I know it is that time of the semester again. We are busy working on the different requirements that each subject dictates to us students and I know that you may now be working on a term paper. Would your paper sound academic if it would contain the following concatenations:
1. Can’t for Cannot
2. Would’ve for Would have,
3. Should’ve for Should have
Just as I learned from my English class, it is not formal to have concatenations on a term paper. In addition, would you like to avoid using first-person, since in academic papers you should be using something like “the researcher” rather than “I”?
Aside from correcting our mistakes in grammar, Microsoft Word can also check the style of our writing. By default, Microsoft Word only checks the grammar in our documents. To have Microsoft Word check your style you have to do the following (Word 2007)
1. Click on the Office Button, then go to Word Options
2. Click Proofing
3. In the writing style change “Grammar only” to “Grammar and Style”
4. Should you wish to customize what Microsoft Word checks, you may click “Settings” and check / uncheck the different options.
5. Click “Ok” and Microsoft Word should start checking your style.
Tip:
I know that some of you do not believe that they committed a mistake with their grammar when Microsoft places a green wavy underline on the word/s and phrases. Do you know that you can get some sort of explanation by right clicking on the green wavy line and clicking on the “About this Sentence” menu item?
Let us say we have the following sentence, which we thought is right:
I are fighting for the freedom of a people.
If we performed about this sentence on “are” we’ll get something like this:
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Subject-Verb Agreement The verb of a sentence must agree with the subject in number and in person.
- Instead of: What was Stephen and Laura like as schoolchildren?
- Consider: What were Stephen and Laura like as schoolchildren?
- Instead of: Tom watch the snowy egret stab at the fish.
- Consider: Tom watches the snowy egret stab at the fish.
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