| A Military Writer's Handbook | |
|
| Common Errors | |
|
|
|
Common Errors: Introduction Most sentence errors result from the writer's inability to recognize a grammatical sentence. Fragments, comma splices, run-on or fused sentences, dangling modifiers, faulty parallelism— all play fast and loose with the logic and conventions of the English sentence. Many writers have occasional problems with ungrammatical sentences; some student writers have persistent difficulties with the essential workings of a sentence. Whatever the case, errors in sentence structure or an inability to recognize when a group of words constitutes a sentence can create confusion for your reader and detract from your efforts to communicate clearly. Recognizing and repairing sentence errors requires that you first understand
the basic elements and patterns of an English sentence. Before you read
the material on common sentence errors in this section, pay a visit
to the Primer section at the beginning of the Handbook
and review the brief section entitled "Parts of a Sentence."
|
Contents Sentence fragments
|