Some language errors are common among learners of English as a second or foreign language and they are called ‘common errors in English’. Even native speakers of English may produce grammatically incorrect sentences and may not be familiar with the conventions of academic writing. Most errors follow certain patterns. It is important for those who write reports, proposals, business letters, academic papers, theses, etc, in English to be aware of the error patterns and check whether their written work is based on the conventions of academic and professional writing. The book The Everyday Writer (third edition) by Andrea A Lunsford, Standford University, lists 20 error patterns. In this first part of the series on ‘Understanding the conventions of academic writing’, the first two error patterns — missing comma after introductory element, and vague pronoun reference are discussed:
Missing comma after introductory element: When a sentence begins with an adverb clause or an introductory element such as a prepositional phrase, an adverb or a noun phrase put a comma after it as in the examples:
i) Though I read the novel twice, I could not understand the theme.
ii) By 10 o’clock tomorrow, I’ll send you the details.
iii) Fortunately, I did not attend the party.
It is permissible to omit a comma after an introductory element if it is brief (just one or two words) as in the examples below:
i) By tomorrow I’ll send you the details of the conference.
ii) Yesterday evening I met him at the railway station.
iii) Happily I took part in the procession.
A comma after an introductory element in a sentence acts as a pause while uttering the sentence and it (comma) is used to help the reader or the listener understand the main part of the sentence better.
Vague pronoun reference:
Every pronoun we use in a sentence should refer to a particular noun which we call the antecedent which may be found in the same sentence or in a previous sentence. For example:
a) After buying the 30-year-old house, he completely modified it.
b) The RTI activist said that he was not worried about any threat.
In the first sentence, the noun phrase ‘the 30-year-old house’ or the noun ‘house’ is the antecedent and the pronoun ‘it’ clearly refers to the house. In the second sentence, the noun ‘activist’ is the antecedent and the pronoun ‘he’ refers to the activist. The question of vagueness arises when there is more than one noun the pronoun refers to. For example:
i) After writing the report with the new pen, the secretary handed it over to her boss.
ii) Remove the storage device from the computer and check whether it has virus.
iii) If the students don’t return their books in time, send them to the librarian.
After reading the sentences above, a reader may get confused and raise these questions: Did the secretary hand over the report or the new pen to her boss? Should I check the storage device or the computer for virus? Should I send the students or the books to the librarian? These sentences should be edited in order to tell the reader whom or what the pronoun in each sentence refers to.
Rayanal@yahoo.co.uk