1.

Write in Complete Sentences

Every sentence needs two parts to be complete.
 a subject (Katie plays the violin.)
 a verb (Katie plays the violin.)
Depending on the verb, a complete sentence — also known as an independent clause
— might also have a direct object (Katie plays the violin). If your sentence is missing a
subject or a verb, it’s a sentence fragment.
2. Make Sure Your Subjects and Verbs Agree
You may not expect to find disagreement in a sentence about kittens, but the sentence
“My kittens wants food” is definitely having an argument with itself. The subject (kittens)
is plural, but the verb (wants) is singular.
For subject-verb agreement, match singular subjects to singular verbs and plural
subjects to plural verbs.
 My kitten wants food. (singular subject, singular verb)
 My kittens want food. (plural subject, plural verb)
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3. Link Ideas With a Conjunction or Semicolon

Although writing in simple sentences is grammatically correct, it’s not very interesting.
Combine your simple sentences with coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or,
yet, so) to make compound sentences.
 Delia found a cat, and she named it Purdy.
 Our team won the championship, so we got a trophy.
You can also mix it up by using a semicolon instead of a conjunction.
 Delia found a cat; she named it Purdy.
 Our team won the championship; we got a trophy.
4. Use Commas Correctly
While you can use a comma with a coordinating conjunction, you can’t use
a comma alone to combine independent clauses. That’s an error known as a comma
splice, and it creates run-on sentences. Use a comma only if you’re also using a
coordinating conjunction.
 Delia found a cat, she named it Purdy. (Incorrect - comma splice)
 Our team won the championship, and we got a trophy. (Correct - with
coordinating conjunction)
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5. Use a Serial Comma When Necessary
When listing items in a sentence, you separate them with commas. The last comma in
the series is called the Oxford comma, and not everyone likes it.
 We bought some goats, cows, and horses for our farm. (Oxford comma)
 We bought some goats, cows and horses for our farm. (No Oxford comma)
Whether you regularly use an Oxford comma is up to you and your style guide.
However, you should always use an Oxford comma when the sentence could be
confusing without it.
 The farmer saw the goats, Gil, and Pierre. (Oxford comma clarifies that there are
goats and two people named Gil and Pierre)
  The farmer saw the goats, Gil and Pierre. (No Oxford comma makes it sound like
the goats are named Gil and Pierre)
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6. Use Active Voice
Sentences in active voice put the subject before the verb. For example, in the active
sentence “The duck ate the bread,” the duck is the subject. It performs the action in the
verb (ate) to the object in the sentence (the bread).
In these examples, the subjects are bold, the verbs are underlined, and the objects are
italicized.
 Shelby dried the dishes. (Active — Shelby is the subject)
 Mary walked the dog. (Active — Mary is the subject)
Passive voice sentences place the subject after the verb — or they leave the subject out
completely. “The bread was eaten by the duck” is a passive sentence because the
subject (the duck) comes after the verb (was eaten). The object of the sentence (the
bread) somehow ends up at the beginning of the sentence, which makes it confusing to
read.
 The dishes were dried by Shelby. (Passive — the subject is after the verb)
 The dog was walked by Mary. (Passive - the subject is missing)
Writing in passive voice makes your sentences confusing and your meaning unclear.
Luckily, it’s easy to turn passive voice into active voice.
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7. Use the Correct Verb Tense
Using a verb tense that doesn’t match your time period is like stepping into a broken
time machine. When did the action happen — today, tomorrow, or one hundred years
ago? Is it still happening?
Make sure that you’ve got the correct tense for the time period you’re describing.
 Present tense - something that happens all the time, or is happening right now
(Mary and I eat lunch every Tuesday.)
 Past tense - something that happened before now (Mary and I ate lunch.)
 Future tense - something that will happen in the future (Mary and I will
eat lunch.)
When talking about a continuous action, you can use present, past, or
future progressive tense (with -ing verb endings). If you’re talking about something that
happened across a span of time, use perfect verb tenses (with the modal
verb have or had).
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8. Keep Your Verb Tense Consistent
Another part of using the correct verb tense concerns consistency. If you start your
sentence (or paragraph, or page, or book) in one tense, you need to make sure the rest
of your writing is also in that tense. You can go back and forth if you’re talking about
different time periods, but be careful not to mix them up.
 Incorrect - Stuart lost his wallet. He goes to the bank and gets some cash, then
he went to the restaurant. (The tense goes from past to present, back to past
again)
 Correct - Stuart lost his wallet. He went to the bank and got some cash, then
he went to the restaurant. (Tense stays in the past)
 Correct - Stuart loses his wallet. He goes to the bank and gets some cash, then
he goes to the restaurant. (Tense stays in the present)
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9. Only Use Apostrophes for Possessive Nouns and Contractions
Many people use apostrophes in plural nouns because — well, we’re not sure why.
Apostrophes note when letters are missing in a contraction and they indicate a singular
or plural noun’s possession. Those are the only jobs of an apostrophe.
 Correct - Xander can’t wait until summer vacation. (can’t is a contraction
of cannot)
 Correct - Did you borrow the neighbor’s car? (neighbor’s is a possessive noun)
 Correct - This is the writers' room. (writers’ is a plural possessive noun)
 Incorrect - Merry Christmas from the Henderson’s! (Hendersons is plural, not
possessive)
The rare time you’d use an apostrophe to show plurals is for plural lowercase letters (as
in “Mind your p’s and q’s”). Otherwise, keep them away from your plural nouns.
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10. Keep Your Homophones Straight
Using too when you mean to is a common — and avoidable — mistake. Make sure you
know the difference between common homophones to keep your meaning clear.
 two vs. to vs too
  your vs. you’re
 there vs. their vs. they’re
 except vs. accept
 then vs. than
These aren’t the only commonly confused words in English. Find the ones that confuse
you the most and learn how to tell them apart.
11. Use End Punctuation Correctly
All good things must come to an end, and that includes your sentence. Be sure that
you’re using the correct end punctuation mark for your sentence for the tone you want.
 Period - Paul asked Sadie to the dance. (Serious or neutral tone)
 Question mark - Paul asked Sadie to the dance? (Confused tone)
 Exclamation point - Paul asked Sadie to the dance! (Excited tone)
If your sentence ends in a quote or dialogue, put your end punctuation (also
called terminal punctuation) inside the quotation marks as well.