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Proofread your writing to catch easy mistakes

Even reading it out loud can help to suss out hiccups.

For the Minnesota Star Tribune
April 24, 2023 at 3:54PM

My sixth-grade English teacher, Miss Moore, had zero tolerance for grammatical errors. But she was a purist whose dictates have become obsolete since she was in charge.

She insisted: Never start a sentence with the word "but" or "and."

But in the interest of making meaning clear, most writers today insist that starting a sentence with the word "but" emphasizes disagreement.

And starting a sentence with the word "and" alerts a reader to an important addition to what came before.

So, let's consider some of the most common errors we find in today's writing. Example:

"Each of those four players have played in a national championship game and will be among the top picks in the draft."

The plural verb "have played" follows the plural "players." Problem: "players" is not the subject; the subject — "each," meaning each one — is singular. The sentence should read, "Each of those four players has played in a national championship game …"

You'd never say, "Each have." It's too easy to fall into the trap of using a plural verb right after a plural word that is not the subject.

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Another example: Don Michaels of Stillwater, a radio-show host, found a major goof in a news story about Pamela Smart, the teacher who persuaded her teenage lover to kill her husband:

"Smart, 55, was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an affair with a 15-year-old student who later shot and killed her husband, Gregg Smart. He was freed in 2015."

Michaels' response: "Whoops. According to this, Gregg Smart was freed from death in 2015."

Karen Barstad of Minneapolis, a retired bank compliance officer, submitted this example: "President Donald Trump introduced expedited screening while in CBP custody, but his successor, Joe Biden, scrapped it in his first week in office."

Barstad's response: "I don't recall Trump being held in custody by Customs and Border Protection."

The fix? "President Trump introduced expedited screening for people in CBP custody …"

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Read your copy aloud to catch errors like these. Whatever causes a mental hiccup undermines your meaning.

Gilson conducts writing workshops online. He can be reached through www.writebetterwithgary.com.

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about the writer

about the writer

Gary Gilson

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