Most common pitfalls

Over the course of the many years I have spent technical writing, editing, proofreading, and just reading people's work (yes, sometimes including my own), there are a few tricky aspects of writing that show up repeatedly as problems. So for this, my 100th Red Pens and Playwriting post, I want to give these frequent bugbears a good once-over.

Commas in the middle of phrases

Commas are one of the most difficult forms of punctuation to wrap your head around, because they get used in so many ways. Unfortunately, this sometimes results in commas being put where they're not supposed to be, like in the middle of a phrase. Here are some examples of rogue commas from my post about the catlike punctuation:

• Between the subject of your sentence and the action:
  I am going to go, to the store for milk. [Incorrect]
  I am going to go to the store for milk. [Correct]
• Between two verb phrases when the same subject is performing both actions (within the same clause—if a comma is used, it may not look incorrect grammatically but will change the perceived meaning):
  Suzy sang, and danced for America’s Got Talent. [Incorrect (implies that the singing wasn’t part of the America’s Got Talent performance)]
  Suzy sang and danced for America’s Got Talent. [Correct]
• Between two subjects when they are both performing the same action:
  Mike, and Annabel had difficulty fitting everything into the car. [Incorrect]
  Mike and Annabel had difficulty fitting everything into the car. [Correct]
• Between two objects when the same action is being performed to both of them:
  Sam poured out bowls of nuts, and candies. [Incorrect]
  Sam poured out bowls of nuts and candies. [Correct]

Run-on sentences

This common problem is all to do with clauses. If you've read my post about them, you'll know that there are two types of clauses—an independent clause is one that is capable of standing on its own as a sentence, but a dependent one cannot. This means that every sentence must contain at least one clause which must be independent, but may contain other dependent clauses... or, sometimes, another independent clause.

A run-on sentence is when you have two independent clauses stuck together inappropriately, usually with a comma but sometimes without any punctuation at all. Here are some examples of run-on sentences:

There’s a storm coming, I’m going to tie down the trampoline.

There was only one thing Frances could do in this situation, she pulled the fire alarm.

I don’t believe in dragons, if they existed, I’d have found them.

The resulting pasta bake was tasty, hard to keep on a fork.

The sun beat down, making me sweat, I squirmed uncomfortably.

There are a lot of different ways to avoid unwanted run-on sentences by putting the right things between your independent clauses, such as:

• a semicolon:
  There’s a storm coming; I’m going to tie down the trampoline.
• a colon:
  There was only one thing Frances could do in this situation: she pulled the fire alarm.
• an em-dash:
  I don’t believe in dragons—if they existed, I’d have found them.
• a conjunction:
  The resulting pasta bake was tasty, yet hard to keep on a fork.
• a full stop/period (or other sentence-ending punctuation):
  The sun beat down, making me sweat. I squirmed uncomfortably.

The key is to figure out which of these many potential solution works best for that sentence!

Subject/object pronoun confusion

I'm sure we're all very familiar with pronouns as a part of speech that can be used in place of a noun, as well as the idea that, unlike nouns, many pronouns are liable to change depending on whether they are filling in as a subject or object. (Hopefully you also know that subjects are the actors of a sentence, and objects the things being acted upon.)

Despite all this, people often have difficulty keeping track of which forms of pronouns belong where. To assist, here's a handy cheat sheet:

• I am going for a walk. The park is my favourite place to walk; it's very pleasant for me.
• You are going for a walk. The park is your favourite place to walk; it's very pleasant for you.
• We are going for a walk. The park is our favourite place to walk; it's very pleasant for us.
• He is going for a walk. The park is his favourite place to walk; it's very pleasant for him.
• She is going for a walk. The park is her favourite place to walk; it's very pleasant for her.
• They are going for a walk. The park is their favourite place to walk; it's very pleasant for them.
• It is going for a walk. The park is its favourite place to walk; it's very pleasant for it.
• Who is going for a walk? The park is whose favourite place to walk? It's very pleasant for whom?

One of the most common tripping points is "who" vs "whom", but that's pretty straightforward once you know the trick of it: if you replace "who" with "he" or "whom" with "him", the pronouns should be grammatically correct and answer the question being posed. For example, if you want to know for whom the bell tolls, you could say the bell tolls for him. Conversely, if you're wondering who has pulled the sword from the stone, that may be answered by saying he has pulled it out.

The other common difficulty is aligning multiple subjects or objects where pronouns are used, especially in the case of "I" or "me". The easiest solution I have is to simply take out the known quantity and ensure the sentence still makes sense. So "[Jasper and] I went to the party" is correct, but not "the party was too lound for [Jasper and] I".

This is just the tip of the iceberg of common grammar-related difficulties, but hopefully a few readers have learned some new facts and tips. Let me know if there are any other problem points that you struggle with (or see others struggling with) that you would like to read about! I'm sure there will be a call for another one of these roundups, maybe for my 200th post?

Until then, happy writing and keep learning!