1. Split infinitives – interrupting an infinitive by putting in an adverb; split infinitives are not advisable in formal situations, but encouraged in informal ones.
a. Correct: Our profits are about to more than triple in the coming year.
b. Incorrect: To quickly drive to the auditorium, we need to take a shortcut.
2. Personal relative pronoun – A personal relative pronoun can be useful when needing to refer back to a person who was mentioned earlier in the sentence in reference to an action.
a. Correct: I am writing this to the person for whom I am holding their car.
b. Incorrect: The person whom did this is going to be punished.
3. Acronym/initialism – Acronyms and initialisms are both used to shorten a group of words into a single word; when this abbreviation is said like a word, it is an acronym, but if one merely says the letters of the abbreviation in order, it is known as an initialism.
a. Correct: I met with the CEO of the company in order to conduct an interview.
b. Incorrect: The BBCorporation provides quality television.
SECTION B:
1. I experienced a dearth of work after I was laid off from my job. The absence of an occupation started to bother me greatly. Unfortunately, I also felt a dearth of funds as a result of not being able to work.
2. I started writing the appendices for my reference book in April. However, someone told me that I should refer to them as appendixes. While both of these terms are legitimate, I preferred using the term appendices.
3. I decided to be terse and not mince words when talking to my employee. My succinct words got the point across very quickly. Due to the terse and succinct way in which I reprimanded my employee, I did not have to meet with them very long.
4. The loud dog proceeded to aggravate me with its barking. It would exasperate me with its irritating barks all throughout the night. Soon, it would aggravate me enough that I had to talk to my neighbor about it.
5. I laid bare all of my secrets to my father. I was so glad to be rid of the cross that I had to bear that had been bothering me for years. As soon as I did that, I felt infinitely better, and my father was able to forgive me.
6. Once I received the promotion, I was able to supercede my coworkers and work above them. My main goal was to surpass all of the achievements my predecessors had made, and work above it. I was certain that I would do a great job and perform way better than anyone would expect of me.
7. When I was in college, I was still a dependent of my parents, and received financial aid for my schooling because of it. However, I was tired of being dependant on them, and so I started to look for a new job that would help pay for my schooling. I was able to do so, and as a result I had a lot more money to work with.
8. In order to effect change, I decided to alter my sleep schedule to give myself more time at night to work. (Effect-verb) The effect of this was that I had a greater level of fatigue, which affected the way I interacted with everyone else. (Effect-noun, affect-verb) I had a depressed affect to this, and so I changed it back to my regular sleep schedule. (affect-noun)
9. In college, I canvassed my campus in order to get votes for the creation of a new anti-poverty student project. This project would be a fundraiser wherein a painting on canvas would be sold at auction. The proceeds from this would go toward charities to fight poverty.
10. When I told my father that I had crashed my car, he said “How great!” with extreme irony, so I knew he wasn’t serious. The sarcasm in his voice was evident, as I could tell he really did not mean what he said. Despite this, I knew he was just being facetious, and we went on to get my car back after the accident.
11. My mother implied that my room was fairly smelly, as it had not been cleaned in a few months. However, I inferred that the room was smelly because of something strange in the ventilation shafts, as opposed to the state of my room. Therefore, I was convinced that we needed to get it fixed.
12. When talking with my friends, I brought up the idea of the grandfather paradox; where, if you could go back in time and kill your grandfather, you would no longer exist, as he would not have lived to sire your father, who would sire you. This would make your continued existence a contradiction of what had happened in the timeline. While it was a fanciful thought, we wrote it off as pure fiction.
13. In my efforts to be more industrious, I decided to work harder and get a second job. I started to look around at industrial parks and the like, where various business and offices had openings for jobs. I applied to all of them, and eventually I was able to be hired at one of them.
14. When I started working my new job, office morale was low, as we had not made many sales in the past quarter. However, we discovered that the reason for that was a continued lack of enthusiasm by the sales department in their pitches. The moral of the story turned out to be that working hard provided many good rewards.
15. I was respectful to my mother in giving her a card for Mother’s Day. This was a normal occurrence for me, as I always sent cards to my significant others on their respective national holidays. This led to me being very well liked by my friends and relatives.
16. When I stayed in the hotel, I enjoyed the complimentary coffee and mints that were provided. I felt that the soothing mints and tasty coffee complemented each other well in flavor. I liked them so much, I had to order more from room service.
17. After my divorce, I had to seek advice from a counselor. I was having a great number of emotional problems, and didn’t know what to do. He advised me to find other things to keep myself busy, and maintain a positive attitude.
18. When I saw my wife and told her she was the most beautiful woman in the world, she knew I was using a superlative. Nonetheless, she said that wasn’t necessary to say, making it superfluous but flattering.. We went to dinner a very happy couple that night.
19. My new business plan that I presented to the board turned out to be very effective. It was able to accomplish our goals completely, and it did so without wasting resources. This particular aspect made it very efficient.
20. I went to check out the site of my new home a few days ago. The house was resting on the top of a hill, where the sun could be seen night and day. It truly was a beautiful sight.
21. After I knew that I had to do my taxes, I was able to deduce what I owed. I took my total income and I managed to deduct quite a few business expenses from it. As a result, my tax return was ample that year.
22. I was very fortunate the other day, as I caught a cab just in time to make it to the airport. It was a very fortuitous event, because the cab arrived exactly when I needed it. I left the cabbie a very large tip due to his timeliness.
23. As soon as I got to the airport, it became evident that I had forgotten my luggage in the trunk of the cab. This was made apparent to me by my father, who noticed that I did not have it. Luckily, my bag was returned to my home instead of being lost forever.
24. My sister was a very gullible person. She would believe the most spurious facts, believing them to be credible. The fact that she was so credulous led me to warn her about being scammed.
25. I fell down the stairs one day, and my pain was very acute. Hot pain shot up my entire back, and it took days to recover somewhat. Even after that, however, it became chronic pain, as it continued to hurt a little bit for years afterward.
SECTION C:
Comma after ‘security of the person’
Should be ‘includes the right to:’ and remove the word ‘to’ from each example.
Does not need letters before list; semicolons will be adequate
No hyphen after ‘public’
Should be ‘not tortured in any way’
Change ‘bodily’ to ‘physical’; improves flow
‘not to be subjected…’ should be preceded by a semicolon and the word ‘and’ removed
SECTION D:
Under 1.1:
1. Sound integrative HMM, combining relevant [The word ‘integrating’ is used far too closely to ‘integrative’, requiring a different word choice.]
2. Healthcare is delivered, both medicine [A comma is required to separate the subordinate clause from the main clause.]
Under 1.2:
1. The facets involved, the professional [a comma is required to separate the subordinate clause from the main clause.]
2. The full spectrum and providing [The comma should be changed to an ‘and’ in order to keep this phrase in the same part of the clause.]
Under 1.3:
1. Practitioners and clients is crucial. In [‘Quality’ is singular in this instance, therefore ‘is’ should replace ‘are’.]
2. Oral informal mode to a [No comma is required in this phrase.]
3. Between medical practitioners and their clients has [‘There’ is used improperly; ‘their’ is possessive, and thusly should be used. Also, ‘quality’ is used as a singular again, and so ‘have’ should become ‘has’.]
4. Provide an opportunity to not only give effect to the [‘Not to only’ is sloppy and grammatically incorrect, and ‘affect’ is a verb, and therefore used incorrectly as a noun in this instance.]
Under 1.4:
1. Strengthen the body’s own defences [Bodies is used plurally, but it must be changed to its singular possessive form. Also, ‘defenses’ is an American spelling, ‘defence’ being the British spelling of the word.)
2. Mainstream medicine should already have well [Currently is not necessary in this instance, as ‘already’ gives an impression of timeline.]
Under 1.5:
1. Who are in clinical practice should have [‘Practise’ is a British verb, but as a noun, it should be ‘practice.’]
2. Should be promoted; in consultation [Semicolon must be used to separate interdependent statements.]
3. To help you practise preventative maintenance [‘Practice’ is the noun form of the word; one must use ‘practise’ if it is a verb.]
4. These are practisable in a [Again, ‘practise’ is the British verb form instead of the noun form ‘practice’.]
5. It is reiterated that this is [No comma is necessary, as there is no clause that is being split.]
6. Professional health consultant takes it further [The use of the word ‘then’ is redundant.]
SECTION E:
Under 1:
1. Is constantly evolving; each year [A comma is not the correct punctuation to use to separate interdependent statements.]
2. Since the 1900’s, when Henry Gantt [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
3. Bodies of knowledge have been relentless [‘Has’ is singular, but as it is referring to ‘bodies’ it must be plural. Also, ‘relentlessly’ is an adverb, but the adjective form is required in this instance.]
4. World are conducting research through their [‘Research’ is an irregular plural, and as such it is used for both singular and plural forms.]
5. Can deliver projects more effectively and efficiently [‘Efficient’ is an adjective, but the adverb form is needed.]
6. Can be done automatically by many [‘Automatic’ is an adjective, but the adverb form is needed.]
Under 2:
1. In this field, one would [A comma is needed to separate the subordinate clause from the main clause.]
2. However, even in the [A comma is required to separate the conjunctive adverb ‘However’ from the rest of the sentence.]
3. Shortfall, or evidence of gap, between vision [A comma is required to separate this clause from the rest of the sentence.]
Under 3:
1. Therefore, a new mindset is [‘Therefore’ should be moved to the front of the sentence, as it is a conjunctive adverb.]
2. Project management is changing, and therefore the mindset needs to change, will be [A comma is needed instead of a semicolon to separate the clauses.]
Under 4:
1. Bad decision can affect the entire [‘Affect’ is the verb form of the word, and ‘effect’ is the noun form. The verb form is needed.]
2. Make a decision, one can [‘One’ must be used throughout the sentence to maintain consistency.]
3. As a result, most project [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
4. Comfortable when others make decisions [‘Other’ is singular, but the sentence is referring to multiple ‘others’.]
5. Culture of people who are [A comma is not needed here, as there is just one clause.]
Under 5:
1. In the past, project managers [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
2. This has its own challenges [‘It’s’ is a contraction, but the possessive form is needed.]
3. Have a solution, because only [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
4. Has the knowledge; unfortunately, he is [A semicolon is needed to separate the interdependent statements, and a comma is needed to separate the conjunctive adverb ‘unfortunately’ from the rest of the clause.]
Under 6:
1. On many occasions, the only [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
2. In such cases, setting clear [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
3. Variables that affect the entire [‘Effect’ is the noun form, but the verb form ‘affect’ is needed.]
4. Many scope creeps, and project [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
Under 7:
1. Of bad management practice has diluted [‘Practise’ is the British verb form of the word, but the noun form ‘practice’ is needed.]
2. Of “hero mentality”; managers seldomly [The preceding sentence is a fragment, and must be combined with the following sentence to be completed.]
3. The team. Slowly, this mentality [A comma is needed to separate the adverb from the main clause.]
4. As a result, people engage [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
Under 8:
1. Like to admit: the terrain [A colon is needed instead of a semicolon, as the main statement leads to the next statement.]
2. Interest of leaders, and not [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
3. Project managers, therefore, have to [Commas are required to separate the conjunction with the rest of the sentence.]
4. Of an organization, and not [A comma is needed to separate the two ideas.]
Under 9:
1. All you know is projects. [Adding ‘just’ to the sentence is redundant.]
2. These might be: financial management [A colon is needed to start a list.]
3. A project manager, it is [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
4. Have more insights, and thereby [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
Under 10:
1. Stated that the consciousness [A comma is not needed, as it is one distinct clause.]
2. Is forever changing, today’s success can easily be tomorrow’s mediocre. [A comma is needed to separate the clauses, and ‘todays’ and ‘tomorrows’ should be given commas to make them correctly possessive.]
3. Having in projects is trying to [‘Challenge’ is singular, therefore it must be referred to with the connecting word ‘is’ instead of ‘are’.]
4. Tell us that it is time for [‘That’ needs to be added in order to complete the phrase, and the comma is not necessary.]
5. Maybe we are too blind to see [‘Maybe’ is a single word, and ‘to’ is not the correct word usage.]
Under 11:
1. Grey and Larson, there are [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
2. On the other hand, the sociocultural [A comma is needed to separate the clauses.]
3. Project managers are, therefore, required to [A comma is needed to separate the conjunctive adverb.]
4. Personal motivation and a capacity [‘As well as’ is not the proper word usage, as the previous clause was not finished.]
SECTION F:
After a long day of work, I often want to just sit around at home and have a drink, or watch some television. However, that can tend to grate on the senses after too long, and I crave activity; thankfully, one of my many interests is writing, particularly sketch comedy and play/screenwriting. Therefore, it is very helpful for me to start a new project or continue one I have established already. If this is something that you are interested in, keep reading in order to get a little insight into the writing process for these particular forms of writing.
Every creative project starts with an idea, and without one, you will not have anything to start from. One thing that I do is carry a small notebook with me at all times; this way, if I am going about my day, and an idea for a sketch or a play comes into my head, I write it down, and I can even continue the creative process while I am away from a computer. This is a great way to prevent yourself from forcing anything; let the ideas flow freely and you won’t get tired of it.
When you get home with your notebook, be sure to document and record your ideas. With all of those down, you can start to whittle down what concepts you can carry into a full length play or screenplay, or which ideas only hold enough water to sustain a single sketch, or don’t work at all. If you do this, you will soon have your own list of ideas that you can work from. Then, just start writing!
