STANDARD AMERICAN ENGLISH CONVENTIONS

 

To the student: Although the United States lacks a single governing body dictating rules for using the English language, educated people consider “standard English” the established academic model.  As the grading criteria rubric on the obverse side indicates, Collin College English instructors evaluate your work and assign grades according to standard English conventions.

 Along with learning how to achieve rhetorical power through a variety of strategies (such as brainstorming and organizing), rhetorical power also involves the art of arranging your words to engage and sustain your audience’s interest in your message.  Achieving that art, however, requires a sound working knowledge of grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation.  Studying these elements routinely will help you gain confidence in choosing between active and passive voice, arranging your words effectively, and subordinating and coordinating clauses at will.  Studying them also will help you avoid committing sentence faults (such as comma splices, fragments, and run-ons) as well as other grammatical errors.  Then, too, by reviewing the nine parts of speech (noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, conjunction, preposition, interjection, and article) along with the glossary of usage, you’ll value the power and functions of words.  Finally, learning the mechanics of writing allows you to avoid errors in punctuation and spelling, errors that always distract your reader unnecessarily from your message.

 BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF STANDARD ENGLISH CONVENTIONS

1. Complete sentence structure (avoiding comma splices, fragments, and run-ons)

2. Agreement of subjects and verbs/complete predicates

3. Agreement in number, person, and gender of pronoun referents to their antecedents

4. Appropriate modification with adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions

5.  Correct pronoun case (nominative, objective, and possessive)

6. Correct predication

7. Consistency and correctness of verb forms

8. Parallel structure of similar forms of speech

9. Correct comparison

10. Appropriate inclusion of articles

11. Appropriate use of conjunctions to subordinate and coordinate clauses.

12. Correct usage choices (especially from commonly confused word pairs)
 

Examples below illustrate numbers 1-12 of basic characteristics:

1.         Comma splice: The principal is in a meeting, he won’t be able to see me until tomorrow.

Run-on: The principal is in a meeting he won’t be able to see me until tomorrow. The principal is in a meeting so he won’t be able to see me until tomorrow (less serious but still a run-on).  

Fragment: Although the principal is in a meeting and cannot see me until tomorrow

            Corrected examples:

  The principal is in a meeting; he won’t be able to see me until tomorrow.
  The principal is in a meeting, so he won’t be able to see me until tomorrow.

2.         Subjects have (not “has”) to agree with their predicates.

3.         Everyone has an opinion even if he or she (not “they”) does not express it (not “express them”).

4.         Driving to work this morning, I spilled my coffee (not “Driving to work this morning, my coffee spilled,” for coffee isn’t driving to work).

5.         Between you and me (not “I”), I didn’t like the movie.

6.         The reason is that (not “because”) I don’t like excessive violence.

7.         She is so sick that she has lain (not “laid”) in bed all day.

8.         My parents enjoy camping, bicycling, and swimming (not “camping, to ride bicycles, and swimming”).

9.         The cheerful clerk works harder than anyone else in the store (not “anyone in the store”).

10.       We need to count all the apples in the barrel (not “We need to count apples in barrel”).

11.       Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because we see most of our relatives (not “holiday, and we see”).

12.       Going to dinner instead of to a movie is all right (not “alright”) with me.

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