And now, More
Grammar
Kin 100W
Emily H. Wughalter, Ed.D.
With an -ing Ending
• Kinesiology majors like to swim, bike,
and run.
• Running, biking, and swimming are the
three components of the triathlon.
• Do not mix: Kinesiology majors like
swimming, running, and to bike.
Pick out the problems in
the following sentences
• The teacher said that he was a poor
student because he waited until the last
minute to study for the exam, complete
his lab problems in a careless manner, and
his motivation was low.
• The coach told the players that they
should get a lot of sleep, that they should
not each too much, and to do some warm up
exercises before the game.
• The dictionary can be used for these
purposes: to find word meanings,
pronunciations, correct spellings, and
looking up irregular verbs.
• The nutritional aspects of women athletes
are relatively similar to a man’s but have
several varied characteristics.
• This loss leads to difficulty with weightbearing tasks, increases risk of fall and
fracture, increases fatigue time, and
exercise difficulty.
• Sixteen male pubescent soccer players, 13 years of age,
58.7 cm, and physically participated in soccer for about 4.5
years were included in this study.
• This can lead to eating disorders to lose weight,
overworking of the muscles also knows, or beginning touse
steroids to increase muscle mass.
• There are various explanations as to why catastrophic head
injuries occur in high school, such as, their brain is not fully
developed so the injury threshold is lower, the skill is
thinner providing less protection to the brain, less medical
coverage at high school games, and/or younger players have
not fully developed proper strategies to avoid brain injury.
•
Faulty Parallelism
Formerly, science was taught by
the textbook method, while now
the laboratory method is
employed.
The French, the
Italians, Spanish, and
Portuguese
•
Corrected Version
Formerly, science was taught
by the textbook method; now
it is taught by the laboratory
method.
The French, the Italians, the
Spanish, and the Portuguese
Correct These Statements
for Parallel Structure and/or
Agreement
• She likes to listen to music and dancing to
the tunes.
• Every one of his colleagues swear he’s the
best qualified for the job.
• The album containing the old man’s will and
childhood photographs were found hidden
beneath a trapdoor in the closet.
• When young children lose a parent,
their grief and loneliness often leads
them to become withdrawn.
• Neither Mr. Forbes nor Miss Johnson
were in the classroom when the fire
broke out.
• The team was given a standing
ovation after it won the game.
• The number of problems that turned
up was disheartening.
• There was complaints; here’s two of
them.
• Both Bob and Carol feels that Ted
and Alice are too old to trick or
treat.
• The sociologist believes that
commercials usually exaggerate the
happiness that comes with buying
products and leads us to develop
unrealistic expectations.
• Masculine Pronoun
– Everybody in the country is naturally
concerned for his welfare.
• Plural agreement following two or
more antecedents joined by an “and”.
– He and she ate their dinner quickly.
• Singular agreement following two or more
singular antecedents joined by “or” or
“nor”
• Either Jack or Paul is bound to forget his
appointment.
– Singular agreement after collective nouns
the sense of which is singular.
• The class elected its officers at the end of the
term.
– An impossible situation: singular and plural
antecedents joined by “or” or “nor”
• Either the boy or his parents have lost his (or
their) mind.
– Change to:
» Either the boy has lost his mind or his parents
are out of their wits.
• Avoid ambiguous reference. Be sure that
a pronoun cannot be taken to refer to
more than one possible antecedent.
• My mother told the female secretary that she
had made a mistake.
– Try: My mother reprimanded the secretary for
making a mistake.
– Avoid remote reference. Be sure that a
pronoun has a definite antecedent instead
of a vague idea.
• He played golf all morning and tennis all
afternoon which was probably bad for his
health.
– Try: He played golf all morning and tennis all
afternoon. So much exertion was bad for his health.
• Avoid reference to a noun in the
possessive case.
– Jimmy Connors made history with
accomplishments in the 1991 US Tennis
Open. He was cheered on by many
tennis fans in America.
• Try: Jimmy Connors made history with
accomplishments in the 1991 US Tennis
Open. Connors was cheered on by many fans
in America.
Complete Sentences
• Contain a noun and a verb and
express a complete thought
• Simple, Compound and Complex
Basic Sentence
Structure
• Part of the sentence that names is
the subject
• Part of the sentence that makes a
statement about the subject is the
predicate
• Verb and all of its modifiers
Simple Sentences
• Contain a single, simple thought
I enjoy teaching 100W.
I learn more about writing.
I enjoy getting to know the Kinesiology
students.
Or
I enjoy teaching 100W because I learn more
about writing and I get to know our students
better.
Simple Sentences Can Be
Modified
• To write an engineering book requires
knowledge of the field.
• To write a complete book of
aerospace engineering requires a
thorough knowledge of the
engineering field.
Compound Sentences
• Two or more main clauses
– A clause is a group of words with a
subject and a predicate held together in
grammatical union.
Complex sentences
• Contain two independent clauses or
an independent and dependent clause
– Dependent because the clause cannot
stand alone as a complete sentence
– Independent because the clause can
stand alone as a complete sentence
Compound Sentences with
Two Independent Main
Clauses
• Today I have a busy day; I have to
teach three classes and run two
meetings.
• The ACSM recommends a minimum of
3 and a maximum of 5 days per week
of exercise; ACSM also made
recommendations for intensity and
duration.
Complex Sentences with an
Independent and a Dependent
Clause
• I’d like to do a lot of traveling when I’m rich and famous.
• The Martin Luther King Jr. Library won the Library of the
Year award for its concept and innovation.
• Today the Martin Luther King Jr. library will be highlighted
at a press conference including dignitaries such as:
President Kassing, Dean Keifer, and Mayor Reed.
• Today the MLK library will be highlighted at a press
conference including dignitaries from campus and community
such as: SJSU Pres Kassing, Provost Sigler, and Dean
Keifer; Mayor Reed and City Councilperson Wughalter.
What are Coordinating
Conjunctions?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So
Coordinating
Conjunctions (FANBOYS)
• Coordinating conjunctions connect
two correlated and complete
sentences
• Place a comma before the
coordinating conjunction
• The bank was crowded, so I decided
to go there at another time.
• I am a member of our professional
organization and serve on its Board
of Governors, for I believe scholars
should be active in their fields.
• I am a professor of Kinesiology, and I
became undergraduate coordinator in the
fall 2009.
• I love my dogs and cats, but I am mindful
when children are present.
• Physical activity affects the onset of
diabetes, but researchers must be
cognizant of the diabetes type (Type I or
Type II).
Conjunctive Adverbs
• Conjunctive adverbs refer
to subject matter of the
preceding sentence,
including:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Accordingly
Also
Consequently
However
Nevertheless
Therefore
Then
Moreover
Furthermore
Use a semicolon
with conjunctive
adverbs
• I am the teacher; therefore you
should listen to me.
• In the Surgeon General’s Report, he
supported the role of physical
activity in our lives; however, the
impact on the people of the United
States has been minimal.
• Physical activity is important for the
health and economic outlook for
United States; furthermore we need
to consider the intake of calories
when determining health risk.