Download JN2/3200 Public Relations JCU 2007

THE ART OF EDITING SEMINAR 2
PAINLESS TRADITIONAL
GRAMMAR
Editing seminar series for HDR candidates and advisors 2014
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
Why grammar?
• Editing to a high standard requires
some technical knowledge.
• You have to be able to identify a
problem with subject-verb
agreement or preposition use or
sentence structure.
• Knowledge is power.
• When you can name the
grammatical problems, you can fix
them (in most cases).
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. They set the foundation
for today’s session.
Editing for good grammar
• Subject-verb agreement
• Sentence structure, including parallel structure,
comma splices, etc.
• Pronoun use
• Verb use
• Preposition use
• Conjunction use
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.
• The rules of grammar help ensure a common
understanding of correctness.
Know your terminology: 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.
Elements continued
• 15 verbal “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.
Elements continued
• 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 (that topic is for another
day…)
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 usually stand in for nouns and can be
the subject or object of sentences.
• Pronouns include: “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 be odd to say Anne is going overseas
though Anne doesn’t yet know exactly where.
Pronouns inflect
• Pronouns change their form depending upon
their grammatical 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.
• The second one here is wrong. The “I” must be
inflected to “me”.
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.
We need to talk about prepositions
• These useful but sometimes confusing words
help draw relationships between the content
words.
• The word preposition simply means something
placed before or in front.
• In general, they govern what nouns do. 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 a range of other interconnections:
• “despite hardships”
• “against odds”
• “among friends”
Do not disrupt
• Because of the close relationship between
prepositions and the nouns they govern, they
should not be disrupted.
• For example, you can put the adverb “suddenly”
in various places in the sentence “Ruth’s dogs
sprang at him”, but not between “at” and “him”.
Murdering prepositions
• Incorrect:
• “…what do you think to that?”
• “…we pride ourselves in having.”
• “…scientists believe of their existence.”
• “…I was bored of that.”
•
• They should be corrected as follows:
• “…what do you think about that?” (not to)
• “…we pride ourselves on having” (not in)
• “…scientists believe in their existence.” (not of)
• “…I was bored with that.” (not of)
Verbs and “tense”
• The finite verb indicates whether the action is
taking place in the past, present or future.
• Correct declarative 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 (SV) 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.
• As an editor, look for the SVO structure and make sure
it is implemented correctly. Understanding the
dynamics of this structure will help you simplify prose
and give it greater explanatory power.
Identifying the grammatical 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…”
Identify the SVO structure here….
• Yesterday the Mayor led the debate in the Council
chambers.
• After eating at the restaurant, we went to see a movie.
• The United Nations will send in peacekeepers.
• The security guard in the foyer checked our passes.
• He and I will operate the gear.
• After holding atomic bomb tests in Australia, the British left
Maralinga contaminated.
Sentence structures
• English has a variety of grammatically correct sentence
structures, many of which contain 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.
• Compound-complex sentences: containing two or more
main clauses and one or more subordinate clauses.
Why does English have these
different kinds of sentences?
• They enable conceptual connections between the
information or ideas we wish to convey to be made
coherent in a single sentence.
• A single-clause sentence does not always enable
these connections, so we need to select a suitable
structure to make these relationships clear.
• Editors are interested in meaning, so they need to
ensure that relationships are established in
grammatical sentences.
Complex sentences
• 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”. Note that a
comma is usually needed before a subordinate
clause.
Compound sentences
Smith and Jones Scientific in Sydney will supply our
project’s 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”.
• Compound sentences usually have “and”, “but”
and “or” as conjunctions (known as co-ordinating
conjunctions).
Compound-complex sentences
• This sentence has elements of both compound
and complex sentences. For example:
• Smith and Jones Scientific in Sydney will supply
our project’s test kits and we expect to source
fieldwork gear from this company as well, though
our budget will be more limited this year.
• Note the co-ordinating conjunction “and” and the
subordinating conjunction “though”.
Do not go mad with clauses
• Complex and compound sentences are most useful when
they form strong bonds between several important facts.
• They are less effective when they are used as an opportunity
to string together large amounts of barely related information.
Avoid this:
• Smith and Jones Scientific in Sydney will supply our
project’s test kits and we expect to source fieldwork gear
from this company as well, though our budget will be more
limited this year and we will have to restrict travel for the
next 12 months, although no plans have been finalised
and won’t be until the new project leader completes her
funding proposal, which we expect in February next year.
Ugly and disjointed
• Sentences don’t have to extremely long to
have bad structure:
• 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. Singular-singular, plural-plural.
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 and 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.
• “The report is written by Maxine” = passive
voice.
• The subject (Maxine) is now called the agent –
“by Maxine”.
• The verb has undergone a change, known as
the passive transformation.
Passive voice may be needed
• …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.
• (More on this is the sentence and style seminars.)
Problems to watch for when editing:
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 like this:
• People are always impressed by her smooth manner,
elegant clothes and sharp wit.
Problems to watch for when editing:
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.
• Correct like this:
• 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.
Problems to watch for when editing:
Comma splices
• The wrist is a common site of rheumatoid arthritis and osteo-
arthritis, another common problem is carpel tunnel
syndrome.
• Correct like this:
• The wrist is a common site of rheumatoid arthritis and osteo-
arthritis. Another common problem is carpel tunnel
syndrome.
• Or
• The wrist is a common site of rheumatoid arthritis and osteo-
arthritis; another common problem is carpel tunnel
syndrome.
Summing up grammar
• Grammar is not everything, but the rules of
grammar do form part of good communication.
• An editor should be able to analyse words,
phrases, clauses and sentences to a certain extent,
because technical knowledge gives control.
• Look for common problems such as lack of subject-
verb agreement or incorrect preposition use or poor
sentence structure.
• An edited document is a grammatically correct
document.
A parting thought
•I will not go
down to
posterity
talking bad
grammar.
Benjamin Disraeli, Victorian era British
Prime Minister