Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill [285]
An infinitive—composed of the root form of a verb plus to (to be, to vote)— becomes a verbal when it is used as a noun (“To eat is essential”), an adjective (“These are the books to read”), or an adverb (“He was too sick to walk”).
Similarly, a participle—usually composed of the root form of a verb plus “–ing” (present participle) or “–ed” (past participle)—becomes a verbal when used as an adjective. It can occur as a single word, modifying a noun, as in faltering negotiations or finished business. But it also can occur in a participial phrase, consisting of the participle, its object, and any modifiers. Here are two examples:
Having been tried and convicted, the criminal was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Following the path of most resistance, the masochist took deep pleasure in his frustration.
“Having been tried and convicted” is a participial phrase that modifies “criminal”; “Following the path of most resistance” is a participial phrase that modifies “masochist.” In each case, the participial phrase functions as an adjective.
The third form of verbal, the gerund, resembles the participle. Like the participle, it is formed by adding “–ing” to the root form of the verb, but unlike the participle, it is used as a noun. In the sentence “Swimming is extraordinarily aerobic,” the gerund “swimming” functions as the subject. Again like participles, gerunds can occur in phrases. The gerund phrases are italicized in the following example: “Watching a film adaptation takes less effort than reading the book from which it was made.”
When using a verbal, remember that although it resembles a verb, it cannot function alone as the verb in a sentence: “Being a military genius” is a fragment, not a sentence.
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Assignments for Working With Basic Writing Errors
Chart the BWEs. Write an example for each of the BWEs, along with a corrected version.
Compose a Grammar and Style Quiz. Write a paragraph that contains all of the basic writing errors. Not every sentence should contain an error, and you may contain multiple examples of the errors, but make sure you include all nine. Then, append an answer key in which you identify the errors and provide corrections.
Research Online Resources. Go online to different universities and colleges in search of their writing centers, and then look for the ways these websites handle the problem of grammatical correctness. See as an example OWL at Purdue University. Write a brief summary of what you find there.
Circle Every Punctuation Mark. Take a short piece of writing, your own or someone else’s, published or unpublished. Circle every punctuation mark and explain why it is there. This is a useful exercise to do in pairs or in small groups. As a follow-up exercise, you might underline every independent clause and double-underline every dependent clause, circling the subordinating conjunctions.
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CHAPTER 19 APPENDIX
Basic Writing Errors (BWEs) Test Yourself Section Answer Key (With Discussion)
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Test Yourself 19.1: Fragments
1. Original example: Like many other anthropologists, Margaret Mead studied non-Western cultures in such works as Coming of Age in Samoa. And influenced theories of childhood development in America.
Problem: The second sentence is actually a fragment, a predicate in need of a subject.
Possible correction: Like many other anthropologists, Margaret Mead studied non-Westerncultures (in such works as Coming of Age in Samoa) in ways that influenced theories of childhood development in America.
Comment: There are many ways to fix this example, but its original form leaves ambiguous whether the fragment refers only to Mead, or to many other anthropologists as well. The correction offered includes the other anthropologists in the referent and diminishes the emphasis on Mead’s book by placing it within parentheses. Although the correction uses a subordinating that to incorporate the fragment into the first sentence, it keeps this information in an emphatic position at the end