Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill.original_ [274]
Some Advice on Proofreading
Have a separate proofreading phase at the end of your composing process in which you attend only to grammar and punctuation.
Look at each sentence as a discrete unit. If you have trouble doing this—if you get caught up in the flow of your thinking—try proofreading the paper backward. Start with the last sentence, then the next-to-last, and move all the way from back to front.
Circle each punctuation mark, and ask yourself why it is there. In this way, you will be more likely to find commas where there should be periods.
Read your paper out loud with a pencil in hand. Writers are much more likely to notice errors when they hear them. (Many of the BWEs typically make sentences difficult to follow and difficult to read out loud.)
BWE 1: SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
The most basic of writing errors, a sentence fragment, is a group of words punctuated like a complete sentence but lacking the necessary structure: it is only part of a sentence. Typically, a sentence fragment occurs when the group of words in question (1) lacks a subject, (2) lacks a predicate, or (3) is a subordinate (or dependent) clause.
To fix a sentence fragment, either turn it into an independent clause by providing whatever is missing—a subject or a predicate—or attach it to an independent clause on which it can depend.
Noun Clause (No Predicate) as a Fragment
A world where imagination takes over and sorrow is left behind.
This fragment is not a sentence but rather a noun clause—a sentence subject with no predicate. The fragment lacks a verb that would assert something about the subject. (The verbs takes over and is left are in a dependent clause created by the subordinating conjunction where.)
Corrections
A world arose where imagination takes over and sorrow is left behind. [new verb matched to “a world”]
She entered a world where imagination takes over and sorrow is left behind. [new subject and verb added]
The first correction adds a new verb (“arose”). The second introduces a new subject and verb, converting the fragment into the direct object of “she entered.”
Verbal as a Fragment
Falling into debt for the fourth consecutive year.
“Falling” in the preceding fragment is not a verb. Depending on the correction, “falling” is either a verbal or part of a verb phrase.
Corrections
The company was falling into debt for the fourth consecutive year. [subject and helping verb added]
Falling into debt for the fourth consecutive year led the company to consider relocating. [new predicate added]
Falling into debt for the fourth consecutive year, the company considered relocating. [new subject and verb added]
In the first correction, the addition of a subject and the helping verb “was” converts the fragment into a sentence. The second correction turns the fragment into a gerund phrase functioning as the subject of a new sentence. The third correction converts the fragment into a participial phrase attached to a new independent clause. (See the section entitled Glossary of Grammatical Terms and look under “verbal” for definitions of “gerund” and “participle.”)
Subordinate Clause as a Fragment
I had an appointment for 11:00 and was still waiting at 11:30. Although I did get to see the dean before lunch.
“Although” is a subordinating conjunction that calls for some kind of completion. Like “if,” “when,” “because,” “whereas,” and other subordinating conjunctions (see the Glossary of Grammatical Terms), “although” always makes the clause that it introduces dependent.
Corrections
I had an appointment for 11:00 and was still waiting at 11:30,