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Writing Grammatically Correct Sentences

AVOID SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

AVOID COMMA SPLICES

AVOID RUN-ON SENTENCES

AVOID AMBIGUOUS PRONOUN REFERENCES

COMPARE ITEMS CLEARLY

USE ADJECTIVES CLEARLY

MAINTAIN SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

MAINTAIN PRONOUN-ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT

USE TENSES CORRECTLY

Structuring Effective Sentences

EMPHASIZE NEW AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION

CHOOSE AN APPROPRIATE SENTENCE LENGTH

FOCUS ON THE “REAL” SUBJECT

FOCUS ON THE “REAL” VERB

USE PARALLEL STRUCTURE

USE MODIFIERS EFFECTIVELY

Choosing the Right Words and Phrases

SELECT AN APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF FORMALITY

BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC

• ETHICS NOTE: Euphemisms and Truth Telling

BE CONCISE

• DOCUMENT ANALYSIS ACTIVITY: Revising for Conciseness and Simplicity

USE INOFFENSIVE LANGUAGE

• GUIDELINES: Avoiding Sexist Language

• GUIDELINES: Using the People-First Approach

Understanding Simplified English for Nonnative Speakers

Preparing Text for Translation

WRITER’S CHECKLIST

EXERCISES

LEARNINGCURVE: Writing Correct and Effective Sentences and

CASE 10: Revising a Document for Nonnative Speakers and for Translation and

In the workplace, it’s important to choose words carefully and write accurate, clear, concise, correct, and forceful sentences. If a sentence doesn’t say what you intended, misunderstandings can occur, and misunderstandings cost money. More important, the ability to write well—word by word and sentence by sentence—reflects positively on you and your organization. If you write well, you sound like a professional; you sound like someone worth reading.