Grammar Module Four: Style
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Subject-Verb Agreement
Pronoun Agreement and Reference
Modifiers
Parallel Construction
Avoiding Shifts in Time and Person
Active and Passive Voice
I. Subject-Verb Agreement
In a sentence, a verb should agree with a subject in person (first, second, or third) and in number (singular
or plural). So, what does that mean? Say, we have the verb work. The verb form changes depending on
the subject: we say "I work", but we say, "he works". We call this subject-verb agreement.
Agreement is easy when the subject is clear and is placed right beside the verb, but occasionally the writer
can misidentify the subject or lose sight of it completely.
Tricky Plural Forms
Look at the example, which is incorrect. The subject and verb are in italics.
Incorrect:
In judging managerial style, the most important criteria is concern for relationships with people.
In this sentence, the subject and verb do not agree. Why? Because "criteria" is a plural word. The singular is
"criterion". If you were to replace the word "criteria" with an pronoun, the pronoun would be "they", not
"it". Would you write, "They is"? No, it would be "They are". So, in the above sentence, the subject would
have to be "criterion" to match the verb form "is".
Correct:
In judging managerial style, the most important criterion is concern for relationships with people.
Picking the Correct Verb Form
Most times, our ear will tell us what is the correct verb form for a subject without us even
having to think about it consciously. But when the tricky forms occur, how do we figure out
what is the correct verb form for the subject?
One way to do this is to ask yourself, would I replace this subject, for example "criterion", with "
he", "she", "it" or with "they"?
In this case, "criterion" would be replaced by an "it". Then try asking yourself, what verb form
would I use with "it" as the subject? Would I say "It is" or "It are"? We usually know right
away using the pronoun.
Compound Subjects
Look at the example, which is incorrect. The subject and verb are in italics.
Incorrect:
Computers, film and television influences the attention span of adolescents.
In this sentence, the subject and verb do not agree. In fact, the above sentence has more than one subject,
or a compound subject: computers, film and television.
Would you replace "computers, film and television" with "it" or "they"? Clearly, with "they". Would you
write, "They influences"? No, but you would write, "They influence". So, "influence" is the correct form of
the verb.
Correct:
Computers, film and television influence the attention span of adolescents.
Collective or Entity Subjects
Nouns like family, government, group, audience, staff, faculty, team, and company are usually considered to
be singular words. A government may be made up of people, but together these people form one unit or
entity: the government. Therefore, government is a singular word, and the pronoun you would use to
replace it is "it" not "they". So, the following sentences are correct.
Correct:
My family is crazy.
This government runs full page ads in major daily newspapers.
The faculty is happy with the new contract.
Occasionally, one of these collective or entity words may be used in a context that emphasizes or denotes
the individuals making up the entity.
Correct:
My family are taking holidays at different times of the year.
"Family" is not an "it" in this sentence, but a "they". So, as we would write, "They are taking", this sentence
is considered correct.
Lost Subjects
Writers occasionally lose track of the subjects of their sentences, making subject-verb agreement difficult.
Incorrect:
The most difficult thing about living in the barrens are the sudden snowstorms.
The subject is not "barrens" but "thing".
Correct:
The most difficult thing about living in the barrens is the sudden snowstorms.
One reason why writers may lose track of their subjects is that occasionally words intervene between the
subject and the verb, distracting the writer, who reacts by making the verb agree with an adjacent noun
that is not the subject. Look at the following:
Incorrect:
In The Rape of the Lock, Pope implies that stiffened hoops bound with whalebone is not enough to guard a
lady's virtue.
The writer has made the verb agree with "whalebone" not with the actual subject, "hoops".
Correct:
In The Rape of the Lock, Pope implies that stiffened hoops bound with whalebone are not enough to guard
a lady's virtue.
Singular Indefinite Pronouns as Subjects
Idefinite pronouns are pronouns that do not by themselves refer to a specific person or thing.
Indefinite Pronouns that are Singular:
each, each one
anybody, anyone, anything
everybody, everyone, everything
somebody, someone, something
nobody, no one, nothing
one, another, other
either, neither
much
In the following correct sentences, a singular indefinte pronoun is the subject and the verb that agrees with
the subject is in the singular form.
Correct:
Each child is special in his or her own way.
Is anybody there?
Everybody is happy.
Either Jim or Martin is telling a lie.
Neither you nor I is completely right in this argument.
Incorrect:
Neither of these organizations deliver effective aid to developing countries.
The subject in this sentence is not "organizations", the word right before the verb. The subject is "neither",
the singular indefinite pronoun. Think of it as as "it" not a "they". You would write, "It delivers" not "It
deliver".
Correct:
Neither of these organizations delivers effective aid to developing countries.
Web Link: Exercise 1 Subject-Verb Agreement
http://www.trentu.ca/history/workbook/documents/Exercise1Subject-VerbAgreement.pdf
II. Pronoun Agreement and Reference
A pronoun is a word such as I, you, he, she, it, they, who that takes the place of a noun. If we are talking
about Brenda, we don't always have to use the noun, Brenda, we can use a pronoun to replace the word:
she or her. We do this after we have used the noun, so we know exactly who or what the pronoun is
referring to.
This noun is called the antecedent, and we say that the pronoun must agree with its antecedent. (We use
she for Brenda to make the pronoun agree in gender with its antecedent, and we use she instead of they to
make it agree in number.) When writing, we must also make sure that it
is clear to what noun the pronoun is referring.
Agreement of Pronouns
1. A pronoun must agree with its antecedent.
Incorrect:
Our son was born on May 1st. It weighed seven pounds.
Correct:
Our son was born on May 1st. He weighed seven pounds.
2. Use a singular pronoun after such words as each, either, neither, one, no one, everyone, someone,
anyone, nobody, everybody, somebody, anybody.
Incorrect:
Not one of the students received an A on their paper.
(The above is something we might say, but it is wrong in formal, grammatically correct writing because it
doesn't make logical sense. One is singular and their is plural.)
Correct (but awkward):
Not one of the students received an A on his or her paper.
In the above example, what is correct is also awkward. Sometimes it may be best to revise the sentence so
that the antecedent is in the plural so the pronoun can also be plural:
Correct:
All of the students received less than A on their papers.
3. Use a singular pronoun to refer to a collective or entity noun such as crowd or committee when the group
or entity is considered as a whole.
Correct:
The crowd, venting its anger, smashed the police car.
Use a plural pronoun to refer to a collective or entity noun when the members are thought of singly.
Correct:
The committee are agreed that they must present their report to Parliament this month.
4. Use a plural pronoun to agree with two antecendents joined by and.
Correct:
The owner and the manager of the business quickly made their fortunes.
Pronoun reference
Every pronoun should refer clearly to a specifice antecedent that has been mentioned and is close by. There
are three problems in pronoun reference that sometimes arise:


ambiguous reference
general reference

weak reference
1. Ambiguous reference: If a pronoun could refer to more than one noun, the noun it is referring to is
unclear or ambiguous.
Incorrect:
John told Gordon that Mr Walsh did not remember him.
In the above example, we do not if the him refers to John or Gordon.
Such ambiguity can be avoided by using direct speech or by avoiding a pronoun and using a noun instead.
Correct:
John said to Gordon, "Mr Walsh does not remember me."
or
John said to Gordon, "Mr Walsh does not remember you."
John told Gordon that Mr Walsh did not remember Gordon.
2. General reference: Pronouns replace nouns only, that is they replace one noun: a person, place, thing,
concept: him replaces Gordon, for example. General reference means the pronoun is being used by the
writer to refer to a general idea in a preceding phrase or sentence rather than to a specific, identifiable
noun.
Incorrect:
The school can no longer raise money by selling lottery tickets because it is now forbidden by school board
regulations.
In the above example, the pronoun it does not have an antecedent. It is referring to the phrase, selling
lottery tickets. This is more than a pronoun can do.
Correct:
The school can no longer raise money by selling lottery tickets because this sale is now forbidden by school
board regulations.
or
The school can no longer raise money through the sale of lottery tickets because it is now forbidden by
school board regulations.
3. Weak reference: This happens when there is no antecedent at all for the pronoun to refer to.
Incorrect:
As she watched the sailboat, it suddenly got up, filling the sails.
In the above example, the pronoun it would seem to refer to the adjacent noun sailboat. But the sentence
doesn't make sense. The pronoun does not have an antecedent.
Correct:
As she watched the sailboat, the wind suddenly got up, filling the sails.
Finally, take a look at the following incorrect sentence.
Incorrect:
Before publishing her recipe book, Liz personally tested them all.
The pronoun them does not have an antecedent in this sentence, although clearly the writer meant them to
refer back to recipe. Although recipe is a noun, in this sentence it is being used as an adjective, a word that
modifies or describes a noun. As such, it cannot be an antecedent to a pronoun (a word that replaces a
noun not a modifier).
Correct:
Before publishing her recipe book, Liz personally tested all the recipes.
or
Before publishing her recipes, Liz personally tested them all.
Web Link: Exercise 2 Pronoun Agreement and Reference
http://www.trentu.ca/history/workbook/documents/Exercise2PronounReference.pdf
III. Misplaced, Squinting and Dangling Modifiers
A modifier is a word, phrase or clause which speaks about or describes another word in the same sentence.
Confusion results when a reader cannot tell to which word a modifier is attached. A modifier must, therfore,
clearly modify a word in the sentence.
Misplaced Modifiers
A misplaced modifier is a word or expression not placed closely enough to the word it modifies. The result
may be confusing or unintentionally humourous.
Incorrect:
The minister chatted informally about the cost of living with several women.
Correct:
The minister chatted informally with several women about the cost of living.
In the first sentence, the writer reports the minister as talking about the "cost of living with several women,"
which was not the actual subject of conversation. In the correct sentence, the phrase "with several women"
has been moved closer to the verb, "chatted," which it was meant to modify and, as a result, the meaning
becomes clear.
Squinting Modifiers
Occasionally, a word or phrase can be placed so that it could refer to either one of two sentence elements.
This is known as a squinting modifier.
Incorrect:
Post offices are open on Saturdays only in the country.
Correct:
Post offices are open only on Saturdays in the country.
or
Post office are open on Saturdays in the country only.
Dangling Modifiers
A dangling modifier is usually a phrase, frequently found at the beginning of a sentence, which refers to a
word that is not actually stated in the sentence at all.
Incorrect:
Waking in the night, the fire engine could be heard.
Correct:
Waking in the night, I could hear the fire engine.
In the first sentence, the phrase "waking in the night" modifies "the fire engine," technically saying that the
fire engine woke in the night. The modifier is dangling at the beginning of the sentence with nothing to
modify. To avoid a dangling modifier, the writer must clearly express, right after the comma that comes
after the dangling modifier, the word the phrase actually modifies.
Note: in conversation, we often use dangling modifiers. But we should avoid them in correct, formal writing.
There are different ways to correct danglers. Examine the following examples.
Incorrect:
Staying in England in March, the crocuses were in bloom.
Correct:
Staying in England in March, I enjoyed the crocuses, which were in bloom.
or
When I stayed in England in March, the crocuses were in bloom.
Incorrect:
To climb mountains safely, good equipment is essential.
Correct:
If one wants to climb mountains safely, good equipment is essential.
or
To climb mountains safely, mountaineers require good equipment.
Incorrect:
By missing ten lectures, the exam seemed difficult.
Correct:
By missing ten lectures, I found the exam difficult.
or
Because I had missed ten lectures, the exam seemed difficult.
Incorrect:
When six years old, my mother died.
Correct:
When six years old, I lost my mother.
or
When I was six years old, my mother died.
Web Link: Exercise 3 Modifiers Exercise
http://www.trentu.ca/history/workbook/documents/Exercise3Misplaced.pdf
IV. Parallel Construction
When writing sentences with lists or series, use parallel construction, which means putting the elements of
the list or series in a grammatically equal form. Look at the following examples of parallel construction to
get an idea of what this means; the elements in grammatically equal form are in bold.
His writing was neat and legible.
not
His writing was neat and I could read it easily.
The car was equipped with a radio but not with a CD player.
not
The car was equipped with a radio but there was no CD player.
He told us to pack up all our belongings and to leave the country within twenty-four hours.
not
He told us to that we must pack up all our belongings and to leave the country withing twenty-four hours.
Parallel construction gives balance and continuity to writing, making sentences clearer and easier to
understand.
Parallel construction is also handy when using colons followed by numbered, itemized or bulleted lists. In
labs, resumes and other documents, make sure that items following a colon are in parallel construction.
Awkward:
Your report must cover the following topics:




the reason for the experiment
what will it demonstrate?
how the exhibit will be set up
what materials will be used?
Parallel:
Your report must cover the following topics:




the
the
the
the
reason for the experiment
proof of the experiment
construction of the demonstration
materials for the experiment
Using Parallel Construction with Addition and with Comparison and Contrast
Elements that are being added to or are being compared or contrasted by the use of pairs of conjunctions,
like both...and, either...or or not only...but, can be expressed more clearly and emphatically by the use of
parallel construction.
Awkward:
We judge our friends not only by their words but also by what they do.
Parallel:
We judge our friends not only by their words but also by their actions.
Parallel construction is frequently used in proverbs and epigrams to emphasize an idea or to fix it in the
reader's mind. It is also frequently used in speeches for the same reason.
Early to bed and early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the the love or ourselves. --William
Hazlitt
Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. --John F.
Kennedy
Web Link: Exercise 4 Parallel Construction
http://www.trentu.ca/history/workbook/documents/Exercise4ParallelConstruction.pdf
V. Avoiding Shifts in Time and Person
Look at the following sentences.
Awkward:
The industrial designer gave a brief description of her new design, and then she demonstrates the product.
When a person fails to dress warmly, you can expect to get a cold.
In the first sentence, the reader expects demonstrates to be demonstrated because the first verb of that
sentence, gave, is in the past tense. The verb tense, or time, of the sentence has shifted in a confusing
way. There is no logical reason for it.
In the second sentence, the writer starts off referring to a person but then shifts to you. The shift in person
creates awkwardness.
Both sentences sound less awkward when the shifts are eliminated.
Correct:
The industrial designer gave a brief description of her new design, and then she demonstrated the product.
When a person fails to dress warmly, that person can expect to get a cold.
or
When a person fails to dress warmly, he or she can expect to get a cold.
VI. Shifting Verb Tense
A shift in verb tense indicates a shift in time. Sometimes more than one verb tense is used in a sentence,
paragraph or essay when the meaning calls for such a shift. The shifts in tense may be necessary to explain
changes or continuities over time or for other reasons.
Shifting verb tense is only a problem when there is no logical reason for it.
The present tense is used to describe action in works of literature or other art forms such as film, opera,
television shows etc.
Logical Shifting Verb Tense:
We went to see Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, in which the three main characters die: Mercutio, Romeo
and Juliet.
Also use the present tense when writing about what other writers, scholars, historians, scientists etc are
writing or saying.
Ferguson argues that colonialism was not all bad.
Also use the present tense when describing general truths.
Research indicates that second hand smoke increases the risk of cancer.
Active and Passive Voice
What is the difference between active and passive voice?
Look at the following examples.
Active:
Rules and models destroy genius and art.
Passive:
Genius and art are destroyed by rules and models.
Active:
Little Jack Horner sat in a corner.
Passive:
A corner was sat in by Little Jack Horner.
In a sentence in which a verb has an active voice, the subject of the verb is acting, that is, the subject is
the noun or pronoun doing the action of the verb: rules and models are destroying and Little Jack Horner is
sitting.
In a sentence in which a verb has a passive voice, the subject of the verb is being acted upon or is passive.
Genius and art are not doing anything, they being acted upon, they are being destroyed. A corner is not
doing anything, it is being acted upon, it is being sat in.
As you can see, in these two examples, the passive voice makes meaning unnecessarily indirect. That is
why the usual advice is to use the active voice.
The active voice is less wordy and indirect, but it also forces clearer and more precise thinking: the writer
must name a subject and say what that subject is doing.
The passive voice, on the other hand, allows the actor or doer in a sentence to remain invisible. The actor
or doer does not even have to appear:
Genius and art are destroyed.
A corner was sat in.
An error was made.
People were killed.
These passive sentences don't tell us who made the error or who killed the people. Active sentences would.
Even when the actor is present in a passive sentence, he, she or it seems not particularly responsible for the
action because they are distanced from it by being positioned after the verb.
An error was made by two Canadian pilots.
People were killed by the bombs.
Notice how changing these passive sentences into active sentences makes them both more direct and less
wordy.
Two Canadia pilots made an error.
The bombs killed people.
Reasons for Choosing the Passive Voice
Use the passive voice when the actor is unknown or irrelevant.
It may be that in a time of widening uncertainty and chronic stress, the historian's voice is the most
needed.--Barbara Tuchmann
Although this sentence doesn't tell us who needs the historian's voice, we assume that all people, humanity
at large, have this need. Because we are able to make this assumption, the passive voice is useful here.
Use the passive voice when you want to focus on the action or the thing being acted upon, not the doer. In
lab reports, passive voice can be appropriate, especially in the methods and materials sections.
The seeds were dispersed.
The results were then analyzed.
Web Link: Exercise 5 Active and Passive Voice
http://www.trentu.ca/history/workbook/documents/Exercise5ActiveandPassiveVoice.pdf
The Academic Skills Centre, Trent University
www.trentu.ca/academicskills
acdskills@trentu.ca/705-748-1720