Punctuation resource

A nice resource for correcting errors related to punctuation is the Oxford Dictionaries Online. Click here for the ODO pages on punctuation.

Correction colours

I like to use colour-coding in my feedback on students' writing.  In a long assignment of 1500 - 4000, it's likely that if I find an example of one type of error in the first couple of pages, I'll find further examples throughout the student's work.  By highlighting text in different colours (or just underlining text), I can indicate the type of problem to my students, and they can correct it by themselves. For more details about error types and how to correct them, click on the relevant labels in the right-hand column of this blog.

Underlined text : Articles and Referents (including a/an, the, this, that, and issues related to singular / plural nouns and countability)
Text highlighted in yellow: Vocabulary (including spelling, capitalization, word form, and collocation)
Text highlighted in green: Sentence structure (including relative clauses, parallel structure, word class, and missing subjects and verbs)

Text highlighted in cyan : Pattern grammar. This is where vocabulary meets grammar, so it’s about the pattern that a particular word should be used in (e.g. I look forward to seeing you, not *I look forward of I will see you)

Text highlighted in grey : Verb phrase (including tense, aspect, modal verbs, and use of the passive)
Text highlighted in dark grey : Punctuation

Text highlighted in red : Mistakes that should be easy to correct (subject-verb agreement, typos)

Text highlight in pink : Register (not appropriate for academic writing).  Note that this includes use of sources (including referencing problems, possible plagiarism, and quoted text that could be paraphrased more effectively)

Text highlighted in brown : inappropriate use of linkers 

Colour-coded advice

I'm not expert enough in HTML and blogging to be sure that this will work, but what I've tried to do in this post is create some colour-coded advice on how to correct errors that have been highlighted in your writing. If I've highlighted an error in yellow, for example, the yellow boxes below will contain advice on how to fix the problem. Click on an error type for advice

articles and countability	collocation	inappropriate linkers
modal verbs	noun phrase construction	parallel structure
pattern grammar	punctuation	referents
sentence structure	spelling / typos	style and register
subject-verb agreement	verb phrase	vocabulary choice
word class	word form	word order

 

Look at the noun that is expressing your meaning. Is it countable? Should it be singular or plural? Does your reader know exactly which one(s) you are referring to?

What’s the key word you are trying to use? Are you sure that it means what you want to express? Check collocations resources for appropriate collocates.

What’s the key word you are trying to use? Check a dictionary to see what patterns it should be used with.

Is your linking expression English? Is it logical? Will it help your reader to see a connection between sentences or sections? Do you really need it?

Have you used an appropriate combination of TENSE and ASPECT? Think about when your verb “happened”? Is it a completed action? Is it a repeated action? Think about the precise meaning of your verb. Is it an action that was “done” by someone or something? Does your sentence structure reflect this? If you are using a modal verb, are you sure that it expresses your intended meaning? Will your reader understand exactly what you want them to?

Check the structure of your sentence. How many verbs are there? How many subjects are there? Do you need to use any clever grammatical devices to include more than one subject and verb in your sentence? Do your nouns look like nouns? Do your verbs look like verbs? Are adjectives used to modify nouns? Are adverbs used to modify verbs? Does your sentence include any addition adverbial references to time, place, or attitude?

Does every sentence begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop? Are there any strange capital letters in the middle of sentences? Read your text aloud and pause wherever you have used a comma. Do commas help express your meaning clearly?

Have you turned on the spelling and grammar check on Microsoft Word? Are there any red or green lines for you to fix? Have you asked a friend to read your text for sloppy mistakes?

Is your choice of vocabulary suitable for a piece of academic writing? Have you avoided contractions and colloquialisms? Is it possible to express the same meaning with fewer words?

 

When an error is difficult to categorise

It might help you to understand some of the terms I use in my feedback if you consider one or two examples which I find difficult to categorise:

1: Is the problem here related to SENTENCE STRUCTURE or PUNCTUATION?

The first two authors teach at Essex Business school, University of Essex, UK, while the third works for Pantheon Ventures–Russell Private Equity, They have written several articles about the analysis of UK IPO underpricing and venture capitalists.

We could certainly classify this as a SENTENCE STRUCTURE problem.  Some teachers and writers will call this a RUN-ON SENTENCE.  To fix it, though, we just need to pay attention to PUNCTUATION:

The first two authors teach at Essex Business school, University of Essex, UK, while the third works for Pantheon Ventures–Russell Private Equity; they have written several articles about the analysis of UK IPO underpricing and venture capitalists.

Where possible, I like to use the term that will enable the easiest correction of the problem, so in this case I’d probably bring the student’s attention to PUNCTUATION.

2: Is the problem here WORD CLASS or PATTERN GRAMMAR?

They have written several articles about analysis  UK IPO underpricing and venture capitalists.

Again, it could be either of these issues.  With attention to WORD CLASS, our correction becomes:

They have written several articles about analysing UK IPO underpricing and venture capitalists.

PATTERN GRAMMAR might lead us to:

They have written several articles about the analysis of UK IPO underpricing and venture capitalists.

3: Is this an example of a WORD CLASS or COLLOCATION problem?

an abundant of knowledge

What’s more important?  The fact that “abundant” is an adjective and so should be corrected to the noun “abundance” or the fact that “an abundance of knowledge” is a strange combination of nouns that a reader might not understand.  In this case, I think we can arrive at a better correction via attention to COLLOCATION (I would suggest “considerable knowledge”, an option listed in the Oxford Collocations Dictionary).

4: Are these examples of COLLOCATION or PATTERN GRAMMAR problems?

The results describe that…

The results present that…

Perhaps it's easiest just to say "both".  Results don't "describe" or "present" anything, so the writer should find another combination.  At the same time, DESCRIBE and PRESENT should be followed by a NOUN PHRASE, not THAT and then a Subject + Verb.  The whole phrase needs to be rewritten!

Word Class and Word Form

I make a distinction between WORD CLASS and WORD FORM which might seem small at first, but has an important effect on how you might correct the error. Take the following example:

It is so highly concentrated that the liquidity of the HKD market is relative slower.

"Relative" is a problem of WORD CLASS.  The writer has used an adjective, but they need an adverb.  "Slower" is an adjective, and the writer needs an adjective, but it's not quite right for their purpose. The problem is WORD FORM.  The adjective they need is "slow", not the comparative form "slower".  This is like the difference between "bored" and "boring", both forms of the word are adjectives, but carry a different meaning. You're probably bored now, because this blog is boring.

Collocations Resources

I tend to label a lot of vocabulary errors as issues of COLLOCATION.  An introduction to collocations will be included in the early stages of all the courses I teach on, but my basic example is always that in English (an many other languages, so I’m told), a combination like “ride a bicycle” is a good collocation, and “drive a bicycle” is not.  In academic writing, I often find myself correcting “bad” collocations like “make a research” (it should be something like DO or CONDUCT RESEARCH)

In order to correct COLLOCATION errors by yourself, here are some online resources for you to explore. Let me know if you have any questions about how to use / access any of the sites, and tell me also if you have any particular requests regarding online resources.

Dictionaries
cambridge dictionaries online
longman online dictionary
macmillan online dictionary
oxford dictionary (and the less legal oxford collocations dictionaryhttp://5yiso.appspot.com/)

Corpora and Concordancers
collins concordance and collocations sampler
mark davies' british national corpus search
a huge but fairly anonymous concordancing site

How to resolve problems of pattern grammar

International students often come to the UK after years of studying English in their home country, and are surprised to be told that they are not using words properly, especially when this relates to “easy” words that they learned a long time ago.  I suspect that this is because they’ve learned words through translation or as items on vocabulary lists.  As a result, there’s never been any emphasis on how to use words correctly.  Given how common words like MAKE, MOST, and ALMOST are, I am sometimes shocked at how few of my students can actually use them in a sentence, despite the fact that they are just a month or two away from starting postgraduate courses. 

I use the term PATTERN GRAMMAR in my feedback to highlight exactly this phenomenon.  A student has probably chosen an appropriate vocabulary item, but hasn’t used it correctly.  I like the term PATTERN GRAMMAR because I think it encourages us to think of strings of words, and not just words as individual items.  If I want to use the word AFRAID, for example, I need to know that I can either write “I am afraid of heights”, “I am afraid of old men with big moustaches” (be + afraid + of + NOUN PHRASE) or “I am afraid to go there alone” (Be + afraid + to + verb).  I can even go with “I am afraid that I cannot come to class today” (be + afraid + that + Subject + Verb).

If you have an error highlighted as a problem of PATTERN GRAMMAR (which may just be highlighted in yellow, for you to work out by yourself), you can try to fix it by following this process:

1.       Go to a good dictionary, like The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of English

2.       Look at the listed patterns of use for your key word.  Can you find the example that best reflects your meaning?

3.       Compare YOUR pattern with the dictionary example.

4.       Adapt your pattern so that it reflects what the dictionary tells you.

There are some complications that might get in your way, so it’s worth considering the following questions:

a)      Are you checking the right form of your key word? 

-      sometimes errors occur because the pattern for a noun, says, is not applicable to its corresponding verb.  We say HAVE AN INFLUENCE ON, and HAVE AN EFFECT ONN (both nouns, and both followed by noun phrases), but not *the USA influences on the UK, or *tiredness affects on exam performance (no preposition follows the verb: it should just be THE USE INFLUENCES THE UK, and TIREDNESS AFFECTS EXAM PERFORMANCE)

b)      If your key word is a verb, is it TRANSITIVE or INTRANSITIVE?

-          again, a good dictionary will tell you this (often with an I or T next to the entry for a verb).  A TRANSITIVE verb needs to be followed by an object; an INTRANSITIVE does not take an object (which will also mean that it can’t be used in the passive voice).  This should explain why *the researchers measured and *the crash was occurred