Relearning Grammar Skills (Part 1): Get Back in The Game!
Fifth grade: my first recollection of grammar rules. If memory serves me right, we didn’t even call it “English” - that was what the big kids in high school called it. Nope, for us it was Language Arts, and like most kids, I hated it.
When the hell was I going to need to diagram a sentence in real life?
Apparently, some 25+ years later…
One of my critique partners happens to also be a line editor extraordinaire. She’s opened my eyes to relearning lessons I forgot. Now, I’m geeking out with nearly every submission coming back with at least a dozen errors. This time though, I’m paying attention and taking notes.
Turns out, some of my biggest grammar offenses are pretty common. While I’m critiquing other writers’ work, I’m finding they’re guilty of making the same mistakes. It’s comforting to know I’m not the only one who’s breaking grammar-rules, but it might be helpful to recap some of these friendly reminders…
Dangling Participles - a participle (used as an adjective) intended to modify (or tell you more about) a noun which is not actually present in the text. Translation? There’s a participial phrase with no noun or subject to connect it to.
EXAMPLE 1 (Beginning sentences with participial phrases): Running down the street, I caught the dog and brought him inside.
The -ing verb form implies an ongoing action, so this sentence implies that the act of running down the street continues on through the other acts. Did I continue running after I caught the dog and brought him inside? Probably not.
HOW TO FIX IT: I ran down the street, caught the dog, and brought him inside.
In the case of sequential acts, instead of starting a sentence with a participial phrase, use a noun so there’s no question who’s performing the action and for how long.
EXAMPLE 2 (Ending sentences with participial phrases): I rushed inside to tell Mom, screaming and crying.
Here, there are two potential nouns - “I” or “Mom.” Typically it would attribute to the closest noun - Mom - but would she be screaming and crying because I rushed inside to tell her something? I doubt it.
HOW TO FIX IT: I screamed and cried, then rushed inside to tell Mom.
See? Now we know who was screaming and crying - I was…and we’ve eliminated any confusion as to the sequence of events.
What are they? Basically any word describing what the subject is doing.
Common filter words include: to notice, to see, to feel, to feel like, to think, to decide, to know, to hear, to watch, to realize, to seem, to seem like, to sound, to sound like
EXAMPLE 1: Suzy saw Sammy slap the slug. She felt sorry for the slimy little guy.
Get to the action already! How Suzy felt is more important than the reminder that she saw it happen
HOW TO FIX IT: Sammy slapped the slug and Suzy felt sorry for the slimy little guy.
We cut out the middle man - saw - and got right to the meat of the sentence: what Sammy did and how it made Suzy feel.
EXAMPLE 2: Nancy noticed a bright blue stain seeping through the fabric of her favorite jacket.
HOW TO FIX IT: A bright blue stain seeped through the fabric of Nancy’s favorite jacket.
Which should you use? Active! Whenever possible, get right to the point and separate yourself apart from amateur writers. Editors and agents don’t have time to slush through passivity. They want action and active voices, so the quicker you learn how to make your writing appear as polished as possible, the better.
What’s the difference? Look for verbs like the words by, have been, and be.
EXAMPLE 1 (Passive): The dinner was made by Michael.
Now, you might think it’d be savvy and suave to have those two extra words. Word count matters, right? Absolutely, but ensuring every word is necessary and can’t be trimmed down any further is key.
HOW TO FIX IT (Active): Michael made the dinner.
We got to the point and said what Michael did in two words less than before. Bottom line: trim the fat before you query. Wanna play with the big dogs, gotta know their rules for the game…
I could probably add more rules, but I’ll leave it at three for now. These are the ones writers struggle with most, and once I fully understood the rules myself, self-corrections saved my critique partners and editors hours of red-marks and headaches.
So, read through your WIP and find out the truth: are you smarter than a fifth grader?
—
Simply Sally