ArticlesReader.com Menu
Newest Articles
Most Viewed Articles
ArticlesReader.com RSS
Submit Article
Login
Signup
Search the articles

Articles Main Categories
Advice
Animals
Automobiles
Business
Career
Communications
Computer Programming
Computers
Entertainment
Environment
Family
Fashion
Finance
Food
Health & Medical
Home & Garden
Humor
Internet Business
Internet Marketing
Legal
Leisure & Recreation
Marketing
Other
Politics
Reference & Education
Religion
Self Improvement
Sports
Technology & Science
Travel
Writing
Subscribe
Receive alert message from us when new articles submitted to our site for free.

Enter your name

Enter your email

Syndicate

















Related Products
Home::Article Writing

Writing an Article - Basic Rules of Grammar

Author : Hans Hasselfors
Some would-be writers think they can dash off an article without bothering to learn the basic rules of grammar. But just as any craftsperson spends time honing his skills to make the perfect piece of craft, so must a writer work hard to present an article that will be a pleasure to read and not shame him for its sloppy grammar and punctuation. True, some errors are typos, but doesnÂ’t that reflect a certain laziness on the authorÂ’s part? An article should be closely examined for typos before it is sent off or uploaded.



DonÂ’t trust your spell checker. No automated spell-checker can alert you to every error. Whose and whoÂ’s, lose and loose, quiet and quite, its and itÂ’s are all legitimate words, so there will be no red line under them. Spell-checkers are not clever enough yet to tell which one you meant to use. And if the error is not due to a typo, it means you need to keep a dictionary on hand to check anything you are uncertain of.



Remember that when a word ends in “ ‘s” it means there is a letter missing. “It’s” means “it is”. If you are unsure which one you should be using, try saying the sentence both ways.



For instanceÂ…



“ It’s a good day today/ It is a good day today”. The latter example makes perfect sense, so it is okay to use “it’s”.



ButÂ….



“Here is a rabbit. Its burrow is over there.”



Does, “It is burrow is over there”, make sense? No.



Of course if you said, “The rabbit’s burrow is over there,” then the apostrophe denotes possession (and only one rabbit), not a missing letter.



“The rabbits burrow is over there,” (with no apostrophe) means there are several rabbits.



And just for the record, “loose” means not tight, while “lose” means you’ve lost it.

“Who’s” is short for “who is”, but “whose” is the possessive form of “who” (as in “Whose is that car?”)

“Quiet” means “hush”, while “quite” is an adverb (which should usually be left out).



“I felt quite silly,” sounds better as, “I felt silly”.



“I felt like an idiot,” may be even better.



Sometimes rules of grammar get in the way of good writing. If this is the case they can and should be broken, otherwise your writing will become pedantic and even mechanical. One such rule is that a sentence should not begin with a conjunction. Both “and” and “but” can certainly be used to begin a sentence, or even a paragraph, but not to end one. Using either of these conjunctions to start a sentence can be a natural transition to carry the reader forward.



A rule of style tells us to never use the same word twice in a sentence, but if you have to search for several other clumsy substitutes to do the job, then please repeat. Repetition of someone’s name is a little different. It can easily be replaced with “he” or “she” as the sentence progresses.



A persistent myth masquerading as a rule tells us not to end a sentence with a preposition. Winston Churchill is supposed to have made fun of this by stating, “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.” Of course a sentence may end with a preposition. A good rule is to write the way you speak. But unless you have grown up speaking English, ignore this rule too.



A few more pointersÂ…



· When writing an article, watch that you don’t repeat information unnecessarily. Even if you use different wording, it still gives the reader the impression that you think he was too dumb to get it the first time.



· Use short sentences more than long ones, but do vary the length.



· Break up the text by using bullet points, or asking a question. Why? It will add interest and prevent your reader falling asleep – or simply turning the page.



· Use short paragraphs too. This will make the job of reading it all seem much easier. In this fast-paced world readers are mostly in a hurry. If they come to a huge block of text with no white space, they’ll usually skip most of it.



If you keep these tips in mind, your articles will keep both editors and readers happy.


Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com





About the Author:
Hans Hasselfors is the founder of www.SubmitYourNewArticle.com. Learn about the many benefits of using our article directory.

Article Submission done by: www.articles-submit.com

Courtesy of:SubmitYourNewArticle.com





Spam emails More free articles

Related articles


  1. Top 11 Reasons to use article submission sites
  2. To submit or not to submit, that is the question.
  3. Article Writing -- Your Key to Success
  4. How to Get Your Promotional Articles Accepted by Publishers
  5. Benefits of Submitting Articles – 10 Reasons Why Free May Bring in the Bucks
  6. Making your site explode with Article Marketing
  7. Article Writing Tips From Spongebob Squarepants
  8. Can't Write Articles For Links? Write code!
  9. How To Write A Problem Solving Article
  10. When Writing Your Article Bio Box, Keep These Linking Strategies in Mind
  11. Why You Need a 3-Tiered Strategy For Article Submission
  12. A Publisher’s Rant – A Checklist of Items
  13. A Publisher’s Rant – Why I Hate Your Byline
  14. A Publisher’s Rant – Why I Hate The Body of Your Article
  15. A Publisher’s Rant – Why I Hate Your First Paragraph
  16. A Publisher’s Rant – Why I Hate Your Article Headlines
  17. A Publisher’s Rant – Why I Hate Your Articles
  18. DonÂ’t Be Afraid of Your TopicÂ…
  19. You Can Write a Good Paper!
  20. So Many Article Directories, So Little Time
  21. Fight the Exam Stress
  22. Writing A Short Article Can Be As Easy As 1-2-3
  23. Make your Speech a SuccessÂ….
  24. Reprint articles hijacked by text link ads - Great for authors!
  25. How compare and contrast techniques can improve our life?
More related feeds
Learn how to write a good CV
Writing a CV - basic rules. Nobody can give you a perfect method to write CVs, because in most cases, CVs need to be personalised. But there are some general rules that can be applied:. a CV should be clearly laid out and easy to read ...

Top 5 Rules of English Grammar
Learning and understanding the basic rules of English Grammar, you will surely be able to avoid ill-formed, confusing sentences. Hence, following and applying the rules of English Grammar and thereby producing a good writing can help ...

Writing An Article - Basic Rules Of Grammar
Keywords: articles, writing an article, grammar, rules Some would-be writers think they can dash off an article without bothering to learn the basic rules of grammar. But just as any craftsperson spends time honing his skills to make ...

The Blog-Myth Revisited: Why You Need a Blogging System
In this post, I’ll explain the basic rules of building a blog machine that can be run by anyone following the instructions in your manual. When correctly implemented, the blogging system will give you more options than you’ve ever had ...

Writing Articles
Some would-be writers think they can dash off an article without bothering to learn the basic rules of grammar. But just as any craftsperson spends time honing his skills to make the perfect piece of craft, so must a writer work hard to ...

Re: Rules of Conduct for Microsoft MVP's
>Hope you learn some basic rules of how to write. >> >> Oh a spelling/grammar flame, how original. This is the point if I was >> a pinhead I would announce that I'm going to plonk you. > >Adam, you are a pinhead and who cares if you ...

English Punctuation Rules: Rules of All Punctuation
English class or you have to put together a professional looking proposal for your boss, there are some basic rules to follow that will help you with the proper usage of punctuation. The first rule is you must end all of your sentences ...

Benefit From The Convenience of Taking Free English Courses Online
Audio passages that you listen to for comprehension * Practice exercises for the rules of grammar * Practice exercises in comprehension * Practice exercises for writing * Games and other resources to compliment the lessons ...

Article Writing - Tips
In order to answer this question, one should get acquainted with some basic rules of the art of journalism. The first rule is to have a high command of one’s mother tongue as well as proficiency in grammar. ...

On Writing, Grammar, and why First Languages suck.
If you're a creative writer, chances are you know most of the basic rules of grammar -- at least enough to break them. You probably do the one big bad (TM) in which you write in past tense for a majority of your work, which academics ...

 


 

© 2007 articlesreader.com - All Rights Reserved