Tips on good grammar
Tips on writing grammatically correct and easy to read sentences. Writers should:
Tip 1: Avoid starting a sentence with a verb ending in "ing"
Sample written by a student:
"Investigating the demographics of the target market and the geographical location of Springfield Football Club."
All sentences must have a subject i.e. the person or thing that performs the doing.
In the above case, the sentence does not say who is doing the investigating.
If you start a sentence with a verb with "ing" you are very likely to make this type of error.
The above sentence would be more grammaticaly correct if it were written as follows:
The committee should investigate the demograhics of the local area surrounding Springfield Football Club.
In this case "the committee" is the subject of the sentence.
Another sample written by a student:
"Wanting to increase the female participation at Springfield Football Club, policies and procedures must be enforced respecting their rights and privileges".
This would be better written as:
Springfield Football Club will develop and enforce policies and procedures that respect the rights of female participants.
Often a change of word order is required, as in the above example, to fix the problem.
Tip 2: Avoid starting or finishing a sentence with a preposition e.g. with, at, by, from, to
Sample written by a student:
"With the increasing levels of child obesity, Springfield Football Club must entice the target group into the program."
This would be better written as:
Springfield Football Club must entice the target group into the program in response to increasing levels of child obesity.
Again, it is a matter of word order. If you are tempted to start a sentence with a preposition you should try to change the word order.
Tip 3: Avoid using personal pronouns in business documents e.g. I, we, you
The student wrote:
"I used a variety of methods to obtain information for the proposal."
This would be better written as:
A variety of methods were used to obtain information for the proposal.
Tip 4: Try to make sentences simple.
The student wrote:
"It is clearly evident that the total number of men participating out-weighed the amount of female participants." (18 words)
This sentence could be simplified as in the following examples:
- It is clearly evident that males outnumber female participants. (9 words)
- It is clearly evident that males outnumber females. (8 words)
- It is clearly evident that males are dominant. (8 words)
- It is clearly evident that female participation is weak. (9 words)
- Male participation far exceeds females. (5 words)
- It is evident that female participation is less than males. (10 words)
Which of the above alternatives do you prefer?
Tip 5: Ensure you provide only useful information
The student wrote:
"There are millions of different products to do video editing."
A sentence of this nature does not provide the reader with any useful information. The sentence is merely "padding".