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Step IV: Revise Your Writing: Correct Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling, and Typing Errors

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Identify and correct three common grammatical errors.

• Distinguish between four words that people often confuse.

• Name the four most common uses of the comma.

• Name several software programs and reference books helpful in the final stage of editing.

Once you pour the concrete, and it sets up, finish the job by smoothing the surface.

OLD ATTITUDE

I’ve already spent so much time writing and revising. I’m not going to spend additional time checking my draft for errors. As long as I get my message across, I’ll be satisfied. If I make a grammatical mistake, misspell a word, forget a comma, or overlook a couple of typing errors, it won’t make much difference. My readers won’t care as long as they understand what I’m communicating.

NEW ATTITUDE

It’s worth spending extra time checking my draft for grammatical mistakes and other errors. Readers do notice errors. So, why weaken the impact of my document by leaving errors I can fix quickly? I’d rather make a final effort—a final sweep—and polish my draft.

CORRECT GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES

If you were to interview for a job, wouldn’t you want to make sure that your shirt or suit blouse was free of spots? Wouldn’t you be concerned that the person interviewing you might be put off by your carelessness, however well qualified you might be for the position?

Making sure that documents are free of grammatical and other errors is like making sure your shirt or blouse is spotless. Of course, an error-free document will no more assure you of getting your message across than a spotless shirt or blouse will assure you of being offered a job. Nevertheless, both clean documents and clean clothes indicate that you care about the way you present your ideas and yourself. In each case, your audience will notice, if not your care, certainly your carelessness.

So take the extra minutes to sweep through your document a fifth and final time to correct any errors you may have missed.

Use Grammar and Style Checkers

Word processing programs sometimes have grammar and style checkers, like Grammatik^™, RightWriter^™, and Correct Grammar^™, which offer different capabilities depending on the particular software package. The most common functions are:

• Passive voice detection—Locates each use of the verb to be, if you didn’t catch them all in your fourth sweep, when you focused on clarifying your sentences.

• Sexism detection—Locates single-gender words (his and hers, for example), so you can insert nonsexist terms instead.

• Unbalanced marks detection—Locates brackets, quotation marks, or parentheses that do not have a match so that you can insert the open or close mark as necessary.

• Preposition counting—Counts prepositions so that you can determine overuse of prepositions. Prepositions, normally, should account for only eight to ten percent of the total words in a document.

Some grammar and style checkers contain readability checkers that count words per sentence and syllables per word. These checkers measure the readability level of your text—7th-grade level, 10th-grade level, or college level, for example. Some companies require these statistical measures of readability as part of their quality control of documents sent to customers.

Grammar and style checkers are powerful tools that can help overcome some human shortcomings. However, they are only tools. They can expose a possible problem, but cannot correct it. Therefore, you need to know how to fix grammatical problems.

While it’s not possible in this course to show you how to correct every grammatical problem, I’d like to show you how to correct three of the most common ones: dangling modifiers, misplaced modifiers, and lack of pronoun agreement. I also want to briefly review the use of contractions.

Correct Dangling Modifiers

Verbal phrases (phrases that contain words based on verbs) that don’t clearly or logically describe any of the nouns or pronouns in a sentence are called “dangling modifiers.” They are dangling because the nouns or pronouns to which they would logically refer are missing. Dangling modifiers usually appear in introductory phrases, at the beginning of sentences, but they may also turn up at the end.

The italicized phrase in the following sentence is an example of a dangling modifier: While writing the weekly report, the computer malfunctioned. As the sentence is constructed, the italicized phrase sits in front of and appears to modify the subject of the sentence: the computer. However, the computer, obviously, is not writing the report. Therefore, the introductory phrase must modify something else, but what? The sentence doesn’t tell us.

To correct a dangling modifier, we need to supply the referent—the person or thing to whom or to which the phrase refers. In this case, we need to clarify who is writing the report, as in the following example: While Harry was writing the weekly report, the computer malfunctioned.

Correct Misplaced Modifiers

When a word modifies or appears to modify the wrong word or phrase, it is a misplaced modifier. Misplaced modifiers differ from dangling modifiers in that misplaced modifiers do have a referent in the sentence, while dangling modifiers do not.

Adverbs such as almost, only, nearly, just, and merely are especially easy to misplace because they can appear in several positions in a sentence.

Examples

Dan almost lost all of the imported parts.

Dan lost almost all of the imported parts.

Notice how the position of the modifier changes the meaning of the sentence. In the first sentence, Dan did not lose any imported parts, although he came close to losing all of them. In the second sentence, Dan did lose some imported parts. In fact, he lost most of them, although he didn’t lose all of them.

It is almost as easy to misplace phrases and clauses as it is to misplace adverbs.

Examples:

Jack mailed the brochures to local firms that had four-color graphics.

Jack mailed the brochures that had four-color graphics to local firms.

In the first sentence, the position of the italicized clause indicates that it is the firms that have four-color graphics. In the second sentence, the clause’s position indicates that it is the brochures that have the color graphics.

Check Pronoun Agreement

Use pronouns—words that substitute for nouns—so that they agree with the nouns to which they refer and with the verbs to which they relate.

Types of Pronouns
Pronouns fall into different categories. The following is a partial list of these.

• Personal pronouns are ones that replace the names of a person or people. Examples include: I, me, my, mine; we, us, ours; you, your, yours; he, him, his; she, her, hers; it, its; they, their, theirs.

• Demonstrative pronouns indicate or point out the thing or things to which the pronoun refers. Such pronouns include: this, these, that, those.

• Indefinite pronouns describe a class or group of persons or things, rather than a particular person or thing. Indefinite pronouns include: all, another, any, anyone, anything, both, each, either, everybody, few, many, most, much, neither, nobody, none, several, some, and such.

Problems in Pronoun Agreement
The most common errors in using pronouns occur in these three categories, as exemplified in the following sentences:

1. Him and I, we work on the same team, (personal pronoun)

2. I’d like to talk to you about our findings. This is important, (demonstrative pronoun)

3. Each of the people on the team are hard workers, (indefinite pronoun)

In the first sentence, the personal pronoun’s form does not agree with its function. The pronoun him is in the objective form or “case,” when it should be in the subjective form or “case.” Him should be he. When the personal pronoun functions as the subject of a sentence, use the subjective form of the pronoun: I, he, she, they. Use the objective form of the pronoun—me, him, her, them—when you use the pronoun as the object of a verb or phrase.

In the second sentence, the demonstrative pronoun does not agree in number with the noun to which it refers. This refers to findings and, therefore, should be in the plural. We, thus, need to change This is to These are. Always make sure that demonstrative pronouns agree in number with the nouns to which they refer. Also check to make sure that the verb accompanying the demonstrative pronoun is appropriately singular or plural.

In the third sentence, the indefinite pronoun each should agree in number with the verb, but doesn’t. Each are is incorrect, as the word each means each one and is, thus, singular, whereas the verb are is plural. To correct the error, we could write: “Each of the people on the team is a hard worker.” Or we could write: “All of the people on the team are hard workers.”

In checking to see if an indefinite pronoun agrees with the verb that follows, mentally leave out any prepositional phrase that may intervene between the pronoun and the verb. For example, mentally leave out the prepositional phrase of the people on the team and mentally make the direct connection between the pronoun and the verb: Each...is.

Use Contractions Appropriately

When you shorten the spelling of a word or phrase and substitute an apostrophe for the missing letters, you have a contraction.

Examples

it is/it’s

cannot/can’t

have not/haven’t

will not/won’t

Contractions give your writing a more conversational and personal tone. Use them, therefore, when you want to close the gap between you and your readers. When you use contractions, you create an atmosphere akin to that of having a conversation with your readers on the phone or in person. To create just such an atmosphere, I deliberately used contractions throughout this course.

Refer to a Grammar Handbook

To review grammatical issues we’ve discussed or those we’ve neglected, refer to a grammar handbook. Grammar handbooks cover the proper use of the subjective and objective case, correct verb forms, agreement of subject and verb, and agreement of pronoun and antecedent. They also cover syntax: the proper ordering of words in a sentence.

If, for example, you have difficulty determining the correct verb in the following sentence, consult a grammar handbook:

Neither the engineer or the technical writers (wants, want) to write this particular manual.

A grammar handbook will show that want is correct because the verb should agree with that part of the compound subject closer to the verb. A grammar handbook will also show that neither and nor are coordinating conjunctions and should be used as a pair. The sentence should correctly read:

Neither the engineer nor the technical writers want to write this particular manual.

Any of the following grammar handbooks can supply answers to such knotty problems:

• Brusaw, Charles T., Gerald J. Alred, and Walter E. Olin. The Business Writer’s Handbook: Third Edition. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987.

• Shaw, Harry, ed. The Harper Handbook (5th ed.). New York: Harper & Row, 1981.

DISTINGUISH BETWEEN WORDS THAT PEOPLE OFTEN CONFUSE

Let’s look now at some of the words that people often confuse: affect and effect; and imply and infer.

Distinguish Between Affect and Effect

In general, use the word affect when you’re using a verb, and the word effect when you’re using a noun.

Affect as a verb means “to influence,” and occurs frequently in business writing.

Example
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s rulings affect utilities in every state.

Affect as a noun, however, rarely appears in business writing. The noun appears more often in psychological circles, as the noun refers to “a feeling or emotion” or “a stimulus to a feeling or emotion.”

Example
Howard Brown showed no affect when asked about the death of his father.

In contrast, effect as a noun means “result” and appears often in business writing.

Example
The new filters have a positive effect on plant emissions.

Effect as a verb, however, rarely appears in business writing. While the verb means “to cause,” or “to bring about,” most people use the verb “to make,” instead of “to effect.”

Examples

The new president effected several changes in the management team.

The new president made several changes in the management team.

Distinguish Between Imply and Infer

These words mean entirely different things. If you imply something, you hint at it or suggest it. In contrast, if you infer something, you conclude something on the basis of the evidence.

Examples

His memo implied that the equipment was defective.

The manager inferred from the memo that the equipment was defective.

CORRECT PUNCTUATION ERRORS

Refer to a Style Manual

If you have questions about usage, capitalization, punctuation, abbreviations, symbols, or titles, consult a style manual. Three of the best-known general style manuals are:

1. The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982.

2. Words Into Type. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice Hall, 1974.

3. The Government Printing Office Style Manual. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Many kinds of companies use The Chicago Manual of Style and Words Into Type. In fact, most companies consider The Chicago Manual the bible of style manuals. Government contractors use The Government Printing Office Style Manual because it is the authoritative manual for producing government documents. Commercial companies also use it as a general backup to The Chicago Manual. It’s a good idea to have all three style manuals on hand to compare answers to questions that arise.

Use Commas Correctly

While style manuals cover commas, I’d like to review the most common uses of the comma with you because commas are so important, yet so often neglected. The presence or lack of a comma can change the meaning of a sentence completely. Notice, for instance, the difference in meaning between the following two sentences:

Woman without her man is nothing.

Woman: without her, man is nothing.

You can see from these two sentences the crucial role commas can play. Therefore, pay attention to commas and use them appropriately. If you use commas in the four situations I’m going to describe, you’ll avoid the confusion that can arise if you leave them out.

Use Commas to Separate Items in a Series
Although some style manuals suggest that it is all right to omit the comma before the last word in a series, I recommend you include it. Omitting the last comma can cause confusion, as the following example illustrates.

Bantam, Random House, Little Brown and Doubleday are all publishing companies.

In this example, it’s not clear whether Little Brown and Doubleday are separate publishing houses or constitute one publishing house. A comma after Little Brown would remove the ambiguity.

Use Commas After Introductory Phrases and Clauses
A comma that identifies where the introductory element ends will help your reader grasp more easily where the main part of the sentence begins, as in the following example.

During the first tests we conducted in our research laboratories, the new machinery failed to meet our performance standards.

Use Commas to Link Independent Clauses
Independent clauses are complete thoughts that are linked by conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, so, as, yet, and for). Put the comma in front of the conjunction, as in the following example.

Management wants to cut the work force by 5 percent, but the union wants to keep the work force intact.

Use Commas to Enclose Parenthetical and Nonrestrictive Elements When you use commas to enclose parenthetical and nonrestrictive elements, you’re telling the reader that the information so enclosed is not essential to the meaning of the sentence, as in the following examples.

We can, of course, oppose the union on this matter. (Here the commas are used to enclose a parenthetical element.)

Our new plant, which opened in April, has increased our output by 30 percent. (Here, the commas enclose a nonrestrictive clause.)

Do Not Use Commas to Enclose Restrictive Elements

The newspaper that the business community values most highly is The Wall Street Journal.

In this example, the clause that the business community values most highly is essential to the meaning of the sentence and, therefore, restrictive. Without this clause, we’d be left with “The newspaper is The Wall Street Journal” a sentence that means nothing in and of itself.

CORRECT MISSPELLINGS

Use a Dictionary

If you’re not sure how to spell a word, look it up in a dictionary. The 1987 publication of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language: Second Edition Unabridged contains many new words and expanded meanings of older words. This dictionary constitutes the first update of the American lexicon in twenty years.

Some dictionaries are more suitable for certain uses than others. For example, the required dictionary for preparing documents for the military is Webster’s New International Dictionary or its abridged version, the New Collegiate Dictionary.

In addition to the Webster’s and Random House dictionaries, you will profit from examining Computer Acronyms, Abbreviations, Etc. (New York: Petrocelli Books, Inc., 1981).

Dictionaries of usage also exist. These references distinguish between pairs of words that are spelled similarly but have different meanings, such as insure and ensure, assent and ascent.

Dictionaries of usage include:

1. Follett, Wilson. Modern American Usage. New York: Hill & Wang, 1966.

2. Fowler, H.W. Fowler’s Modern English Usage. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.

3. Morris, William and Mary. Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.

One caveat with regard to dictionaries: They will tell you the traditional way to spell a word. However, some companies deliberately spell words in nontraditional ways for marketing and other purposes. Take, for example, the spelling of Kool Aid! You won’t find “cool” spelled “Kool” in any dictionary I’ve seen. When in doubt, spell and use words according to your company’s policies.

Take Advantage of Spelling Checkers

WordStar was the first word processing software to furnish users with a spelling checker, called SpellStar. Today, almost all word processing programs include a spelling checker.

Stand-alone spelling checker programs are also available, including Turbo Lightning, Webster’s New World Professional Spelling Checker, Whoops, and Windows Spell.

Spelling checkers offer a broad range of capabilities. More sophisticated spelling checkers now offer alternative words for each word you don’t find in their dictionary.

Computerized dictionaries typically contain more than 100,000 words. Most spelling checkers also permit you to add new words, such as proper names, acronyms, or specialized words to the program so that it won’t flag as incorrect words unique to your organization.

Be aware, however, that a spelling checker will not locate a word that is spelled correctly, but used improperly. For instance, a spell checker will not indicate that you should use assent, and not ascent, in the sentence, “The real estate broker ascented to the wishes of the seller.”

CHECK FOR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS

Using a spelling checker can help you eliminate many of the typographical errors that you might not otherwise catch. Even the least sophisticated checker program can locate typographical errors such as omitted letters, transposed letters, or gibberish created when the writer inadvertently uses the wrong keyboard key. Some checkers detect double words, that is, a word typed twice.

Be aware, however, that a spelling checker program cannot detect a word that is inadvertently omitted from a sentence. And a “little” word like not omitted from a legal document could cause havoc. Also, a spell checker dictionary that contains the single letter a will not detect the typographical error when the typist leaves the second letter off the word an.

Despite these limitations, a spelling checker will help you identify most typographical errors, so use one in making your final sweeps through documents. Take advantage of the checker’s capabilities. Then use your human abilities to overcome its limitations.

To: Sara Smith
From: Andrew Green
Date: June 5, 1992
Re: Recent Client Projects

The Value of Documenting Successes and Failures
This memo recaps recent jobs and what we learned so that we can avoid repeating mistakes and speed up the production process. Unfortunately, prospective clients witnessed some of our learning. Nevertheless, in most cases, we succeeded.

Our projects consume time. Therefore, the more knowledge we can share, the better we can expedite the process. Please note we have only completed a few jobs.

Response Requested
Please let me know if this recap suits your needs, or if you would like additional information before we meet next Monday.

ACME Supermarket
We first designed a sales promo piece for ACME Supermarket. This simple project proved a point: that we could produce full-page newspaper ads for their chain’s weekly sales.

Bell, Crossfield, and Scitex
We then contracted with Bell, Crossfield, and Scitex to produce a half-page, black-and-white newspaper ad on their computer consulting services. We succeeded, so we started to undertake more ambitious assignments.

Vinioli/Cassetta
Then we landed a job with Tony Cassetta of Vinioli/Cassetta. This one caused us problems in getting the color separations right. We designed the packaging for a Quick Meal box. We competed for this job with Computrim.

XYZ Associates
Next, we redeemed ourselves with a benchmark for XYZ Associates. We wanted to prove to local customers that the problems we encountered with Tony Cassetta’s project resulted from our using Beta software.

This time, we asked for a typical job. XYZ gave us a 4-by-5 transparency showing a box of rosarita beans and asked us to create a label design for the box. Our design worked better this time but the client expressed dissatisfaction with the color quality on the match print.

Seventh/Connecticut, Inc.
The last job, for Seventh/Connecticut, Inc., tested our retouching abilities. We retouched the image on the cover of their five-year facilities enhancement plan. The job also tested our ability to convert, mark up, and typeset a huge file with over a hundred exhibits.

Many of the problems we ran into we didn’t cause; the client did! We successfully converted the file and retouched the image. Then we created another tape for them to send to McDonald Detweiler, their parent company, which is international. McDonald Detweiler has now expressed interest in having us work for their other subsidiaries.

Sharing What We Learned Will Help Reduce Confusion
We jumped into the world of print production at a fast rate. Also, the people at the print shops don’t know us well yet. This combination complicates matters. Therefore, anything we can share about what we’ve learned as a company would be worth its weight in gold.

In Chapter 10, we completed Step IV of the BWP. We made a final sweep through Sample Document II, concentrating on correcting errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. We also discussed tools to help us detect and correct typographical errors.

Specifically, we reviewed ways to correct three common grammatical problems. We then discussed the benefits of using contractions. We also distinguished between some words that people often confuse. Finally, we reviewed the four most common uses of commas.

In the final chapter, you’ll have a chance to apply to your own document, Sample Document I, all the editing strategies we’ve covered in Chapters 6 through 10.

Answers to “Think About It...” Questions from This Chapter

1. I corrected the dangling modifiers as follows:

(a) After we finished lunch, the meeting continued.

(b) We identified the malfunctions while working with them.

(c) After Jack organized the draft, writing it was easy.

(d) Because I kept busy, the afternoon passed swiftly.

(e) The main building is visible when you enter the gate.

2. I corrected the misplaced modifiers as follows:

(a) Send only the financial figures for the last quarter.

(b) The firm made almost a million dollars last year. According to our last tally, it made $950,000.

(c) Show me the draft that you’re working on, without the standard charts.

(d) The meeting lasted almost five hours.

3. I corrected the errors in pronoun agreement as follows:

(a) The new procedures are so complicated that they require us to spend twice as much time to complete a job. These need streamlining.

(b) Every one of the weekly reports was late.

(c) She and I share the same opinion as to where the growing market lies.

4. I chose between the often-confused words effect/affect, and imply/infer as follows:

(a) How did Sally’s departure affect the morale in her department?

(b) What was the effect of Sally’s departure on the department?

(c) Did the janitor infer that he would receive a bonus at Christmas?

(d) Did the director of buildings and grounds imply that the janitor would receive a bonus at Christmas?

5. I added commas, or didn’t, as follows:

(a) Your report, which I read with interest, reflects the improvements you’ve made since you took the Fundamentals of Business Writing course. (Put commas around a parenthetical phrase.)

(b) Please send me your company’s mission statement, annual report brochure, and price list as soon as you can. (Insert commas between items in a series.)

(c) After reading the literature you sent me on your company, I have a clearer idea of how we might collaborate. (Use a comma after an introductory phrase.)

(d) I reviewed my notes from the meeting, but I am still waiting to review yours. (Use a comma before the conjuction that links two independent clauses.)

(e) Please let me know if you need the figures that support our marketing strategy. (/did not insert a comma before the word “that,” because “that” introduces a restrictive clause.)

6. I made the following corrections to Sample Document II:

(a) I changed “Please note we have only completed a few jobs,” to “Please note, (comma) we have completed only a few jobs.

(b) I added a comma before but in the following sentence: “Our design worked better this time, but the client expressed dissatisfaction with the color quality on the match print.”

(c) I deleted the comma after “black-and-white.”