Things I'd Rather Not Have to Read

There are a few simple grammatical mistakes that I see repeatedly. I think native English speakers not wanting to appear illiterate should attempt to avoid these mistakes.

• Subject-verb agreement: Consider the following sentence: Each student should think about how he or she words things. Many people will instead incorrectly write Each student should think about how they word things. "Student" is singular, and so the personal pronoun also must be singular; "they," being plural, is incorrect. A possible re-phrasing avoiding this inconsistency is Students should think about how they word things. Another fine choice is Each student should think about how he words things. When the gender is unknown, "he" is completely correct.

  A second illustration of this mistake is taken from linkedin.com: "Neto Rotta has added new links and updated their profile." Neto Rotta is one person, so the sentence should say that he updated his profile, not that he updated their profile.

• Comma splices: Quoting Brusaw, "Do not attempt to join two independent clauses with only a comma; this is called a comma splice." Consider this ungrammatical example: He applied for the other position, it paid much better. Here are a few grammatically-correct alternatives:
  • He applied for the other position; it paid much better.
  • He applied for the other position since it paid much better.
  • He applied for the other position. It paid much better. In this case it might clearer to replace "It" at the beginning of the second sentence with "The other position."
• Me, Myself, and I: Let's take this in two pieces, (1) Myself and I, and (2) Myself and me.
  1. Consider this sentence: Matt Miller and myself worked on a press release. It should be Matt Miller and I worked on a press release.
  2. Consider this sentence: At the end of the week, send it to the TA or myself. First, if the TA were not involved, would the sentence be At the end of the week, send it to myself? No, it would be At the end of the week, send it to me.
  I realize that professional athletes and sportscasters prefer "myself" under most conditions, but they also regularly refer to themselves in the third person. Quoting Brusaw, "Never use a reflexive pronoun as a subject or as a substitute for a subject."

And now a few more items worth mentioning:

• Use paragraphs. It's puzzling when someone turns in a paper, even a short one, that's all one paragraph. At the very least, the introduction, the body, and the conclusion should be separate paragraphs.
• Papers should not be written in the second person.
• Check the spelling and grammar of any submission.

Students shouldn't hesitate to refer to a grammar reference when writing. A few good online references are

• The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL);
• Grammar Girl;
• Strunk's Elements of Style.

An off-line reference which I recommend is Charles T. Brusaw, Gerald J. Alred, and Walter E. Oliu. Handbook of Technical Writing. 4th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press; 1993. The 8th edition is now available.

This site is in no way affiliated with the Professional Organization of English Majors, P.O.E.M.

• To Martens' Course Page;
• To Martens' home page;
• To the UMBC IS Dept.;
• To UMBC.

, Jeff Martens.