Introduction

Academic writing incorporates a myriad of rules and elements to consider. Following these rules and guidelines ensures you produce a high quality writing piece. Following effective grammar rules is one of the most important guidelines to follow when writing. Bad grammar will ruin the whole quality of your writing. The grammar rules in essay writing go beyond word choice and usage. The common grammar rules incorporate the proper use of sentences, phrases, clauses, speech, and single word use as well.

1- Common Grammar rules

Proper sentences

Each sentence in your essay should be coherent and complement. To make sure this happens, you have to include two key parts, .i.e. subject, and action. A subject is normally a person, animal or thing that is described as doing that certain action.

Clauses

There is always a constant nag from your English or writing instructors on structuring sentences. Writing long sentences without the proper structure can be confusing and can easily lose the point you are trying to make.

This where clauses jump in. Clauses are when you break down your sentences so they can be shortened and make better sense. For example, Mrs. Jane went to the market where she was going to meet her friends can be written as Mrs. Jan is going to the market and, she is going to meet her friends there.

Clauses can also be separated into four main categories, i.e. main, subordinate clauses. Relative and noun.  Main clauses are those that stand alone in a sentence, as the example outlined above. Subordinate clauses on the other end require another sentence to support them. For example, Before Mrs. Jane left the house…

A relative clause will feature a relative pronoun or adverb, the subject, and the action. For example, Mrs. Jane who loves fatty steaks will develop a heart problem. Noun clauses are those that use the noun as a clause. A good sentence that includes a noun clause is “you really don’t know what Mrs. Janeadds to her steak sauce”.

Proper Phrasing

Sentences don’t always have the subject and action. These are what we call phrases. Phrase instead are grammatical words linked to each other. A good example of a proper phrase is “Mrs. Jane is at the hospital, and tomorrow she will go back home.” Thus, in this case “Mrs. Jane” is the principle phrase and it connects to the clause, “Mrs. Jane is at the hospital”.

Correct Speech

Speech is perhaps one of those weird grammar rules. Yet, it is very much an important part of the grammar in your essay writing. Without the correct word choice as part of your speech, you will end with strange phrases and sentences. This rule also showcases the writer’s rich grammatical knowledge and writing skills.

For example, one single word can be used in multiple sentences, provided it makes sense in all the sentences.  This means that one word, can act like a noun in one sentence and then act as a verb in another. And his is where we jump into parts of a speech. These are the eight main classifications we see in any writing.

The classification includes nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections.

2- Proper Speech For Effective Grammar Rules

Nouns

A noun is the simplest of speech classification. It is normally used to describe the subject. For, example “Mrs. Jane”, “she” or “her” are both nouns. In a complete sentence, a noun will represent the subject and will be paired with verbs, adjectives and /or prepositions.

Nouns are also divided into different types. “Mrs. Jane” for example, is a proper noun as it starts with a capital letter, and uniquely identifies the subject. “She” or “her” are common nouns because they are general terms that are used to describe a subject.

Other types include concrete, abstract, countable, non-countable and collective nouns. Concrete nouns describe subjects that can be described by our sentences, for example, the beach, or a musical tune. An abstract noun on the other end is the opposite of concrete nouns, for example, words such as hate and memory.

A countable noun as the title suggests is countable. A good example is pencils or a bag of doughnuts. Non-countable nouns are almost similar to concrete and abstract nouns. These nouns are not counted and don’t possess plural forms. Collective nouns are used to describe a group of subjects. For example a herd of sheep or a series of murders.

Pronouns

Pronouns replace nouns when needed. A sentence such as Mrs. Jane is at the hospital because she is sick is much better than Mrs. Jane is at the hospital because Mrs. Jane is sick.  In this case, the word “she”, a subjective personal pronoun is used.   Nouns such as I, they, you, and it, used in a sentence such as the above example are used as a pronoun in that context. 

Other forms of pronouns include objective, possessive, reflective, interrogative, demonstrative and indefinite.  Objective pronouns act as objects to verbs in a sentence. This includes terms such as me, you, her and similar words. You use such terms to connect sentences, for example, the knife sliced her on her forearm.

Possessive pronouns communicate ownership of the subject in a sentence. Possessive pronouns include yours, hers or it’s. A good example is that is her cat. A reflective pronoun on the other end reflects the object as it’s similar to the subject. Reflective pronouns words include myself, herself or themselves. A good example, “is Mrs. Jane to take herself to the hospital.”

An interrogative pronoun is denoted in a questioning sentence. Interrogative pronouns include which, what and whose. A good example is whose car is this? A demonstrative pronoun answers or explains to help answer the previous statement. For example, no, that is Jane’s house. The example may be used to offer as an answer or comment to – “that house is expensive.”

Lastly, indefinite pronouns do not refer to a specific subject. Some of the key indefinite pronouns are anywhere, everything, everyone, and many similar words.

Adjectives

An adjective describes the subject or objective. the noun. In writing, you will either use an attributive or predicative adjective. An attributive is when it is next to a noun, for example, “she drove the car”, whilst predicative is used in a sentence whereby a verb is between the adjective and the noun or pronoun. A good example of such an adjective is in the sentence,” Mrs. Jane’s Steak sauce is delicious.

Verbs

As we were thought in early elementary stages, verbs are simply doing words. There are three common types of verbs, i.e. transitive, intransitive and incomplete. A transitive verb takes a direct object to a receiver. A good example is Mrs. Jane cooks the steak.

An intransitive verb on the other end does the reverse of a transitive verb. When this kind of verb is used, the verb does not take a direct object. A good example is “Mrs. Jane cooked”.  Incomplete verbs are just the title suggests, they do not complete the essence of the sentence with only the subject. A good example is “the earth is round”.

Adverbs

Add meaning to a sentence by manipulating the verb, adjective or other adverbs. For example, Mary speaks French very well or Ms. Jane speaks French fluently are both examples of an adverb in a sentence.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are used to connect sentences or clauses. They do this by either coordinating or subordinating. A good example of coordinating conjunctions includes and, either or neither. Examples of subordinating conjunctions include that, sine or when. This concept of common grammar rules should take you back into the clauses retrospect.

Prepositions

Prepositions connect a noun or pronoun to other words in a sentence. The words that directly connect to the noun or pronoun are the subject or object. Common prepositions include words such as under, on, near or by. A good example of prepositions used in a sentence is, “Mrs. Jane’s sauce in on the counter”.

Interjections

Interjections ease a reader into a sudden revelation. It is a phrase on its own. Words such as “kaboom1” or “darn”, are a good example. An interjection is normally not grammatically connected to a sentence, yet, it adds value to the overall sentence. Interjections are ideally used to express shock, emotions and create a dramatic turn into your storytelling.

Conclusion

Other important classifications and sub-classification of speech include articles. Articles are actually an example of an adjective. However, they are so broad that they have their term. These are generally, words such as a, an and the. They are known as demonstrative adjectives.

Mastering the art and skill of manipulating these key concepts and grammar rules in essay writing will ensure that you produce impressive and high quality work. It’s all about being intuitive and critical and knowing when to use each of the parts of the speech. Some of the commons one is so easy and by no, imbedded into our mind, that they simply come out naturally.