Grammar

1
Grammar

• Avoid sentence fragments. To be a sentence, a
  group of words must have a subject and a verb.

2

• Wrong The War on Poverty. An idealistic attempt
  to help people but largely a failure at reducing
  poverty.
• Right The War on Poverty was an idealistic
  attempt to help people but largely failed at
  reducing poverty.

3
Avoid fused sentences

• Wrong The Cleveland rockers need to do something
  they hadnt done all season they needed to beat
  the Detroit Shock.
• Right The Cleveland rockers needed to do
  something they had not done all season. They
  needed to beat the Detroit Shock.

4
Avoid comma splices

• Wrong The Cleveland Rockers needed to do
  something they have not done all season, they
  needed to beat the Detroit Shock.
• Right The Cleveland Rockers needed to do
  something they had not done all season they
  needed to beat the Detroit Shock.

5
Beware of reader stoppers

• An insufficient water supply problem for
  firefighting at Fitch School will be discussed
  next Thursday.
• The problem of insufficient supply for
  firefighting at Fitch School will be discussed
  next Thursday.

6

• White segregationists waving Confederate Flags
  and black integrationists marched past each
  other Tuesday.
• Did white segregationists waving flags march past
  black integrationists Tuesday?

7
Avoid false connections by combining unrelated
ideas

• Stored in an air-conditioned room in lower
  Manhattan, the tapes contain information on the
  reading habits of 1 million Americans.
• What is on the tapes is not related to where they
  are stored. Start with this. The tapes are stored
  in an air-conditioned room in lower Manhattan and
  contain