Truth 52. You can fix your own grammar goofs

By being aware of grammar pitfalls, you can avoid or fix your own grammar goofs. Professional editors have no magic wand—they simply follow some guidelines and consistently use a style guide and dictionary. You can do it, too. Here are a few typical problems and how to fix them.

Inconsistency—Unless your organization uses a style guide accompanied by an in-house style sheet, your materials—on the Web, on your company’s intranet, and on your internal and external communications—will differ from one another in the way you use words, numbers, acronyms, and terms.

Even something as simple as whether to refer to your company’s president as Dr. Klingman; President Klingman; Howard Klingman, Ph.D.; Klingman, president of HLK Corp.; or some other variation will depend on which style guide you use and on what you’ve decided to do before you write reports, press releases, and other materials.

Agreement between the subject and the person or entity to which it refers—Here’s an example:

Macrose LLC announced that their fourth-quarter earnings statement would be delayed.

In this sentence, the subject of the pronoun “their” is a single company. That’s why it should read as follows:

Macrose LLC announced that its fourth-quarter earnings statement would be delayed.

Note that this is standard English for the United States. In Great Britain, the custom is more in line with the first example; the plural pronoun is used for organizations. Here are some other examples:

No one in the hotel could find their nearest exits when the alarm went off.

If you’re being gender-correct, this sentence should read as follows:

No one in the hotel could find his or her nearest exit when the alarm went off.

If you’ve previously noted that all the people in the hotel were female or you’re not concerned with gender, rephrase it like this:

No one in the hotel could find her nearest exit when the alarm went off.

Or, just rephrase the sentence:

The hotel’s exits weren’t clearly marked, so the guests couldn’t find the exits closest to their rooms.

Agreement between subject and verb—Although we know that the subject of a sentence and its verb (predicate) should agree, sometimes that thought goes astray. Consider:

“The criteria for selecting seminar speakers includes the ability to think on one’s feet,” Nancy Peterson told us.

“The criteria for selecting seminar speakers include the ability to think on one’s feet,” Nancy Peterson told us.

The second version is correct because “criteria” is a plural noun. Another example:

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is a basic human right cited in the Declaration of Independence.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are basic human rights cited in the Declaration of Independence.

The second version is correct.

Parallels—When you’re composing a sentence that will contain a series, that series should be parallel, meaning the words or terms should all be nouns, say, or all clauses. Here’s an example:

The laboratory directory issued a directive that all slides, test tubes, and waste materials used on the MacGregor project be sent out for immediate analysis.

In the example, “slides, test tubes, and waste materials” are all nouns, and therefore this sequence is parallel. Another example:

When the accounting firm conducted its audit, it found discrepancies in the company’s accounts payable, accounts receivable, and inside the employee cashbox.

To be parallel, this example should read as follows:

When the accounting firm conducted its audit, it found discrepancies in the company’s accounts payable, accounts receivable, and the employee cashbox.

One more example:

After work, Elizabeth decided to go to her corner bar, the restaurant on the next block, and catch a late movie.

To fix this, change it to read:

After work, Elizabeth decided to go to her corner bar, the restaurant on the next block, and the movie on 15th Street.

Misplaced modifiers—Consider this statement:

Unity College accepted the custodians’ contract terms, still smarting from a previous failure to reach agreement.

There are two ways to fix this example:

Still smarting from a previous failure to reach agreement, Unity College accepted the custodians’ contract terms.

or

Unity College, still smarting from a previous failure to reach agreement, accepted the custodians’ contract terms.

And, but, so—Is it acceptable to begin sentences with these words? It depends on where you work and for whom you’re writing. Our opinion is “yes.” It feels right for today’s fast, less-formal world. Even The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times do it. But you’ll definitely find many people who don’t like it, and if you report to one of them, his or her opinion counts. When it comes to very formal documents, using them can be inappropriate, as can contractions—stick to it is rather than it’s, for example

Obviously, many more grammar goofs are made in business offices every day than are covered here, but if you can avoid or fix the ones mentioned, you’re a lot closer to writing material that people will understand. What more can you want?