Chapter IV

Grammar and
Table of
contents
💡Subject Verb Agreement

💡Perspective

💡Tense

💡Voice

💡Dangling Modifiers

💡Parallelism

💡Usage
Subject-Verb
Agreement
Reporter: Alries Pacual Pumaras
Indefinite Subjects
Indefinite subjects, commonly pronouns, take
singular verbs. Some of these are everyone, everybody,
anyone, someone, and somebody. However, some indefinite
subjects followed by a prepositional phrase have the number
of the verb depend on the object of the preposition.
Examples:

Everyone is required to answer the questionnaire.

Everybody has applied for the position.

Anyone interested to answer the question is given additional

point.
But:

Some of the questionnaires were incompletely answered.

Some of the commodity is fake.

Half of the respondents were teenagers.

Collective Words
When used as subject of the sentence, these
words take either singular or plural verb depending on
the sentence sense. That is, “when the individuals
comprising the collective term are thought of separately,
the verb must be plural” but when “thought of as a
group , the verb should be singular” (Mills and Walter,
1986).
Examples:
The audience has made a standing ovation for Ms. Perez’
performance.
The audience were noisy during the performance.

A pair of new shoes was required in the event.

A pair of pencils have been supplied for use in the research.

The number of respondents was limited.

A number of respondents have not answered the
questionnaires.
But: Collective words that
always take a plural verb:
majority, a number, both

Majority in the audience were employed.

A number of students have been awarded the scholarship grant.

Both are important components of the research.

Subjects of Amount
Words that denote technical units, amounts,
and sums take singular verb (Mills and Walter, 1986).
Examples:
Three yards of cloth was barely enough for the experiment.

Five thousand pesos is a big amount for a laborer to lose.

Six ounces of milk was consumed by the baby.

Compound Subjects
Subjects joined by coordinating conjunction
and always take plural verb.
For more than one subject joined by pairs of
words like either/or, neither/nor, whether/or, the verb
agrees with the nearest element of the subject.
Examples:
Either the sample specimens or the test tube was contaminated.

Neither the student nor his teachers were given the result of the test.
Compound Subjects
However, compound subject joined by together
with, along with, as well as, in addition to, no less than
have the verb agree in number with the first elements of
the subject.
Examples:
The athlete as well as her coaches was awarded the first prize.

The children together with their mother have arrived home safely.

The microorganism in addition to its effects has been studied.

Compound Subjects
Moreover, when compound subjects refer to
only one person, the verb to use is singular.
Examples:
The president of the university and director of the project was the guest

of honor during the launching ceremony.

But:
The writer and researcher has just submitted her output.

The writer and the researcher have just submitted their output.
Relative Clauses
In a sentence with a relative clause, the verb
must agree with the pronoun antecedent.
 Examples:
One of the test tubes that were used in the experiment was broken.

The sample plants which were measured have been stored.

He is one of our students who have passed the board examination.

Note: When the article the precedes one, the verb in the relative clause is singular (Mills
and Walter, 1986)
Point of
Views
Reporter: Alex Roger De Guzman Jr.
described in the first,
second, and third
person.
💡First person refers to the speaker

💡Second person refers to the person being talked to by the speaker.

💡Third person refers who is not the speaker or addressee

First-Person Point of View
We usually speak in the first person while discussing
ourselves, our thoughts, and the events that occur in our lives.
The use of first-person pronouns is the most obvious sign that
a phrase is written in the first person. First-person pronouns
include we, us, our, and ourselves. They are plural first-person
pronouns. I, me, my, mine, and myself are singular first-person
pronouns.
Examples:

I think I lost my wallet!

We like cheese.

I prefer coffee to hot cocoa.

Second-Person Point
of View
The second-person point of view belongs to the
person (or people) being addressed. This is the “you”
perspective. The usage of second-person pronouns, such
as you, your, yours, yourself, and yourselves, is the key
indicator of second-person point of view.
Examples:

You left early.

This is yours.

You can wait in here and make yourself at home.

Third-Person Point of View
The person (or individuals) being discussed is the
subject of the third-person point of view. He, him, his, himself,
she, her, hers, herself, it, its, itself, they, them, their, theirs, and
themselves are all third-person pronouns.
Examples:
When he got to his car, he was glad to see that his friend was
waiting for him.

Tiffany used her prize money from the science fair to buy
herself a new microscope.

She went to the library to consult with the reference librarian

about her paper’s topic.
TENS
E
Reporter: Diana David
VERB
TENSES
There are three main verb tenses in English:
present, past and future. The present, past and
future tenses are divided into four aspects: the
simple, progressive, perfect and perfect
progressive.
Simple Tenses
Simple present: I drive home every day.

Simple past: I drove home yesterday.

Simple future: I will drive home later.

 Progressive
(Continuous) Tenses
Past progressive: I was driving when you called.

Present progressive: I am driving now

Future progressive: I will be driving when you call.

Perfect Tenses
Present perfect: I have driven that road.

Past perfect: I had already driven that road in the

past.

Future perfect: I will have driven 200 miles

bytomorrow.
Perfect Progressive
Tenses
Present perfect progressive: I have been driving
since this morning.

Past perfect progressive: I had been driving for

three hours before I stopped to get gas.

Future perfect progressive: I will have been driving

for five hours by the time I arrive.
 Writing
About
Your
Research:
Using the right tense
In your scientific paper, use verb tenses (past, present,
and future) exactly as you would in ordinary writing.

Use the past tense to report what happened in the past:

what you did, what someone reported, what happened in
an experiment, and so on.
Use the present tense to express general truths, such as
conclusions (drawn by you or by others) and atemporal
facts (including information about what the paper does or
covers).

Reserve the future tense for perspectives: what you will

do in the coming months or years.
Past Present Future
tense
💡 Work done
We collected blood samples
tense
💡 General truths
Smoking increases the risk of
tense
💡 Perspectives
In a follow-up experiment, we
from . . . coronary heart disease . . . will study the role of . .

💡 Work Reported 💡 Atemporal facts

In 2009, Chu published an Section 3.1 explains the
alternative method to . . . difference between . . .

💡 Observations
The number of defects
increased sharply . . .
VOICE
Reporter: Oscar Magbual
VOICE
Technical reports use both the active and passive
voice appropriately but to some degree of
consistency within the paragraph. Unnecessarily
shift in voice, however must be avoided .

Generally, formal reports like research results are

written in the passive voice to avoid expression of
subjectivity and to present a tone of objectivity.
ACTIVE
VOICE
VS.
PASSIVE
VOICE
Active
Voice
When the subject of a sentence performs the
verb’s action, we say that the sentence is in
the active voice. Sentences in the active voice
have a strong, direct, and clear tone.
 EXAMPLES:
💡 Monkeys adore bananas.
💡 The cashier counted the money.
💡 The dog chased the squirrel.

All three sentences have a basic active voice construction:

subject, verb, and object. The subject monkey performs the
action described by adore. The subject the cashier performs
the action described by counted. The subject the
dog performs the action described by chased. The subjects
are doing, doing, doing—they take action in their sentences.
Passive
Voice
The subject is acted on by the verb. The passive
voice is always constructed with a conjugated
form of to be plus the verb’s past participle.
Doing this usually generates a preposition as
well.
 EXAMPLES:
💡 Bananas are adored by monkeys.
💡 The money was counted by the cashier.
💡 The squirrel was chased by the dog.

Let’s take a closer look at the first pair of sentences, “Monkeys adore bananas” and
“Bananas are adored by monkeys.” The active sentence consists of monkeys (subject)
+ adore (verb) + bananas (object). The passive sentence consists of bananas (object)
+ are adored (a form of to be plus the past participle adored) + by (preposition)
+ monkeys (subject). Making the sentence passive flipped the structure and
necessitated the preposition by. In fact, all three of the transformed sentences above
required the addition of by.
Proper use of voice
Disease outbreak in swine is minimize by intensive
swine vaccination. All buildings must be designed for
comfort of the animals, and for rapid an efficient
cleaning. Provide adequate drainage of waste.

Note: The last sentence is an unnecessary shift in voice.

This should be avoided. Shift may be done in another
paragraph but not within.
Correction: Adequate drainage
of waste should be provided
DANGLING
MODIFIERS
Reporter: Jizel Esteban
DANGLING
MODIFIERS
These are phrases that do not have anything to
modify making the sentence amusing or
misleading.

It’s a grammatical error in which a phrase at the

beginning of a sentence doesn’t have the right
word to modify, so it ends up modifying the
wrong part of the sentence. When a modifier
dangles, it changes the intended meaning and
creates confusion.
DENTIFY DANGLING MODIFIERS
💡 Look at each sentence individually.
💡 Determine what the introductory phrase
modifies.
💡 Ensure that the modifies noun is correct.
 EXAMPLES OF DANGLING
MODIFIER
💡 Having been fixed the night before, Priscilla could use the car.
💡 Running at top speed, his wig fell off.
💡 Dizzy and confused, the handout in class wasn’t making any sense.
💡 After being filled with 5000 gallons of water, the workers transported the tank to
thee experimental area.
 EXAMPLES OF DANGLING
MODIFIER
💡 Having been fixed the night before, Priscilla could use the car.
💡 Running at top speed, his wig fell off.
💡 Dizzy and confused, the handout in class wasn’t making any sense.
💡 After being filled with 5000 gallons of water, the workers transported the tank to thee
experimental area.
 HOW TO FIX DANGLING
MODIFIER
💡 Insert a new subject of the sentence .
The main problem with the dangling modifier is that the sentence
subject doesn’t exist. You can simply insert the subject back into the
sentence. --
💡 Insert a subject in the introductory clause.
“Running at top speed, his wig fell off,” If you don’t want to change the second half of the sentence, you can
could become, always tweak the introductory clause to give it the subject it needs. --
“Running at top speed, he felt his wig fall off.” 💡 Rearrange the sentence.
Often, it’s possible to rearrange the entire sentence to fix a dangling
“Running at top speed, his wig fell off,” modifier, usually by moving the introductory clause and integrating it
could become, into the rest of the sentence. For instance, “Cooked through, he took
“While he was running at top speed, his wig fell the
off.” lobster tails out of the oven” becomes, “He took the lobster tails out of
the oven once they were cooked through.”
MORE EXAMPLES
💡 Having been fixed the night before, Priscilla could use the car.
“Since the car have been fixed the night before, Priscilla could use the car.”
💡 Running at top speed, his wig fell off.
“Running at top speed, he felt his wig fell off”
💡 Dizzy and confused, the handout in class wasn’t making any sense.
“Since the students felt dizzy and confused, the handout in class
wasn’t making any sense.
💡 After being filled with 5000 gallons of water, the workers transported the tank to the experimental
area.
“After being filled with 5000 gallons of water, the tank was transported
to the experimental area.
PARALLELIS
M
Reporter: John Richard Mamaril
similar structure in related
words, clauses, or
phrases.
💡It creates a sense of rhythm and balance within a sentence.

💡Parallel structured sentences sound more aesthetically pleasing.

💡Repetition of grammatical construction also minimizes the amount of

work the reader has to do to decode the sentence.
 Correcting Faulty
Parallelism
As readers, we often correct faulty parallelism—a lack
of parallel structure—intuitively because an unbalanced
sentence sounds awkward and poorly constructed.
 Examples of faulty
parallelism
Kelly had to iron, do the washing, and shopping before
her parents arrived.

Driving a car requires coordination, patience, and to

have good eyesight.

Ali prefers jeans to wearing a suit.

All of these sentences contain faulty parallelism. Although they are factually
correct, the construction is clunky and confusing.
 Examples of correct
parallelism
Kelly had to do the ironing, washing, and shopping
before her parents arrived.

Driving a car requires coordination, patience, and

good eyesight.

Ali prefers wearing jeans to wearing a suit.

A simple way to check for parallelism in your writing is to make sure you have
paired nouns with nouns, verbs with verbs, prepositional phrases with
prepositional phrases, and so on.
 Parallelism Using
Coordinating Conjunctions
Faulty parallelism: When I walk the dog, I like to
listen to music and talking to friends on the phone.

Correct parallelism: When I walk the dog, I like

listening to music and talking to friends on the phone.

When you connect two clauses using a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor,
but, or, yet, so), make sure that the same grammatical structure is used on each
side of the conjunction.
 Parallelism Using
Than or As
Faulty parallelism: Swimming in the ocean is much
tougher than a pool.

Correct parallelism: Swimming in the ocean is much

tougher than swimming in a pool.

Comparisons frequently use the words than or as, and the items on each side of
these comparison words should be parallel
Parallelism Using Correlative
Conjunctions
A correlative conjunction is a paired conjunction that connects two equal
parts of a sentence and shows the relationship between them

💡either…or
💡not only…but
also
💡neither…nor
💡whether…or
💡rather…than
💡both…and
 Parallelism Using Correlative
Conjunctions
Faulty parallelism: We can neither wait for something to
happen nor can we take evasive action.

Correct parallelism: We can neither wait for something to

happen nor take evasive action.

When using a correlative conjunction, the words, phrases, or clauses following

each part should be parallel.
USAGE
Reporter: Ronnel Malong
 USAGE
💡Usage refers to the conventional ways in which words or phrases are
used, spoken, or written in a speech community (Nordquist, 2019).

💡Usage is similar to grammar: it helps determine how you should use

a language and which words you should use in a specific context. However,
usage focuses more on the meaning of words than on their mechanical
function within the language (lumenlearning.com).
 COMMONLY INCORRECT WORDS USED
IN TECHNICAL WRITING (MILLS &
WALTER, 1982)
💡 Ability/Capacity 💡 Assume/Pressume
💡 Adjacent/Contiguous 💡 Balance/Remainder
💡 Advise/Tell, Inform 💡 Few/Less
💡 Alternative/Choice 💡 Filtrate/Filter
💡 Among/Between 💡 Indicated/Required
💡 Anticipate/Expect 💡 Liable/Likely
💡 Apparent/Obvious/Evident 💡 Oral/Verbal

EXAMPLE: The ability of the students in solving mathematical problems was studied.
The capacity of the water tank is 2000 liters.
WORDY AND REDUNDANT PHRASES
(MILLS & WALTER, 1983)
💡 Absolutely essential (essential)
💡 Actual experience (experience)
💡 Aluminum metal (aluminum)
💡 At the present time (at present, now)
💡 Completely eliminated (eliminated)
💡 Collaborate together (collaborate)
💡 During the time that (while)
💡 In most cases (usually)
💡 In this case (here)
💡 In connection with (about)
💡 Make application (apply)
💡 Make contact with (see, meet)
💡 Make a purchase (buy)
💡 Through the use of (by, with)
 WORDY AND REDUNDANT PHRASES
(GRADUATE THESES & WRITTEN
COMMUNICATION BY KOLLIN 1994)

💡 Employed the use of (use) 💡 Final result (result)

💡 Made mention (mention) 💡 Utilize the use of (use of)
💡 The reason is because (the reason is/because) 💡 Aimed to determine (determined)
💡 Return back again (return/be back/again) 💡 Old returning (returning/old)
💡 Enumerate one by one (enumerate) 💡 In the event that (in case)
💡 With the purpose of (purpose is) 💡 At this very moment (now/this time)
💡 Rectangular in shape (rectangular) 💡 If and when (if/when)
INTERCHANGEABLY USED WORDS THAT LEADS
TO CONFUSION
(PASCASIO et. al, 1997)
💡 Adopt – adapt
💡 All ready – already
💡 All right – alright
💡 Affect – effect
💡 Protégé – prodigy
💡 Loose – lose – lost
💡 Lie – lay
💡 Till – until
💡 Advise – advice
💡 Farther – further
💡 They’re – there – their
💡 Stationary – stationery
💡 Beside - besides
💡 Its – it’s

NOTE: USING PRECISE WODS REQUIRES KNOWLEDGE ON THEIR EXACT MEANINGS.

THIS IS TO AVOID VAGUE SENTENCES BUT FACILITATES OF THE IMPORTANT
MESSAGE THE WRITER WANTS TO CONVEY
REFERENCES
💡 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZUim6_6ItJfZ1Qaae1mH-X2RiNclxE_r/view
💡 https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/moduleDangling.htm
💡 https://www.learngrammar.net/english-grammar/dangling-modifiers
💡 https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-fix-dangling-modifiers-in-writing#how-to-fix-d
angling-modifiers-in-your-writing
💡 https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/moduleDangling.htm
💡 https://www.grammarly.com/blog/first-second-and-third-person
💡 https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/effective-writing-13815989/
💡 https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/introduction-to-verb-tenses-everyday-grammar/312357
6.html

💡 Introduction to Usage | Guide to Writing (lumenlearning.com)

💡 Definitions and Examples of English Usage (thoughtco.com)
Thank you!