Writing
Analyzing
an Audience
Punctuation,
Grammar, Style, & Usage: Twelve Guidelines
Basic
Mechanics and Errors
Taken From:
http://uwc.tamu.edu/
Analyzing an Audience
Why consider audience? All writing is
geared to a specific time, place, and reader (also called context).
Writers who fail to successfully analyze their audience may also fail to reach their goals. Their writing may seem unfocused or
inappropriate.
Who will ultimately read your work? While in the university classroom your
audience is often your instructor, some assignments are designed so that you
are also writing to a secondary audience, for example, to an expert in your
field, to the general public or to another reader. Your instructor may designate an audience,
or you may have to imagine one you feel is most appropriate for your topic or
thesis.
How does an analysis of audience affect my writing? When you tailor your writing to a
specific audience, you also tailor features of the text. Audience
affects your message (What do readers care about? What are they likely
to act upon?); your argument (What would be convincing? What kinds of
evidence are normally used for this type of reader?); your word choice
(Can you use jargon or slang?); your sentences types or lengths
(Can you use fragments? Long, complex patterns or short simple ones, or a
combination?); your tone (Is it personal, friendly, distanced, humorous,
serious?); and so on. Together, these elements constitute your style. Style should be adjusted appropriately
to your audience.
Do I have to analyze audience before I begin writing? You should consider audience early in the writing process, but not
necessarily as a first step.
The more you know about your audience, the better you can tailor your message.
However, thinking too much about accommodating an audience can inhibit you. Try
doing some prewriting and research first. Once you are confident you are
knowledgeable about your topic and have something to say about it, consider how
to make it interesting and significant for specific readers.
Below are some questions you might consider in an audience analysis:
Punctuation,
Grammar, Style, & Usage: Twelve Guidelines
Punctuation
1. To join two or more independent clauses, use a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction, a semicolon alone, or a semicolon
followed by a conjunctive adverb.
o
An
independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a predicate
and can stand alone as a sentence.
o
To
remember the coordinating conjunctions, think A. B. Fonsy
or FANBOYS (And, But, For, Or, Nor, So,
Yet).
o
Conjunctive
adverbs are words like however, nevertheless, otherwise, thus,
moreover, additionally, etc.
Examples:
A sentence is the same as an independent
clause; a dependent clause also has a subject and predicate but can't stand
alone.
A sentence is the same as an independent
clause, and a dependent clause also has a subject and predicate, but it can't
stand alone.
2. When beginning a sentence with an
introductory phrase or an introductory dependent clause, follow the introductory element with a comma.
o
Words
that might be found opening an introductory clause include after, although,
as, as if, as long as, because, before,
if, in order that, since, so that, though, unless,
until, when, whenever, where, wherever, and while.
o
If
the phrase is very short, the comma is sometimes omitted. Use your judgment.
Examples:
Whenever you open with an introductory
clause, you should consider using a comma.
With a short introductory phrase the comma
is often omitted.
3. Use commas
to bracket
nonrestrictive words or phrases that are not essential to the sentence's meaning.
Examples:
The boys, who are friends of the defendant,
entered the courtroom. [Nonessential]
4. Do not use commas to bracket
words or phrases that are restrictive, or essential to the sentence's meaning.
Examples:
The boys who were friends of the defendant
stood behind him in support; those who were not friends shouted angry words.
[Essential]
5. The rule for the final comma within a series varies. In Associated Press (AP) style, the comma
is omitted, In
o
If
the series elements are long and contain commas, separate them with semicolons.
Examples:
red, black, and white OR red, black and
white
The first element, being so important, was
to be emphasized; the second, being less crucial, could be less prominent; and
the third hardly mattered.
6. Use proper punctuation to integrate a quotation into a sentence. If the introductory material is an independent clause, add the quotation after
a colon. If the
introductory material ends in "thinks," "says," or some other verb indicating
expression, use a comma.
Examples:
In The Awakening, Mme. Ratignolle exhorts Robert Lebrun
to stop flirting with Edna: "She is not one of us; she is not like
us."
In a song featured in South Pacific,
Oscar Hammerstein writes, "You have to be carefully taught."
Grammar
7. Make the subject and verb agree with each other, not with words that come between them.
o
Anyone, anybody, anything, each, everyone,
everybody, everything, nobody, no one, nothing, somebody, someone, and
something are singular.
o
All, any either, more, most, neither, none,
and some can be singular or plural, so use your judgment.
o
Few,
many, and several
are plural.
o
Collective
nouns such as gang, crowd, class, team, or committee
can be either singular or plural. If you want to focus on the whole, use
plural, and on the members (as in the members of the class), use
singular.
Examples:
None of the approximately eight-five thousand people attending
the football game knows how the game will end.
The class is inattentive.OR The class are inattentive.
Few have the ability to concentrate for more than 55 minutes.
8. Be sure that a pronoun, a participial phrase,
or an appositive refers clearly
to the proper subject.
o
The
personal pronouns are I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, them, my,
your, his, her, hers, its, our, their, mine, yours, ours, theirs.
o
Some
writers follow colloquial speech and use they with gender inclusive terms such as anyone or a person. Some use a version of his/her; others alternate between his and her. The most conservative use only the male pronoun (his, etc.). Often writers use the plural (students
. . .they) to avoid the issue.
o
Appositives
are nouns that follow other nouns and rename them.
o
Participial
phrases are made up of the present participle (-ing)
form or the past participle (usually -ed) form of a verb, the object of the
participle, and any modifier, as in dressed to kill or moving slowly
down the field.
o
The error often referred to as a dangling modifier occurs
when the participial phrase which opens a sentence is not followed by the subject to which it refers, as in Having hit the fast ball,
the game was won. (The game didn't hit the ball.)
Examples:
When the woman saw that the man was
following her, she
walked faster.
Followed by three suspicious men, the woman hurried down the
street.
A student must always bring his
or her textbook to class.
Students must always bring their textbooks to class.
Having hit the fast ball, the batter declared victory.
Style and Usage
9. Use parallel construction to make a strong point and
create a smooth flow.
o
It
doesn't matter what grammatical construction you use; just be consistent.
o
You
may truncate functional words such as "if you are" in the last
example below.
Examples:
To be late, to dress poorly, or to fail to
complete your work are
cause for dismissal.
Being late, dressing poorly, or failing to
complete your work might
cause you to lose your job.
You might lose your job if you are
constantly late, if you dress poorly, or if you fail to complete your work.
You might lose your job if you are
constantly late, dress poorly, or fail to complete your work.
10. Use the active voice to stress
the actor and the passive voice to stress the action or underplay the action or when the actor is unknown.
o
In
active voice the subject performs the action, as in "Samantha dunked the
ball."
o
In
passive voice the subject receives the action, as in "The ball was dunked
by Samantha" or "The ball was dunked."
11. You may split an infinitive if
it would sound awkward to leave the verb and the infinitive (to + verb) together, or for
stylistic effect.
Examples:
to go boldly OR to boldly go
12. You may end a sentence with a preposition if it would sound more
graceful or natural to
do so, or for stylistic effect.
Examples:
I don't know with whom to go.
I don't know who to go with.
Additional Resources
Jack Lynch, Guide to Grammar and Style.
The
Daily Grammar (Word Place, Inc.) provides daily grammar tips and
lessons.
Purdue University's Writing Lab also has good
information on grammar.
Guide to Grammar & Writing (
While readers sometimes pay too much attention to mechanics issues
in papers and fail to look at the substance, too many errors can seriously
jeopardize the readability and impact of your writing. To avoid the pitfall of
mechanical errors, you can learn to proofread your paper for such errors so
that your paper makes a better impression.
Run-on Sentences (Fused Sentences)
A run-on sentence occurs when two independent clauses are joined together with no punctuation.
Example: The motto of the Corps of Cadets is "Where Leaders
are Forged" the Fightin'
Texas Aggie Band is called the "Spirit of Aggieland."
Comma Splices
A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are joined with a comma.
Example: The motto of the Corps of Cadets is "Where Leaders
are Forged”, the Fightin'
Texas Aggie Band is called the "Spirit of Aggieland."
To write this sentence correctly, you have several options:
1. Add
a semicolon in the run-on or replace the comma with a semicolon in the comma
splice.
Example: The motto of the Corps of Cadets
is "Where Leaders are Forged”; the Fightin'
Texas Aggie Band is called the "Spirit of Aggieland."
Sometimes the semicolon is followed by a
conjunctive adverb which is followed by a comma. Some conjunctive adverbs are
however, therefore, nevertheless, thus, moreover, consequently, etc.
2. Add
a comma and a coordinating conjunction to the run-on or a coordinating
conjunction after the comma in the comma splice.
Example: The motto of the Corps of Cadets
is "Where Leaders are Forged”, and the Fightin'
Texas Aggie Band is called the "Spirit of Aggieland."
To remember the coordinating conjunctions
think of A. B. Fonsy (and, but, for, or, nor, so,
yet).
3. Make
the two clauses two separate sentences.
Example: The motto of the Corps of Cadets
is "Where Leaders are Forged."
The Fightin'
Texas Aggie Band is called the "Spirit of Aggieland."
Fragments
The sentence fragment occurs when a sentence is not a complete thought or is missing a subject or
verb.
Example: When I went to Chilifest in
Snook.
To correct the fragment, simply complete the thought.
Example: When I went to Chilifest in
Snook, I rode the bus from Zachary parking lot.
Homonymic Spellings
In our age of word processors and spelling checkers, the hazard of
misspelling may seem to be a thing of the past. What spelling checkers miss
most frequently, however, are homonymic spellings, words that sound the same but are spelled
differently. The only way to
catch these errors is to proofread your work before turning it in.
Here are some
examples of these words to watch out for:
|
You're your |
it's its |
they're their there |
to two too |
accept except |
Modifiers
The perils of modifiers can be hazardous, but by remembering a
simple rule you can rid your writing of misplaced modifiers. The rule is that
the modifier should be as close
to the word it is referring to as possible. Always strive for clarity in your writing.
Example: Broken and beaten after the game, the messy locker room
looked like a dungeon to the exhausted Longhorn team.
The modifier in the sentence is "Broken and beaten after the
game." To clarify this sentence, simply move the referent (the Longhorns)
closer to the modifier.
Example: Broken and beaten after the game, the exhausted Longhorn
team trudged to the messy, dungeon-like locker room.
Another modifier problem might involve an issue of clarity.
Example: When only a lad, my father took me to Kyle Field.
Who was "only a lad"? To avoid this confusion, clarify
the modifier.
Example: When I was only a lad, my father took me to Kyle Field.
For more information on major mechanics errors and how to avoid
them, consult The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers, or any freshman
composition text.