Dear Master’s Programs student,
Based on feedback from some
readers, we is starting a new, short series on grammar. Did you catch the mistake in that first
sentence? Good. The error you likely saw is a problem in
“subject-verb agreement,” (SVA) our first topic in this series.
A subject-verb
agreement problem occurs when the verb (or action) of a sentence doesn’t match
the subject (the person or thing performing the action). Sometimes, as in the example above, the
problem is easily recognizable. “We” is
a plural subject, but “is starting” is singular. Of course, the correct version would read “We
are starting a new, short
series.”
In your papers, however, the
mistakes usually won’t be so easy to find.
Even your reliable friend the Word grammar check isn’t always able to
recognize subject-verb agreement problems (which is why you need to know the
rules, so you can check your paper yourself.
Don’t rely on a heartless computer algorithm to proof your work. Real writing takes real human thinking!)
For fluent English speakers and
writers, subject-verb agreement errors usually occur when the verb is very far
removed from its subject. Consider the
following example:
“Awareness
of how U.S. admission practices and application requirements impact Chinese
students allow us to improve the admission and recruiting process.”
On a first reading, that sentence’s SVA problem would likely go
undetected. But if we remove some of the
“extra” words between the subject and
verb, the errors becomes more obvious:
“Awareness allow us to improve the admission and
recruiting process.”
Note that the subject (awareness) is singular, but the verb (allow) is plural. The corrected sentence would read
“Awareness […] allows us to improve the admission and
recruiting process.”
One of the tricks here is that a prepositional phrase* has been
inserted between the subject and the verb. Ignore the prepositions and the
words that follow them when checking for SVA:
“Awareness of how U.S. admission
practices and application requirements impact Chinese students allow us to
improve the admission and recruiting process.”
*If you need a refresher on prepositions, check out next week's Writing Tip addendum.
Or this sentence:
“The
candied apples from Grandma Louise looks delicious.” When you ignore the prep. phrase “from
Grandma Louise” the SVA mistake is easier to spot.
Next week we’ll look at other SVA rules.
Until then, happy writing!
James
James
