Overcoming Grammatical Errors and Punctuation Problems

Overcoming Grammatical Errors and Punctuation Problems
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All the fine organization and careful thinking in the world cannot overshadow poor grammar or confusing punctuation. Poor grammar will undermine your credibility as a writer more swiftly than any other single problem. Punctuation that misleads the reader can actually interfere with communication. Both can be caught and corrected through the all?important process of revision.

Below are sentences that represent some of the more common grammatical problems. Not all of them are wrong. Identify those which are wrong, and explain why.

1._____	A defense attorney has the responsibility of deciding whether or not his client should take the witness stand.
2. _____	I want to drum some statistics into your heads which are concrete.
3. _____	Because Biff now loved Susie better than Alice, he made her return her souvenir faceguard.
4. _____	The peanut jars were empty, but Bobo was tired of nibbling them anyway.
5. _____	Making children more responsive with severe handicaps takes exceptional patience.
6. _____	Hull House was the center of Jane Addams's work which she founded in 1889 in Chicago.
7. _____	Running down the window pane, the raindrops looked sad.
8. _____	Running down the window pane, I saw the sad drizzle.
9. _____	Stanley writes leaflets, makes underground broadcasts, tape recordings and paints warnings on police station walls.
10. _____	Melody was both habitually late to work and a sound sleeper on the job.
11._____	Fido's whole ambition in life was to eat, to play, and to sleep.
12._____	Only one of the thousands of hairs on his head is grey.
13. _____	Baseball, along with all other sports, strike Priscilla as utterly meaningless.
14. _____	Tom or Jean need to speak with you today.
15. _____	Each of them are equally certain of being right.

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