Improve Your Grammar
Some Cool Tools (but No Magic Pills)
Learn from Mistakes
Pay attention to comments on your papers
–For instance,
if your instructor writes “fragment” on your paper, find out what a
fragment is.
Common Errors
•Fragments
•Verb Tense Shifts
•Subject-Verb Agreement
•Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
• Unclear Pronoun Reference
•Mixed Construction
•Capitalization
•Run-Ons and Comma Splices
•Shift in Person
•Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
•Usage problems--Confused Words
•Apostrophes
•Commas
•Faulty Parallelism
Cool Tool #1 for Academic Writing: OWL at Purdue
The OWL has grammar handouts you can print out, information about how to
document sources, and how to write different kinds of papers.
 The OWL (Online Writing Lab) at Purdue home http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
 The OWL at Purdue grammar handouts http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/2/
 Purdue OWL PowerPoint Resources
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/760/1/
 See the Editing and Proofreading Strategies handout on the Purdue OWL website at
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/994/06/
 Sometimes when you try to write more complex sentences, you run into trouble
because your sentences are grammatically confused. See the Purdue OWL Sentence
Clarity PowerPoint at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/711/1/
Cool Tool #2 for Practice Quizzes and PowerPoint Presentations: Guide to
Grammar and Writing
The Guide to Grammar and Writing has interactive quizzes and PowerPoint presentations
 Homepage at http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
 List of Interactive Quizzes at
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quiz_list.htm
 Guide to Grammar and Writing Sentence PowerPoint presentations at
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/powerpoint.htm
Cool Tool #3 for a Free Individual Study Plan: Exercise Central
You can take a diagnostic test and follow your own study plan at Exercise Central. You can
do a Basic Study Plan, a Comprehensive Study Plan, or an ESL Study Plan. You get free
access to tutorials and hundreds of interactive exercises.
 Register for Bedford/St. Martin’s Ex erci s e C en tra l. Do not send your results to
any instructor’s email unless your instructor wants to get your quiz results. To
register and use the free website, go to
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/exercisecentral/
Cool Tool #4 for Grammar Tips: Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tricks for
Better Writing
 If you like to learn grammar in fun small doses and find the answers to
common questions such as whether you should use “who” or “that” for animals
and people, you can go to the website or to iTunes and download Grammar
Girl podcasts http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com.
Cool Tools for Fun Ways to Learn Grammar:
Fun Site #1: Grammar Bytes at http://www.chompchomp.com -- most humorous site
for videos, PowerPoints, interactive quizzes, and more!
Fun Site #2: Free Rice at http://freerice.com/ -- Grammar
http://freerice.com/#/english-grammar/1936454 that does good!
Fun Site #3: Schoolhouse Rock on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ht5ByH7-V4
How to Improve Your Writing
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Know your own common errors
Target one at a time.
Practice revising and fixing your errors.
Learn how to combine sentences effectively
Don’t give up. It takes a long time to overcome bad habits.
Read a lot. Reading good writing helps improve your vocabulary and awareness of
the craft of writing.