English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Your goals for Chapter 12
Write complete and correct sentences.
Write clearly and concisely. Use friendly language in your writing.
Use the grammar, word choices, and punctuation you practiced in Chapters 2-11.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Writing complete sentencesAre these fragments, run-ons, commas splices, or sentences?Hoping to hear from you for your input.
FragmentI hope to hear from you we need your input.
Run-on
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Fragments, run-ons, commas splices, or sentences?
I hope to hear from you, we need your input.
Comma SpliceI hope to hear from you; we need your input.
Sentence
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
Reserved.5
To avoid a fragment: Make sure a word group has a subject, a verb, and independence.
If a word group does not contain these elements, it is a fragment.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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To avoid a run-or comma splice:
Separate independent clauses with a period followed by a capital letter.
Join independent clauses with a comma and coordinating conjunction.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Join independent clauses with a semicolon, either with or without a transitional expression following the semicolon.
Make one of the independent clauses dependent.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Written workplace communications must be:
Clear Correct Concise Courteous Logical
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Sentence Faults
Result in problems for readers Readers are amused or distracted by errors
Readers have to seek clarifications
Readers feel their time is wasted
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Sentence Faults
Prevent writers from achieving their objectives
Miscommunications happen Frustrations mount The company looks unprofessional
Business suffers
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Sentence fault #1 – sentence length Avoid short “choppy” sentences
combine them Avoid very long sentences try to keep sentences under 25-
30 words Vary sentence length
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Combine choppy sentences. Jane likes to work. Dick Likes to play.
Jane likes to work, but Dick likes to play.
Jane likes to work and Dick likes to play.
Although Jane likes to work, Dick likes to play.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Combine choppy sentences. The play was long. It was boring. The actors forgot their lines.
The play was long and boring, and the actors forgot their lines.
The play was long and boring. In addition, the actors forgot their lines.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Beware of “gobbledygook” —long words and long sentences:
Use short instead of long words Eliminate unnecessary words Break up long, complicated sentences
Avoid pompous language
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Clarify gobbledygook
To prevent interference of respiration due to the obstruction of the larynx region, masticate sustenance with absolute thoroughness.
To prevent choking, chew food thoroughly.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Sentence fault #2—vague pronoun references
Correct pronoun references that create confusion. Joe and Ed are going in his car.
(whose car?)Joe and Ed are going in Ed’s car.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Correct vague pronoun reference We need a trainer for the dog who speaks German.
(the dog speaks German?) We need a dog trainer who speaks German.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Sentence fault #3—misplaced words
Avoid misplaced words that create confusion (or unintended amusement) Mom has the recipe for the apple pie, which is in her head.
(she has an apple pie in her head?)
Mom’s apple pie recipe is in her head, not written down.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Correct misplaced words Joy drove her boyfriend’s car whom she has been dating for three months.
(she’s dating a car?) The car Joy drove belongs to her boyfriend, whom she’s been dating for three months.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Sentence fault #4—inconsistent word formsUse consistent wording for a series of words or phrases (parallel parts )
Not parallel Americans have a right to live, having liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Parallel Americans have a right to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Sentence fault #5—the voice of verbs
Choose the active or passive voice, depending on what you want to emphasize.
ActiveThe senator broke the president’s vase.
PassiveThe vase was broken by the senator.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Making the choiceActive (direct) The subject does the verb’s action
Use active for most workplace writing
Passive (indirect) The subject receives the action Use passive for tact or emphasis
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Are these sentences active or passive? The soloist sang the aria off-key.Active subject (soloist) did the action (sang)
The aria was sung off-key.Passive aria was sung “by someone” off-key
If inserting “by someone” after the verb makes sense, the voice is passive.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Active or passive? Antonio forgot to tune the piano.Active subject (Antonio) did the action (forgot)
The piano wasn’t tuned.Passive piano wasn’t tuned “by someone”
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Sentence fault #7—dangling verbals
Don’t let your verbals dangle in public!
Flying overhead, the guide pointed out the rare whooping cranes.
(the guide was flying?) The guide pointed out the rare whooping cranes flying overhead.
English for Careers: Business, Professional, and Technical, 10th ed. Smith and Moore
© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights
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Correct the dangling verbal Smothered in fudge, we ate the delicious sundaes. (we were smothered in fudge?)
Smothered in fudge, the sundaes we ate were delicious.