4.4 Human Writing and Editing for Grammar: The Last Mile of Revision

Prolonged desperation and panic raise the perfection thirst to the highest stage. When you are calling for help, you need to be brave especially in vulnerability and exhaustion. We are surrounded by short-sighted and retracted people in our daily circle. They dislike sophisticated process and lengthy procedures, and for most of them, they would never look at the whole picture. From laying the words onto paper to the complete of your final version, it takes at least three revision steps to drain the juice out of your essay perfectly and understandably. Why does it take so long? The answer is rather straight-forward: the first draft is for the structural design, the second draft is for further clarification, and the third draft is for grammar revision. Even these days, I keep my words with this golden principle alongside to teach my students to do so. In this section, I will discuss some important areas in grammar for writing and editing.

1)    Revising Sentence Fragmentation

A sentence should contain a subject, a verb and an object in the simplest form. With additional information added to the sentence, we link multiple ideas together with conjunctions and joint words. Once the sentence becomes an independent clause of its own, you can add a dependent clause with a subordinating word to begin with such as because, since, that, which, while or although. Anything outside of these rules would consider fragmented sentences. Here is the fragmented example below:

This summer in Italy, we took a long vacation in Sicily. Sunbathing at the beach in the morning, sea-diving in the middle of the blue ocean, partying hard at the downtown nightclub. Still am I lingering these days.

To fix it, we have:

This summer in Italy, we took a long vacation in Sicily, [Italy]. [We went] sunbathing at the beach in the morning, sea-diving in the middle of the blue ocean, [and] partying hard at the downtown nightclub. I [am still] lingering these days.

When you compare the above to the fragmented version, it probably reminds you about a few things: parallelism, subject-verb-agreement (which in this case a subject is omitted), and independent vs. dependent clause. Yet, there are multiple ways to fix a (series of) fragmentation. I took an ordinary style revision for the above example. It is plausible to try out different styles, like adding your feelings about the trip by using a colon (:) to list all the activities that made you happy while in Sicily. The writing style varies among individuals. The bottom line is that you must fix a fragmented sentence.

2)    Identify Run-Ons

Have you experienced a non-stoppable writing experience in your daily journaling? Your thoughtful bookkeeping has a limited number of pages which you can freely write upon. Since your mind is overloaded, you may realize that your sentences contain multiple ideas without a structure. It might have uninterrupted with proper punctuation such as commas instead of a correct one called a period (full-stop in British English term). We call this writing phenomenon as run-ons, meaning two independent clauses are closely connected without a proper punctation or an incorrect punction. Most common mistake is like using a comma instead of a period. In extreme cases, people tend to omit all punctions in writing. The run-on example is as follows:

From time to time, airlines file Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to get rid of the lump-sum retirement benefit of the pilots spirit airlines had done that two months ago I am thinking of not flying with them next month to Florida. I can make myself an alternative, for example, a train ride down from the Grand Central, or driving myself down there.

To fix the run-ons, we have:

From time to time, airlines file Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to get rid of the lump-sum retirement benefit of the pilots[.] Spirit airlines had done that two months ago [.] I am thinking of not flying with them next month to Florida. I can make myself an alternative [such as], for example, [taking] a train ride down from the Grand Central or driving myself down there.

In the above example, I separated the independent clauses by using a period and subordinating words to connect relevant information. You can use comma plus a joint word to create a sentence with an independent plus a dependent clause. But before doing so, make sure that you are firm with conjunctive adverbs and transitional words. In some cases, you can use semicolon to join two independent clauses into one sentence. When you are lost in the fortress of ambiguity, you should make two simple sentences following one another.

3)    Always in your head: Subject-Verb-Agreement

It is crucial to remember about the subject-verb-agreement─ the fundamental structure that constitutes a sentence. Verbs should respectively agree with the subject which is notably a noun or a pronoun. By knowing its nature, we then conjugate the verb in respect of number, time, tone of voice and attitude. For example, if the subject contains just one person from the third person’s point of view, we add the -s at the end of the verb. Please see the following examples, the verb is highlighted in yellow as the subject has been underlined:

1)    Mary and John dated each other since their junior year in high school.

2)    Neither the mother nor the child had taken back that missing briefcase.

3)    Everyone is happy about the referendum outcome.

4)    There is a tall redwood tree standing in the middle of the crossroad.

5)    Fever is your body’s alerting system that has significant impact on your health.

As illustrated, each verb must equate to the subject’s characteristic. Since the verb refers to the subject's characteristic, they must agree with each other in the grammar structure. The language story is evolving itself in the application field, but the Subject-Verb-Agreement stays the same as the pillar of the building. Writing itself is as easy as cooking in the kitchen, you may have prepared all the ingredients, sauces, and spices. You can metaphorically consider this topic of Subject-Verb-Agreement as step-by-step processing for both the ingredients and the sauces. Any margin of error caused would be unretractable.

4)    Stick with the original playbook of Verbs

Before revising any lengthy article, I recommend writers to revisit the general rules of grammar for the Parts of Speech that are related to verbs. This includes a) verbs in the base form (subject-verb-agreement), b) past/present/future tense, c) past/present participles, and d) regular/ irregular verbs. For every sentence you describe, you must use the accurate tense because it pictures the setting to your readers. You should ask whether the statement is in the past, present or future? If the actions occurred and (might have) completed in a designated period of time in the past, you must be clear about present perfect- talking now about a completed past, past perfect- about an ongoing but ended past, or future perfect- discussed future event in the past and pending to happen. You need to be clear in your thought of expression. For irregular verbs, please double-confirm your word choices. See the following examples:

fall (base)> fell (past tense)>> fallen (past participle) vs.

set (base) > set (past tense)>> set (past participle) vs.

come (base) > came (past tense) >> come (past participle)

Also, please go through some confused word list to check for mixed up words, such as sit vs set and lay vs lie etc. After completing the verbs’ checklist, you are set to finish your writing for submission or publication.

5)    Small talk on Pronouns

Pronouns serve to replace nouns as the antecedent form of the sentence. Like the mechanism utilized in the Subject-Verb-agreement, the pronoun must characteristically equal to their antecedent: singular or plural depends on the context. Indefinite pronouns are always singular; if you encounter a gender bias or a disagreement in between, you must change it into a plural form and revise sentence’s phrasing. A generic noun characterizes the representatives in groups; the pronoun must be in plural form. Too in a special case, Compound antecedent must be in plural because a joint word used connects two parts into one. If one pronoun is singular and another one is plural, the sentence would be effectively better. As people in the community are considered individual, Collective nouns must always have singular pronouns. The variety of pronouns serve different purposes in the sentence structure. As a writer, you must be clear to which noun you are referring to, otherwise the reader would feel ambiguous in your writing.

6)    Using Adjectives and Adverbs correctly

To add a bit of taste to your expression, you need some spices for the noun and pronoun. It is called Adjectives. And in addition to the flavor, you may set the attitude with adverbs for the verbs, adjectives, and other Parts of Speech in the clause. In the world of English literature, adjectives serve as the color brush to portrait the flamboyant picture into your nerve. But not so much the same for adverbs; it only appears to be in formal writing. They function as a degree measurement towards the clausal expression like the following:

1)    The spaghetti bowl was so delicious (adj).

2)    I am desperately (adv.) hungry (adj) for the spaghetti bowl.

In the process of editing, you should be cautious about the adjectives and adverbs are referring to. When the sentence structure contains multiple phrases and clauses, you must clarify your statement accordingly. For the comparatives and superlatives of adjectives and adverbs, you must have a clear state of mind in words that should end with -er/-est for more/most accordingly. Let me revise 2) above:  I am desperately (adv.) hungrier (com. adj) when I miss that spaghetti bowl. With the comparative expression, readers would now know I had priority for the event if I missed. For adjectives that are double comparatives, you must establish a clear description of the cause-and-effect relationship in the statement. Beware not to misplace the adjectives and adverbs in the incorrect location.

Conclusion)

Grammar editing is the crucible step in the finish stage of writing. In the first draft, a good writer can fly words all over without any compromise to get ideas onto paper. But things start being serious if you need to smoothen your expression in the language of taste and flavor plus a logical grammar structure. I recommend asking your friends and teachers to proofread your draft. Take a moment to reflect on it, you are likely to self-determine if you would make better word choices in various paraphrasing. Overall, the above sections should give writers a warmth alarm for areas of concern. Please refer to your reference materials for more information.

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