Welcome to Mr. Fitzpatrick's English 50

The Five Most Common Corrections I Never Want to Have to Make On Your Essays!!!!

Read these carefully, and make sure you understand each and every one. I will expect you to weed these errors out of your drafts every week, every revision, and every assignment - or let me know if you need more explanation as to why.

  1. A. Don't forget that singular subjects ("a parent") require singular pronouns ("he" or "she") in the same sentence, and vice versa with a plural subject ("parents" & "they"). Decide whether it is more important to have the subject be singular or the pronoun, and then just change the other one around, like this: INCORRECT- "A parent who wants their child to succeed should be encouraging." Now here are TWO CORRECT versions: 1) "Parents who want their children to succeed should be encouraging." OR "A parent who wants his/her children to succeed should be encouraging." Get it? If not, let me know ASAP!!!!

B. The word "everyone" is singular!!!! It does NOT get used like this: "Everyone got their grades on time." "Their" is a plural pronoun, and "everyone" is singular. Do not use "everyone" in essays and you won’t have this problem. For that matter, do not use "everything," "nothing," "no one," "always," or "never" either.

  1. Avoid using the word "lots" or the phrase "a lot." They are way too unexpressive and common. Figure out what you mean, and use a better synonym. Similarly, the word "great" is pretty bland and meaningless when you mean to say "excellent" or "impressive" or "thorough" or any one of countless other possible adjectives that are more expressive, detailed, accurate, and mature. If you see a movie that you really like, figure out why, and avoid writing a sentence like, "The movie Crash is a great movie." I don’t want to see "awesome" either
     
  2. Study comma use – unless you are positive you know how to use them correctly. Go to Ch. 39, and review sections # 2 and # 4. Read Ch. 24 and Ch. 25 carefully, too.
     
  3. When you have a PERSON as the subject of a sentence and you want to substitute a pronoun later in that sentence, the pronoun has to be "WHO," not "THAT." Like this:

"The man WHO got off the train was my father."

OR this one:

"The people WHO study hardest will get the best grades."

Many students are in the habit of using "THAT" in place of "WHO" in sentences like this and it is not only incorrect, but it will cost you points later on in the course.
  1. Keep the verb tense the same throughout an essay, and always use PRESENT TENSE when writing about film, literature, or art of any kind. Like this:

"The film Crash is worthy of the Academy Award for Best Picture because it shows how our lives are much more interconnected than we think."

Present tense!! Just because you saw it last month, last week, or even last night doesn’t mean you should write about the film in the past tense. It still exists IN THE PRESENT as a work of art, so write about it in the present tense. OK???

Besides that, the present tense is a much more active, "happening," interesting, and lively tense to use. Past tense is best used when writing about something historical – either from YOUR history ("Last year, we moved to Barstow after having lived ten years in Vegas.") or our COLLECTIVE history ("For twenty years, the Germans believed all of Europe belonged to them.")
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