Several years ago, I wrote Perfect Phrases for College Application Essays, a book for high school students. No two application essays should be alike, so the “perfect phrases” refers to phrases useful for researching oneself for subjects to write about and phrases useful for making transitions. I learned quite a lot in deconstructing the essay writing process. I will soon post some of what I wrote about creating essays, but this week, since if have been doing a lot of editing, I’d like to share a slightly modified excerpt on editing tips.

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Common Grammar Errors to Watch For When You Are Polishing Your Writing

Dangling Modifiers
They creep into essays when the writer is offering complicated ideas in a compressed form. “Turning six, my father decided it was time to teach me to hunt,” is a sentence with a dangling modifier: The child is turning six, not the father. It would be correct to write, “When I was turning six, my father decided it was time for me to learn to hunt,” or “Turning six, I began to learn to hunt as my father decided it was time.” When you have a phrase that starts with an “ing” word, make sure that phrase is not modifying the wrong noun or pronoun.

Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Phrases
Which to set off with commas? When a noun or pronoun is modified with a phrase that is necessary to knowing who the person, event, or object is, that phrase is NOT set off with commas: The man who was wearing the blue hat, the dog with the loud bark, the corner where the traffic stops, for instance all have what we call restrictive phrases modifying them–these are necessary for knowing which man, which dog, and which corner the writer means, so no commas used. However, if I said, “My Uncle Harry, who was wearing a blue hat, wanted to take me to dinner,: I would need commas to set off the phrase “who was wearing a blue hat” because in this case, it is a nonrestrictive phrase. Uncle Harry is a proper noun and is therefore always Uncle Harry, whether or not he is wearing the blue hat. Who he is is not restricted by the further information. More examples: In the sentence beginning, “My neighbor’s dog Trudy, who had a loud bark,” the descriptive phrase is nonrestrictive and IS set off with commas. In the modifying phrase in “the corner of Westin and 4th Avenue, where the traffic stops,” the nonrestrictive phrase “where the traffic stops” is set off with commas.

Run-on Sentences
If you have more than one independent clause (a sentence with a subject and verb that offers a complete thought) it cannot be connected to another independent clause with a comma. It requires a semi colon to do that. Most often, you would use a period and begin the second independent clause as a separate sentence. You can also use a conjunction to link the sentences and you put a comma before the conjunction (and, but, or, nor).

Interesting: The words “however” and “therefore” are not conjunctions and they DO require commas to set them apart from the rest of the independent clause they belong to:

Someone ran into the room and asked students to evacuate the building because of a funny smell. However, I had gone home early that day.

Someone ran into the room and asked students to evacuate the building because of a funny smell; however, I had gone home early that day.

I want to study engineering and dance. Therefore, I believe NYU is the school for me.

I want to study engineering and dance, and, therefore, I believe NYU is the school for me.

I want to study engineering and dance; therefore, I believe NYU is the school for me.

Plural Pronouns
It used to be that when you said something like,  “A reader must know what he is getting into,” you had to choose between he or she because reader is singular. Because of new rules that promote gender equality in our grammar, it has become acceptable to write, “A reader must know what they are getting into” but to many of us this sounds awkward. As much as possible, writers should see if they can change the pronoun’s referent to plural and maintain the meaning, “Readers must know what they are getting into” sounds much smoother.

Homonyms
There are many words in English that sound alike but have different spellings. Here and hear, wear and where, know and no; two, too and to, bear and bare, their and there, weather and whether, witch and which, among those that are commonly mixed up. When you check for spelling using a computer spell checker, the spell checker will not be mark a misused homonym as misspelled. Since all of us sometimes type one with the wrong meaning without thinking, let someone you believe is a good speller and knows English grammar well read over your work for any incorrectly used homonyms. You might also refresh your memory and theirs about those words we commonly mix up by studying a list of homonyms. You can find such lists online at sites like: http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html and www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/homofone.htm.

Contractions
This refers to two words made into one by using an apostrophe. You’ll notice that in a contraction the apostrophe is placed where a letter is omitted. This is always the case with contractions: “do not” becomes “don’t,” and can not becomes “can’t,” for instance.

Note: Many homonyms involve contractions (aisle and I’ll; your and you’re; there, they’re and their, we’re and where and wear, for instance). Moreover, if you are contracting a word with a verb, the apostrophe is necessary (it’s, who’s, there’ll, they’re, you’re, I’ll, for example), but if you are showing possession using a pronoun, no apostrophe is needed (its, hers, his, theirs, yours).

The Possessive
To show possession you add an apostrophe s to a noun or pronoun: the children’s room, the boy’s father, the truck’s wheel, the people’s park. Adding an “s” to make something plural (writers, butterflies, taxis, for instance) NEVER requires an apostrophe. If a word is already plural and you want to show possession, you add an apostrophe and an apostrophe s after the last letter, except in the case where the last letter is an “s”; if there is already an s, you may just add the apostrophe to avoid the “z” sound another “s” would incur: in butterflies’, writers’, and taxis’ for instance.

Remember: It’s means it is. It is not the same as “its” which means belonging to it. Plural nouns are made plural with the addition of an s or and ies, not an apostrophe s. Watch that you haven’t mistakenly put apostrophes into words when they do not need to be there.

Word Choice
English is full of very precise words and the more intangible the meaning and the less we read such abstract words in proper contexts, the more we mix up the words when we use them. Ben Yagoda, an English professor who has written, When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better and/or Worse, points out that “aspired” does not mean the same thing as “expected,” “accredited” does not mean the same thing as “attributed,” “invade” does not mean “dominate,” “blame” is not the same as “accuse,” “a vast proportion” does not mean “a majority,” “rejuvenated” does not mean “refurbished” or “enervated.”

Here are examples he includes in his article about student mistakes:

“Of the many things the students aspired [expected] to see, a terrorist attack was not one of them.”

“The drop in candidates can be accredited [attributed] to. … “

“Stories about the hurricane invade [dominate] the entire first section of the newspaper.”

“No one can blame [accuse] John Henrickson of being an apathetic college student.”

“The vast proportion [majority] of students is enrolled in the College of Arts and Science.”

Then there’s this one, which seems to encapsulate all the problems his students are having: “The land, which is currently occupied with [by] older, run down homes, will be rejuvenated [I’m not sure what the right word is — I just know that “rejuvenated” isn’t it] to fit the positive stigma [image] that the city manages [is trying] to uphold.”

Yagoda diagnoses the problem of improper word choice this way, “Skilled writers profit from a continuously looping, subliminal soundtrack of all the sentences they’ve ever read. The students who do not have such a soundtrack fall back on the archive of conversations that are in their heads. The spoken language follows a different protocol…”

Although you shouldn’t start using “big” words just because you are writing rather than speaking, neither should you forget that they can help you sound articulate and save you from many word tangles.

Shortening Phrases
It is good to catch the ways in which you might easily use too many words when fewer will keep the reader from getting distracted or slowing down:

• To (rather than in order to)
• Many (rather than a lot)
• Seven people completed the whole run (rather than “The run was completed by seven people.”).
• My uncle gave me a job (rather than “I was given a job by my uncle.”).
• We decided to leave the fundraising up to the others (rather than “We decided that a good choice would be to leave the fundraising up to the others.”).
• I decided (rather than “I made the decision to.”).
• I concluded (rather than “I came to the conclusion that.”).
• When I viewed the movie (rather than “When I was able to view the movie”).
• Arnie, an accomplished baseball player with lots of experience coaching, helped me prepare for the try-outs. (Instead of “Arnie is an accomplished baseball player and has lots of experience coaching. He helped me prepare for the try-outs.”)
• My experience as a citizen reporter for an online news site will help me learn from conflict situations. (Rather than “My very unique experience as a citizen reporter for an online news site will help me learn from conflict situations.”) Delete the word very since if something is unique, it is already one-of-a-kind. How much more one-of-a-kind can it be? The word unique is needed either–details show rather than tell.) Watch for the ways in which spoken sound infiltrates your writing and makes it cloudy.
• We came out of the ocean shivering with 30-degree water dripping off our skin. (Rather than, “We came out of the ocean shivering with 30-degree water dripping off our skin. We were very cold.” It’s already obvious that you were cold from the details.) Watch for the ways in which you don’t trust the details and images you have provided and work on explaining what is already evoked.
• Using his small motor dexterity, my dentist father made model planes with me. (Rather than, “My father became a dentist, and he used his small motor dexterity to make model planes with me.”) There are so many ways that as writers we feel we have to fill the reader in when short phrases with images provide the back story.
• When Kelly and I came around the corner, our mouths opened in surprise. (Rather than “When Kelly and I came around the corner, our mouths opened. We were so surprised! We could hardly talk or even laugh. It was awesome.”) Commentary is important in places, but not commentary that exaggerates a moment the reader already understands from the images, in the case open mouths.

Using Sentence Variation
Polish edits are aimed at not fatiguing the reader. Combining sentences and making some into phrases inside other sentences is a good idea for keeping an essay’s momentum. Journalist Gregg McLachlan points out the wordiness of using phrases to “back into” sentences. He uses this example, “A student who first discovered woodworking when he lived in Johnsonville, Ted Smith hopes to attend university next fall.” Ted hopes to attend university in the fall, McLachlin says, is the point and that is clouded by the information on woodworking and where he used to live. If this were my sentence and the location Johnsonville was important for some reason, I’d try reordering: “Ted Smith, who discovered woodworking while living in Johnsonville, hopes to attend university there next fall.”

McLachlan warns writers to count sentence word lengths because when sentences consistently reach 20 words, 48 words, and 57 words, the lack of some shorter, 10 word sentences tires the reader out. Readers need a break. Periods provide that. They solidify the unit of meaning and from there the reader goes on to the next unit of meaning without straining.

Long sentences not only wear out the reader, they frequently allow the writer to get away with imprecision. “Want to discover when you’ve rambled or become too wordy?” McLachlan asks, “Read your copy out loud. When you’re grasping for air, or tripping over words, that’s a good indication that your sentences need reworking.” “Frequently, the word ‘and’ can be replaced with a period.”

Finally, you’ll see that some of the words you’ve used thinking you had to connect things aren’t necessary because the reader is already connecting things: “I went into the kitchen and when I heard a loud noise in the living room, I quickly walked toward the kitchen door and into the hallway that leads to the living room.” This can be shortened: “When I heard a loud noise coming from the living room, I ran to see what had happened.”

After tightening, before you submit your essay, once again spell and grammar check, and if you are in doubt as to whether the software is correct in what it is suggesting, consult someone who writes a lot for their work–tech writers, copyeditors and freelance writers are good bets for help, as are English teachers, of course, if you can forgive the stern ones you had in school.