Say hello to Erin, our new YA author.
Today, Erin is going to tell us a bit about our favorite subject. GRAMMAR.
Take it away, Erin.
Thank you, Lorrie, for hosting me on
your blog today! I am thrilled to have
the chance to “talk” to your readers/blog followers!
Today, I’d like to talk about a
subject near and dear to my heart—grammar. LOL!
Yes, you heard me right…grammar.
My family and friends often say I’m a member of the Grammar Police
(actually they say something not quite so nice, but I’m rephrasing). Lest you think I’m the master of all things
word related, I will confess right now…I cannot spell, at all. Seriously, I could not spell certain words
without assistance if my life depended on it.
My critique partners also point out my issues with formal speech
(probably because I’m trying to follow all the grammar rules) and hyphenation
(which for the record, I just misspelled).
You might ask, who even loves grammar,
and when did you develop this affliction?
Well, I went to one school up until the tenth grade and learned very
little about grammar there. When I switched
to a new school in the eleventh grade, my world changed. The teacher started my first day of class by
saying, “Today, we will discuss predicate nominative and predicate adjective,”
to which I replied, “A wha-wha?” I knew
a noun, verb, and possibly an adverb, but nothing more. To her credit, my sweet teacher, Mrs. Hinton
(she’s a writer too and has published books you can find here),
stayed after school with me for six months to catch me up on grammar.
I ended up at a college that obsesses
over grammar. Freshmen must take a course called “Grammar and Composition” and
pass an end-of-the-semester test with a “C” or higher to continue on to the
next class. In preparation for that
test, I took a free class offered by the head of the English department and learned
all sorts of amazing tips and tricks. I
passed the test with flying colors and received a position in the school’s
learning center as a grammar and writing tutor.
So, I spent the remainder of my college years trying to impart the
grammar wisdom my high school teacher and college professors instilled.
Now that I am a soon-to-be-published
author, I have the privilege of working with fellow authors. We critique one another’s “works in progress”
to sharpen and improve them for submission.
My critique partners recently dubbed me “The Passive Voice Hunter,” a
name I quite like.
Without further ado, let me introduce
common grammar/writing errors. I hope
the following information will be useful whether you are a writer, business
professional, student, or any other type of human being (LOL!).
1)
Passive voice
The
use of active voice improves writing and flow.
Try to avoid passive verbs like:
was, were, had been, is, has been, had been, will be.
A
passive example: “I was editing my friend’s work.”
An
active example: “I edited my friend’s
work.”
2)
Ending in a preposition
Try
not to end sentences with prepositions.
Example
of preposition: “She didn’t know where
he came from.”
Correction: “She didn’t know from where he came.”**
**This
correction sounds slightly pompous and awkward, so the writer would benefit
from
reworking the whole sentence.
Reworking
option (there are many other ways to change it): “He appeared by her side without
warning.”
Common
prepositions: of, in, to, for, with, on,
at, from, by, about, into, as, after, over, against, before
3)
Commas (cue the
“dun-da-dun” music)
I
typically joke, “People treat commas like sprinkles.”
Here
are the main rules for commas (there are more, but we’ll stick to the big ones):
a) Serial
commas (this particular rule changes every once in a while, so keep an eye
out on
MLA).
Right now, commas go before the “and” in a series.
Example:
Apples, banana, strawberries, and blueberries.
b) Conjunction
and commas. Commas can be used to
separate two sentences when used with a
conjunction.
Common conjunctions: and, but, or, so, yet
Example:
Jenna believed her father when he told her John left, but she felt
compelled to
discover the reason.
Incorrect usage of a comma: Jenna believed her father when he told her John
left, but felt
compelled to
discover the reason. (No comma is needed
in this sentence because there are not
two sentences.) This
sentence should read: Jenna believed her
father when he told her John left
but felt compelled to
discover the reason.
c)
Introductory statements. When you begin a sentence with a helper
statement, you should use a
comma to separate the two piece of information.
Introductory statements with more
than
three words require a comma. With
statements fewer than three words, the comma is optional, but I always choose to include it.
Example:
When you begin a sentence with a helper statement, you should use a
comma to
separate the two pieces of information. (Clever how I did that, huh? I bet you can
find a few
more in my explanation as
well…)
d)
Parenthetic elements. Use commas to offset information you wish
to include but is not crucial
to the sentence. When you place two
commas (or one comma in the front and period at the end), you are signaling the reader that this information is
NOT necessary. If it is necessary, do not offset in commas.
Example 1:
My best friend, Dawn, told me a hysterical joke yesterday.
*Note—I only have one
best friend, hence the name “Dawn” is unnecessary. However, be
careful in these
situations. “My friend Dawn told me a
hysterical joke yesterday” has no comma because
(hopefully) I have more than one friend.
**To explore the note a
bit further, here is another example:
“My brother, Richard, graduated top
in his class.” Based on this statement,
you should know I only have one brother.
If I said, “My brother
Richard graduated top in his class,” you would know I have more than one
brother.
Example 2: Charlotte loved going to baseball games,
though she preferred football.
The football segment
could be totally omitted and not compromise the integrity of the sentence.
Example 3: He moved toward the door, placing his hand on
the knob, and turned to give her one
last look.
without it. “He moved toward the door and turned to give
her one last look.”
e)
Separating adjectives. Use commas to separate adjectives that both
relate to the noun. If one adjective is describing the other,
leave out the comma.
Example:
She pushed the big, yellow ball down the hill.
Big and yellow both
describe ball, so the comma needs to be there.
Incorrect use: She pushed the bright, yellow ball down the
hill.
Bright describes yellow,
not the ball, so no comma is needed.
Should read: She pushed the
bright yellow ball down
the hill.
Though there are plenty more grammar
rules I could share, I think I’ll stop before your eyes glaze over (if they
haven’t already—LOL). Often, it’s hard
to see the errors in your own work.
Asking friends, family, or co-workers to proofread your material before
you send it out can be most helpful. My
beta readers (Kim Sharp, Ginny Hunsberger, Danielle Craver, and Dawn Ward) as
well as my critique partners (Mary Waibel, Michelle Pickett, and Meradeth
Houston) locate the grammatical, spelling, logic, and voice errors in my
pieces. I encourage you to find a group
of people to help you as well.
~~~
Coming in November from Erin
From
A young adult high fantasy epic
"One often finds destiny on the road taken to avoid it."
Look for the novel November 2013
The Prophecy
by
Erin Albert
Erin Albert is an author and fitness trainer.
Since she picked up Morris the Moose Goes to School at
age four, she has been infatuated with the written word. She went on to
work as a grammar and writing tutor in college and is still teased by
her family and friends for being a member of the "Grammar Police."
In her free time, Erin enjoys acting, running, kickboxing, and, of
course, reading and writing.
*
If you want to know more about me and
my upcoming novel, The Prophecy,
please like me on Facebook (Erin Albert Books), follow me on Twitter
(@ErinAlbertBooks), and/or visit my website www.erinalbertbooks.com.
If you have grammar questions, please feel free to ask. I love to talk “shop.” Thanks again for hosting me, Lorrie!
~~~~~~
Thanks so much for the lesson today, Erin.
Okay, folks, any questions of Erin?
If not, leave a comment anyway.
We love comments.
