Avoiding Sentence

Errors

 Consistency
Run-0ns
Parallelism
Conciseness

Consistency
CONSISTENCY means unity/oneness. A sentence has
unity if it expresses only one main idea.
1. Consistency in Tense
2. Consistency in Voice
3. Consistency in Number/Person
4. Consistency in Subject

Consistency in Tense
Tense mean time. Consistency in tense may be achieved
by observing proper tense sequence.
a. The verb in an adverbial clause generally agrees with
the tense on the verb in the main clause.
e.g.
1. Joy ran to the door to open it when he saw us
coming.
2. Mark cleared his room before he left.

Consistency in Tense
b. The verb in a noun clause is generally in the past tense
if the verb in the main clause is in the past tense. The
verb remains in the present tense if the main idea
expressed in the noun clause is a universal truth.
e.g.
1. Amelia claims that she knows the answers to all the
questions.
2. The student learned from his experiment that the
water seeks its own level.(universal truth)

Consistency in Voice
Voice is that aspect of the verb which indicates whether
the subject performs the action (active voice) or
receives it (passive voice).
e.g. (unified voice)
Active voice
Pnoy formulates the countrys foreign policy and
carries on diplomatic relations with other countries
through the DFA.
Passive voice
A bill is thoroughly studied by members of both
House of Congress before it is passed.

Consistency in Number/Person
Be sure that pronoun agrees in number and person with
its antecedent. Do not shift from the first person to the
second or from the third to the first. See to it that the
number of the pronoun is the same as its antecedent.
e.g.
1. Everybody rehearsed his part in the play.
2. The school gives young women training in good
manners and social behavior to make ladies out of
them.

Consistency of Subject
Avoid unnecessary shifts of subject in the sentence.
Faulty: Jamie was born in Hawaii but the Philippines is the place
where she grew up.
Right: Jamie was born in Hawaii but she grew up in the
Philippines.
Faulty: The hikers hurried on, and soon the amp site was in view.
Right: The hikers hurried on, and they soon saw the camp site.
Note: Correct the faulty construction (1) by making the subject of the first verb the subject of
the second or (2) by recasting the sentences to provide subjects that are parallel in idea.

Run-Ons
Run-ons are two or more complete sentences that are capitalized
and punctuated as if they were one.
Two Kinds of Run-Ons
1. Made up of sentences that are not separated or joined by any
punctuation at all.
e.g. He rushed down the subway steps an angry woman followed
close behind
2. Made up of sentences with only one comma between

them.

e.g. This is a very belated birthday card, my birthday was three

months ago.

Correcting Run-ons with Punctuation and

Conjunction.
USING PUNCTUATION AND CONJUNCTIONS

Run-Ons
Will summer ever come we doubt it very
much
Edith slumped into a chair, the worst had
happened
Run-Ons

Sentences with End Marks

1. Will summer ever come?
2. We doubt it very much.
1. Edith slumped into a chair.
2. The worst had happened.
Sentences with Commas

Storm clouds gathered lightning lit up the 1. Storm clouds gathered, and lightning
sky.
lit up the sky.
They may have stopped to eat, or they
They may have stopped to eat, they may
may be lost.
be lost.
Run-Ons

Sentences with Semicolons

He doesnt merely like fishing, he adores

it.
Charlene hates cooking, therefore, she
never invites anyone for dinner.

He doesnt merely like fishing; he adores

it.
Charlene hates cooking; therefore, she
never invites anyone for dinner.

Exercise: Rewriting Run-ons

Jenny sometimes comes over to visit us, her little
brother comes too.
Leaping from behind the chair, the kitten batted the
yarn, then she dashed across the rug.
The restaurant was well known for its pastry, sauces,
and pates, it was a small French caf.

Parallelism
PARALLELISM - placement of equal ideas in words, phrases, or
clauses of similar types.
Examples:
PARALLEL WORDS: The board reviews several aspects of the
plan: social, educational and financial.
PARALLEL PHRASE: She loves to swim in the river and to
water ski at the sea.
PARALLEL CLAUSE: We wondered what was in the box,
where it came from, who had send it, and why it had not
been unwrapped.

 Parallel structures may also be written with an

understood word that is omitted after the first item in a
series.
example: You can improve your chances of making the
team
by eating properly, [by] sleeping regularly,
and [by]
exercising daily.
Sometimes, the conjunction may also be omitted
between parallel structures.
example: If you do no homework, [and] if you show no
interest
in the classroom, you may fail the course.

FAULTY PARALLELISM results when ideas with equal

importance are
not expressed in equal
grammatical
structures.
examples: The waiter suggested lamb chops, green
beans, and
that we try the sweet potatoes.
Corrected sentence:
and

The waiter suggested lamb chops, green beans

sweet potatoes.

Avoiding Redundancy
REDUNDANCY unnecessary repetition of an idea.
Adjectives that repeat the meaning of nouns and
adverbs that repeat the meaning of verbs should be
eliminated.
REDUNDANT ADJECTIVE
-He studied past history extensively.
REDUNDANT ADVERB
-The boys advanced forward and shook their fists.

 REDUNDANT PHRASE
-Pats face turned red in color, and he ran from the
room.
REDUNDANT CLAUSE
-The child asked unanswerable questions that no one
can answer.

Avoiding Wordiness
WORDY PHRASES replace a prepositional phrase with a
single word modifier, a noun, or pronoun to create a
shorter, clearer sentence.
WORDY:
1. The detective discovered that the name of the suspect
was Marco.
2. Aunt Bess moves in a slow manner.
3. He sent letters to her and hoped she would visit.

 WORDY CLAUSES adjective clauses add words that

are not always needed to a sentence such as who is or
which are. In some sentence you can simplify adjective
clauses by omitting the subject and verb.
WORDY:
1. Explorers discovered a passage that went through the
mountains.
2. Brasilia which is the capital of Brazil, lies many miles inland.
3. My grandmother, who gave me a novel by Charles Dickens,
also told me the story.
4. The teacher who was a coach on a SCUFAR team was also a
player on a SCUFAR team.

EXERCISES

Direction:
Write C if the tenses of the following sentences are
correctly used. Rewrite the sentences that violate tense
unity.
1. Meryl was late to her 7:30 class because the traffic is
heavy.
2. Everybody prepared to leave as soon as the bell ring.
3. Jose Rizal believed that there exists a Filipino nation.
4. I walked into the room and find no one there.
5. He exercises in the health spa before he left for work.

Direction:
Make the sentences consistent by converting
unnecessary shifts in voice.
1. Wendy collected beautiful shells and they are
displayed in her room.
2. A big building was gutted by fire but the owner soon
built another in its place.
3. Bring your books tomorrow because they will be
needed.
4. The judges have selected the person to whom the
prize will be given.

Direction:
Make the sentences consistent by correcting
faulty shifts in subject, number, or person.
1. One must consult a doctor if they are sick.
2. Children want his parents to love them.
3. When opportunity knocks, one must be ready
for them.
4. All of the boys presented his credentials.

Direction:
Form a simple or complex sentence to correct each of the
run-ons.
1. Sir Winston Churchill was a brilliant man he was the
English prime minister during world war II.
2. Catherine II was a Russian empress, she was called
Catherine the Great.
3. Elijah was afraid of bees, he had a severe allergic
reaction to their stings.
4. In the spring cardinals come to our bird feeder, an

Direction:

Rewrite the following sentences below to make a parallel

sentences.

1. Good speech must be audible, logical, and have clarity.

2. Lani likes hiking for great distances and to climb
mountains.
3. The dolls were Russian, Italian and one from England.
4. We interviewed the principal, a teacher and with the
nurse.
5. You can adjust the swing by lengthening one rope or
you can shorten the other rope.

Direction:

Rewrite each sentence and eliminate redundant words,

phrases and clauses.

1. When he was finally alone by himself, Jed took

out a book.
2. On their way home, the girls stamped noisily
by our room.
3. He was a negligent driver because he was
careless.
4. We were assigned a biography about the life of

Direction:

Eliminate the underlined words, phrases and clauses and

replace it with concise words.

1. Vandals threw paint in a car which was parked.

2. A truck stopped and offered a ride to us into town.
3. The speaker agreed to give answers to questions from
the audience.
4. That species of flower that was endangered is now
thriving in the wild.
5. The club plans to hold discussions on the new rules.