Grammar Fundamentals

Before an essential or restrictive clause, that is, a clause that limits or defines the material it modifies. Removal of such a clause from the sentence would alter the intended meaning.

For example

• Between two parts of a compound predicate such as “The switch that stops the recording device also controls the light.”
• To separate parts of measurement such as “The results contradicted Smith’s hypothesis and indicated that the effect was not significant.”
• With dates and times such as 8 years 2 months or 3 min 40 s

Between a grammatically complete introductory clause (one that could stand as a sentence) and a final phrase or clause that illustrates, extends, or amplifies the preceding thought. If the clause following the colon is a complete sentence, it begins with a capital letter.

Examples of Colon Usage

• Freud (1930/1961) wrote of two urges: an urge toward union with others and an egoistic urge toward happiness.
• They have agreed on the outcome: Informed participants perform better than do uninformed participants.
• In ratios and proportions such as The proportion (salt: water) was 1:8.
• In references between place of publication and publisher such as New York, NY: Wiley. St. Louis, MO: Mosby.

After an introduction that is not an independent clause or complete sentence. Such as “The formula is ri = ai + e.”

To separate two independent clauses that are not joined by a conjunction.

For example: The participants in the first study were paid; those in the second were unpaid.

To separate elements in a series that already contain commas.

For example: 

• The color order was red, yellow, blue; blue, yellow, red; or yellow, red, blue.
• (Davis & Hueter, 2006; Pettigrew, 2003)
• age, M = 34.5 years, 95% CI [29.4, 39.6]; years of education, M = 10.4 [8.7, 12.1]; and weekly income, M = 612 [522, 702].

A common mistake people make is to include apostrophes when pluralizing a number or an abbreviation. Apostrophes are generally used in contractions and to indicate the possessive case, but they are not used to form plurals of numbers and abbreviations in APA Style.

Apostrophes indicates possession. For example: John’s assignment, witnesses’ testimonies, men’s sports, actress’s role

Indicates omission of letters in a contraction. For example: it’s, didn’t, can’t, o’clock (of the clock)

Generally, apostrophes are not used for years unless possessive. For example:

• John was nostalgic about the 1960s.
• We remember the 1960’s turmoil.
• It’s, its it’s: it is, it has its: possessive

Hint: possessive pronouns don’t have apostrophes — theirs, ours, hers, his, yours, its, whose. For example:

• It’s time to leave.
• The dog wagged its tail.

What is a complete sentence? A complete sentence is not merely a group of words with a capital letter at the beginning and a period or question mark at the end. A complete sentence has three components:

1. a subject (the actor in the sentence)
2. a predicate (the verb or action), and
3. a complete thought (it can stand alone and make sense—it’s independent).

Some sentences can be very short, with only two or three words expressing a complete thought, like this:

John waited.

This sentence has a subject (John) and a verb (waited), and it expresses a complete thought. We can understand the idea completely with just those two words, so again, it’s independent—an independent clause. However, independent clauses (i.e., complete sentences) can expand to contain a lot more information, like this:

• John waited for the bus all morning.
• John waited for the bus all morning in the rain last Tuesday.
• Wishing he’d brought his umbrella, John waited for the bus all morning in the rain last Tuesday.
• Wishing he’d brought his umbrella and dreaming of his nice warm bed, John waited for the bus all morning in the rain last Tuesday, determined to make it to class for his test.

A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence. Some fragments are incomplete because they lack either a subject or a verb, or both. The fragments that most students have trouble with, however, are dependent clauses—they have a subject and a verb, so they look like complete sentences, but they don’t express a complete thought. Their called “dependent” because they cannot stand on their own. Look at these dependent clauses. They are just begging for more information to make the thoughts complete:

• Because his car was in the shop (…What did he do?)
• After the rain stops (…What then?)
• When you finally take the test (…What will happen?)
• Since you asked (…Will you get the answer?)
• If you want to go with me (…What should you do?)

Does each of these examples have a subject? Yes. Does each have a verb? Yes. So what makes the thought incomplete? It’s the first word (Because, After, When, Since, If). These words belong to a special class of words called subordinators or subordinating conjunctions. If you know something about subordinating conjunctions, you can probably eliminate 90% of your fragments.

What do Subordinating Conjunctions do?

First, you need to know that subordinating conjunctions do three things:

1. Join two sentences together
2. Make one of the sentences dependent on the other for a complete thought (make one a dependent clause)
3. Indicate a logical relationship

How to recognize subordinators?

Second, you need to recognize the subordinators when you see them. Here is a list of common subordinating conjunctions and the relationships they indicate:

• Cause / Effect: because, since, so that
• Comparison / Contrast: although, even though, though, whereas, while
• Place & Manner: how, however, where, wherever
• Possibility / Conditions: if, whether, unless
• Relation: that, which, who
• Time: after, as, before, since, when, whenever, while, until

Where to find subordinators?

Third, you need to know that the subordinator (and the whole dependent clause) doesn’t have to be at the beginning of the sentence. The dependent clause and the independent clause can switch places, but the whole clause moves as one big chunk. Look at how these clauses switched places in the sentence:

• Because his car was in the shop, John took the bus.
• John took the bus because his car was in the shop.

Fixing your sentence fragments

Finally, you need to know that every dependent clause needs to be attached to an independent clause (remember, the independent clause can stand on its own).

How do you find and fix your fragments? Remember the basics: subject, verb, and complete thought. If you can recognize those things, you’re halfway there. Then, scan your sentences for subordinating conjunctions. If you find one, first identify the whole chunk of the dependent clause (the subject and verb that go with the subordinator), and then make sure they’re attached to an independent clause.

• John took the bus. (Independent clause. So far, all is well!)
• Because his car was in the shop. (Dependent clause all by itself. Uh oh! Fragment!)
• John took the bus because his car was in the shop.

Run-on sentences are are also called fused sentences. You are making a run-on when you put two complete sentences (a subject and its predicate and another subject and its predicate) together in one sentence without separating them properly.

Here is an example of a run-on sentence

My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus it is very garlicky.

This one sentence actually contains two complete sentences. However, in the rush to get that idea out, I made it into one incorrect sentence. Luckily, there are many ways to correct this run-on sentence.

You could use a semicolon:

My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus; it is very garlicky.

You could use a comma and a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so):

• My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus, for it is very garlicky. -OR-
• My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus, and it is very garlicky.

You could use a subordinating conjunction (see above):

• My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus because it is very garlicky. -OR-
• Because it is so garlicky, my favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus.

You could make it into two separate sentences with a period in between:

My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus. It is very garlicky.

You could use an em-dash (a long dash) for emphasis:

My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus—it is very garlicky.

You CANNOT simply add a comma between the two sentences, or you will end up with what is called a “comma splice.”

Here is an example of a comma splice:

My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus, it is very garlicky.

You can fix a comma splice the same way you fix a run-on—either change the punctuation or add a conjunction. The good news is that writers tend to be either comma splicers or run-on artists, but almost never both. Which one are you?

Finding Run-Ons

As you can see, fixing run-ons is easy once you see them—but how do you find out if a sentence is a run-on if you aren’t sure? Rei R. Noguchi, in his book Grammar and the Teaching of Writing, recommends two methods for testing your sentences. Try these two tests:

1. Turn your sentences into yes/no questions.
2. Turn your sentences into tag questions (sentences that end with a questioning phrase at the very end—look at our examples below).

These are two things that nearly everyone can do easily if the sentence is not a run-on, but they become next to impossible if it is.

Look at the following sentence:

My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus.

If you turn it into a question that someone could answer with a yes or no, it looks like this:

Is my favorite Mediterranean spread hummus?

If you turn it into a tag question, it looks like this:

My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus, isn’t it?

The first sentence is complete and not a run-on, because our test worked.

Now, look again at the original run-on sentence:

My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus it is very garlicky.

The yes/no question can only be made with each separate thought, not the sentence as a whole:

Is my favorite Mediterranean spread hummus? Is it very garlicky?

But not:

Is my favorite Mediterranean spread hummus is it very garlicky?

The tag question can also only be made with each separate thought, rather than the whole:

My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus, isn’t it? It’s very garlicky, isn’t it?

But never:

My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus it is very garlicky, isn’t it?

Unlike the complete sentence, the run-on sentence doesn’t pass these tests. When you try to turn the run-on sentence into a single question, you immediately see that the sentence has more than one complete concept. Make sure you try both tests with each of your problem sentences, because you may trick yourself by just putting a tag on the last part and not noticing that it doesn’t work on the first. Some people might not notice that “My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus it is very garlicky isn’t it?” is wrong, but most people will spot the yes/no question problem right away.

Occasionally, you or your instructor will see an extra-long sentence and think it’s a run-on when it isn’t. Long sentences can be tiring but not necessarily wrong—just make sure that yours aren’t wrong by using the tests above.

References:

Hacker, Diana and Nancy Sommers. A Writer’s Reference. 8th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014.

Ruszkiewicz, John, Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers. 9th edition. Boston: Pearson Education Inc, 2010.

Lunsford, Andrea A. St. Martin’s Handbook. 8th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015.

Noguchi, Rei R. Grammar and the Teaching of Writing: Limits and Possibilities. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1991.

A pronoun (I, me, he, she, herself, you, it, that, they, each, few, many, who, whoever, whose, someone, everybody, etc.) is a word that takes the place of a noun.

For example: In the sentence,  Joe saw Jill, and he waved at her, the pronouns he and her take the place of Joe and Jill, respectively.

There are three types of pronouns:

1. subject (for example, he)
2. object (him)
3. possessive (his)

• Correct: The percentage of correct responses as well as the speed of the responses increases with patience.
• Incorrect: The percentage of correct responses as well as the speed of the responses increase with practice.

The plural form of some nouns of foreign origin, particularly those that end in the letter a, may appear to be singular and can cause authors to select a verb that does not agree in number with the noun.

• Incorrect: The data indicates that Terrence was correct.
• Correct: The phenomena occur every 100 years.
• Incorrect The phenomena occurs every 100 years.

To enhance the reader’s understanding, present parallel ideas in parallel or coordinate form. Make certain that all elements of the parallelism are present before and after the coordinating conjunction (i.e., and, but, or, nor).

Examples of Parallel Ideas

• Correct: The results show that such changes could be made without affecting error rate and that latencies continued to decrease over time.
• Incorrect: The results show that such changes could be made without affecting error rate and latencies continued to decrease over time.

With coordinating conjunctions used in pairs ( between . . . and, both . . . and, neither
. . . nor, either . . . or, not only . . . but also), place the first conjunction immediately before the first part of the parallelism.

Examples of Coordination Conjunctions

• Correct: We recorded the difference between the performance of subjects who completed the first task and the performance of those who completed the second task. [The difference is between the subjects’ performances, not between the performance and the task.]
• Incorrect: We recorded the difference between the performance of subjects who completed the first task and the second task.
• Correct: between 2.5 and 4.0 years of age
• Incorrect: between 2.5-4.0 years of age
• Correct: The names were difficult both to pronounce and to spell.
• Incorrect: The names were both difficult to pronounce and spell.
• Correct: The names were difficult to pronounce as well as to spell.
• Incorrect: The names were difficult both to pronounce as well as to spell.
• Correct: Neither the responses to the auditory stimuli nor the responses to the tactile stimuli were repeated.
• Incorrect: Neither the responses to the auditory stimuli nor to the tactile stimuli were repeated.
• Correct: The respondents either gave the worst answer or gave the best answer. or
  The respondents gave either the worst answer or the best answer.
• Incorrect: The respondents either gave the worst answer or the best answer.
• Correct: It is surprising not only that pencil-and-paper scores predicted this result but also that all other predictors were less accurate.
• Incorrect: It is not only surprising that pencil-and-paper scores predicted this result but also that all other predictors were less accurate.
• Correct: The participants were told to make themselves comfortable, to read the instructions, and to ask about anything they did not understand.
• Incorrect: The participants were told to make themselves comfortable, to read the instructions, and that they should ask about anything they did not understand.

Seriation or lists help the reader understand the organization of key points within sections, paragraphs, and sentences. Each item on the list is punctuated at the end by a comma, semicolon, or period, depending on the grammatical structure of the list. Numbers are followed by periods and are not in parentheses. In any series, all items should be syntactically and conceptually parallel.

How to use seriation or lists

Paragraphs

Separate paragraphs in a series, such as itemized conclusions or steps in a procedure, are identified by an Arabic numeral followed by a period but not enclosed in or followed by parentheses. Separate sentences in a series are also identified by an Arabic numeral followed by a period; the first word is capitalized, and the sentence ends with a period or correct punctuation. For example: Using the learned helplessness theory, we predicted that the depressed and nondepressed participants would make the following judgments of control:

1. Individuals who . . . [paragraph continues].
2. Nondepressed persons exposed to . . . [paragraph continues].
3. Depressed persons exposed to . . . [paragraph continues].
4. Depressed and nondepressed participants in the no-noise groups . . . [paragraph continues).

Numbered Lists

Numbered lists are used for position (e.g., chronology, importance, priority). For example:

1. Open the box.
2. Remove the devise from the box.
3. Remove the plastic from the device.

Bulleted Lists

Use bullets when presenting a list of items in no particular order. Symbols such as small squares, circles, and so forth, may be used in creating a bulleted list. For example:

• Terry had three glasses.
• John had one table.
• Jim had five chairs.

Within a Paragraph

Within a paragraph or sentence, identify elements in a series by lowercase letters in parentheses. For example:
The participant’s three choices were (a) working with another participant, (b) working with a team, and (c) working alone.

Within a Sentence

Within a sentence, use commas to separate three or more elements that do not have Internal commas; use semicolons to separate three or more elements that have internal commas. For example: We tested three groups: (a) low scorers, who scored fewer than 20 points; (b) moderate scorers, who scored between 20 and 50 points; and (c) high scorers, who scored more than 50 points.

Alternatively, you may use bulleted lists within a sentence to separate three or more elements. In these instances, capitalize and punctuate the list as if it were a complete sentence. For example: In accordance with this theory, these relations should be marked by

• equity, social justice, and equal opportunity;
• affirmative actions to correct ontogenetic or historical inequities in person context fit;
• efforts to recognize and celebrate diversity; and
• promotion of universal participation in civic life, and hence democracy (Lerner, Balsano, Banik, and Naudeau, 2005, p.
  45).

Except for a few basic rules, spelling out numbers versus using figures (also called numerals) is largely a matter of writers’ preference. Consistency is the key. APA recommends spelling out the numbers one through nine and using figures thereafter.

Beginning of a sentence

Use words to express any number that begins a sentence, title, or text heading. (Whenever possible, reword the sentence to avoid beginning with a number.) For example: Forty-eight percent of the sample showed an increase; 2% showed no change. Twelve students improved, and 12 students did not improve.

Compound Numbers

Hyphenate all compound numbers from twenty-one through ninety-nine. For example: Forty-three people were injured in the train wreck. Twenty-seven of them were hospitalized.

Fractions

Hyphenate written-out fractions. For example: We recovered about two-thirds of the stolen cash. One-half is slightly less than five-eighths.

Universally Accepted Usage

Use words to express universally accepted usage. For example: The Twelve Apostles or Five Pillars of Islam

Use a combination of numerals and words to express back-to-back modifiers. For example: 2 two-way interactions or ten 7-point scales.

The following examples apply when using dates:

• The meeting is scheduled for June 30. (no – th necessary)
• The meeting is scheduled for the 30th of June.
• We have had tricks played on us on April 1.
• The 1st of April puts some people on edge. (or: The first of April)

Decades

There are differing policies for expressing decades using numerals. For example: During the ’80s, the world’s economy grew. During the 1980s, the world’s economy grew. During the 1980’s, the world’s economy grew.

Time

Spell out the time of day or use numbers. For example: She gets up at four thirty to read. She wakes up at 5 o’clock in the morning.

Exact Time

Use numerals with the time of day when exact times are being emphasized. For example: Her flight leaves at 6:22 a.m. Please arrive by 12:30 p.m. sharp.

AM and PM

Use AM and PM, or a.m. and p.m. It is clearer to use noon and midnight rather than 12:00 p.m. or 12:00 a.m. For example: Her flight leaves at 6:22 a.m. Please arrive by 12:30 PM sharp.

• To introduce a word or phrase used as an ironic comment, as slang, or as an invented Or coined expression. Use quotation marks the first time the word or phrase is used; thereafter, do not use quotation marks. For example: Her actions were considered “normal” behavior.
• To reproduce material from a test item or verbatim instructions to participants. For example: The first fill-in item was “could be expected to [fill in the blank].”
• To set off the title of an article or chapter in a periodical or book when the title is mentioned in text. For example:  Riger’s (1992) article, “Epistemological Debates, Feminist Voices: Science Social Values, and the Study of Women” describes…

Use double quotation marks to enclose quotations in text. Use single quotation marks within double quotation marks to set off material that in the original source was enclosed in double quotation marks. For example: Miele (1993) found that “the ‘placebo effect,’ which had been verified in previous studies, disappeared when [only the first group’s] behaviors were studied in this manner” (p. 276).

• If the quotation comprises 40 or more words, display it in a freestanding block of text without quotation marks. Do use double quotation marks to enclose any quoted material within a block quotation. For example: Miele (1993) found the following: The “placebo effect,” which had been verified in previous studies, disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner. Furthermore, the behaviors were never exhibited again [emphasis added], even when reel [sic] drugs were administered. Earlier studies (e.g., Abdullah, 1984; Fox, 1979) were clearly premature in attributing the results to a placebo effect. (p.276)
• If the quotation appears at the end of a sentence, close the quoted passage with quotation marks, cite the source in parentheses immediately after the quotation marks, and end with a period or other punctuation outside the final parenthesis. For example: Confusing this issue is the overlapping nature of roles in palliative care, whereby “medical needs are met by those in the medical disciplines; non- medical needs may be addressed by anyone on the team” (Csikai & Chaitin, 2006, p. 112).
• Capitalize the first letter of a direct quote when the quoted material is a complete sentence. For example: Mr. Johnson, who was working in his field that morning, said, “The alien spaceship appeared right before my own two eyes.”
• Put commas and periods within quotation marks, except when a parenthetical reference follows. For example:He said, “I may forget your name, but I never forget a face.” History is stained with blood spilled in the name of “civilization.”
• Place colons and semicolons outside closed quotation marks. For example: Williams described the experiment as “a definitive step forward”; other scientists disagreed.