




Either voice can be in any of the tenses.
For examples:
Past
Present
Future
Active
I wrote the article
I write the article
I will write the article
Passive
The article was written by me
The article is written by me
The article will be written by me
Parallel structure
“People are always impressed by her smooth
manner, elegant clothes and being witty.”





Smooth manner = adjective + noun
Elegant clothes = adjective + noun
Being witty = participle + adjective
When editing for parallel structure, you would
probably alter this sentence thus:
“People are always impressed by her smooth
manner, elegant clothes and sharp wit.”
Fused or run-on sentences

“Drugs such as salbutamol and
turbutaline may be given orally or by
injection to open up the breathing tube
occasionally it is necessary to hospitalise
the patient so that intravenous fluids can
be provided.”
Comma splices

“The wrist is a common site of
rheumatoid arthritis and osteo-arthritis,
another common problem is carpel
tunnel syndrome.”
Prepositions


Prepositions help draw relationships between
the content words.
They define the relationship the following noun
bears to an item that precedes or follows.

For example:

“(available) to participants
“(borrowed) by Ken”

Prepositions continued













Prepositions may define relationships in a spatial sense:
“on ice”
“in tanks”
or a temporal sense:
“before breakfast”
“between seasons”
They can also show causal relationships:
“by perseverance”
“through effort”
And there is a range of other interconnections:
“despite hardships”
“against odds”
“among friends”
Do not disrupt

Because of the close and unequal
relationship between prepositions and the
nouns they govern, they should not be
disrupted.

For example, you can put the word
“suddenly” in various places in the sentence
“Ruth’s dogs sprang at him”, but not
between “at” and “him”.
Correct use of prepositions
“…familiar with.” (not about)
 “…a tussle with.” (not against)
 “…we pride ourselves on (not in)
 “…believe in.” (not on)
 “…ask questions of someone.” (not to)
 “…what do you think of this?” (not to)

A parting thought
 “I
will not go down
to posterity talking
bad grammar.”
Benjamin Disraeli, Victorian era British
Prime Minister