The Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar

Rules for Clear and Accurate Writing

THE RULE OF DICTION: Use the right word for the context and audience. This will allow your reader to take you seriously.

THE RULE OF JOINING INDEPENDENT CLAUSES: Don’t send a boy to do a man’s job! A comma alone is not sufficient to join two independent clauses. To join independent clauses, we need a semicolon or a comma along with a conjunction (and, but, so). This will allow your reader to understand where your ideas begin and end and will eliminate confusion.

THE RULE OF PROXIMITY: Place all grammatical structures next to what they modify. This will allow your reader to understand how your words relate to each other and will eliminate confusion.

THE RULE OF POSITIVES: Most messages are clearer when delivered in positive, rather than negative, form. Your reader will appreciate this because your message will be readily accessible.

THE RULE OF COMPLETE SENTENCES: To test whether a group of words comprises a complete sentence, try placing “It is true that…” in front of the words. If you can do so, then you have a complete sentence. If not, then you don’t. (Note: This rule will not work if the sentence begins with and, but, so; however, such sentences can be complete sentences anyway.) For most academic circumstances, your reader is expecting complete sentences.

THE RULE OF APOSTROPHES: Use apostrophes to indicate possessives and contractions. There is no apostrophe in the word its, when it is used as a possessive pronoun. (It’s always means it is.) Your reader will appreciate your attention to detail.

THE RULE OF HYPENATION: Hyphenate compound adjectives. That is, hyphenate adjectives that are formed out of two words, such as man-eating tiger. Observing this rule will eliminate confusion.

THE RULE OF CONCISENESS: Express yourself clearly in as few words as possible. Omit unnecessary words. Your reader will appreciate your consideration.

THE RULES OF AGREEMENT:
Subject/verb: The subject must agree with the verb. Objects of prepositions are not subjects, and should be ignored in subject/verb agreement. Hence, “A group of women is enjoying the concert,” rather than “A group of women are enjoying the concert.”
Pronoun/antecedent: All pronouns refer to something that comes before them in the sentence, or in a previous sentence. The word that the pronoun refers to is called the antecedent. The pronoun must agree with its antecedent. Because English has no generic singular pronoun, we run into a problem in sentences such as “Everybody is to bring _____ own lunch.” What to do? Modern stylists advise you to RTA (“revise to avoid”) this dilemma. Hence, “All campers are to bring their own lunch,” and the problem is solved!