Technical Writing

Sentence Errors

Sentence Errors
Are errors of
Grammar: Errors in using verbs,
structure, agreement, case, tense,
modal verbs, articles, relative
clauses, ...
Mechanics: Errors in using
punctuation, capitalization, numbers,
abbreviation, and spelling
Vocabulary: misusing or confusing
words, insufficient vocabulary,
Style: Errors related to meaning
Logic: Errors of organization,
relationships, arguments
Will handle errors in written texts

How is a sentence defined?

On a strictly mechanical level, a
sentence starts with a capital letter
and finishes with a period,
question mark, or exclamation
point. Or a in rare cases.
Grammatically, a sentence
consists of an independent clause.
Above all, a sentence should have
a complete meaning.

 .
.

8 9.
24 .
.

.

.
.

 LAST WEEK, THERE WAS

ECONOMIC WAR BETWEEN US AND
JAPAN
Last week, there was economic war
between US and Japan.
Last week, there was economic war
between USA and Japan.
Last week, there was economic war
between U.S. and Japan.
The most important ingredient is
adding caustic soda.
Remove the bolt from the flange then
replace it.

 The convenience of wordprocessor

will soon replace typewriters.
We decided immediately to
purchase the proposed system.
They evaluate the program which
took almost five months.
The resistance of copper wiring is
lower than aluminum wiring.
I am sending the report on the pipe
that had the leak under a separate
cover.
I have been trying to place him
under contract to work here for
three years.

Will emphasize two types of error:

1. Errors of parallelism

2. Use of dangling modifiers

1.Errors of parallelism
The variables are:
Pressure and temperature of the boiler,
what type of fluid fuel is required,
oxygen amount, and
Fluid temperature.

The variables are

pressure and temperature of the boiler
type of fluid fuel
amount of oxygen
temperature of the fluid.

2. Use of dangling modifiers

a. To develop writing skills,
.., good texts
should be consulted.
b. To improve writing skills, read good
texts.

Parallelism

Parallelism
is the repetition of the same
grammatical structure,
especially when writing lists.
The variables are
pressure and temperature of the boiler
type of fluid fuel
Repeated
amount of oxygen
pattern
temperature of the fluid.
Structure: S-V+ (noun-prep-noun)


.1
.2
.3

.4

.5

.6

.7
.8

.9

.10

Having low risk means investing into

Quality initial-design
Quality operation and performance
Maintainability: can be easily maintained
Quality maintenance system
Availability at any time
Reliability: causing only small problems
Safety: no danger, only acceptable losses for
all targets
Human, Environment,
Resources: assets, know-how, time

Time
0

10 yrs

1. Errors of parallelism
The variables are:
Pressure and temperature of the boiler,
what type of fluid fuel is required,
oxygen amount, and
Fluid temperature.
The variables are
pressure and temperature of the boiler
type of fluid fuel
amount of oxygen
temperature of the fluid.

Effective sentences
should

be correct, and
1. have unity of idea
2. emphasize the right parts
3. show cohesion of parts
4. be precise in meaning
5. be concise
6. show word propriety
7. be clear in meaning
8. show variety in structure.

be
correct; and has unity of
idea, emphasize the right
parts, show cohesion of
parts, be precise in
meaning, be concise,
show word propriety, be
clear in meaning, and
show variety in structure.
Effective sentence should

For the fundraising event,

we placed an ad, did a
mailing, and were making a
lot of phone calls

Parallelism
facilitates reading
clarifies meaning.
Lists within sentences are either
These are
1. Vertically formatted
vertically
2. Partially formatted
formatted
3. Unformatted.
lists
The variables are 1) P and T of the boiler, 2)
type of fluid fuel, and 3) amount of oxygen.
The group was quiet, pleasant, and serious.

 Management sciences, since the time of Frederic

Talyor and Henri Fyol, have learned a great deal

about organizations and how they work. Much of
this learning has come from adopting the
perspective that organizations are entities
(systems, defined later), much like people, plants
and animals. There are many benefits to leaders
who adopt this systems view of their
organizations.
Systems thinking started in 1956 by Jay Forrester,
an MIT professor, who recognized the need for a
better way of testing new ideas about social
systems. In the same way we can test ideas in
engineering, systems thinking allows people to
make their understanding of social systems
explicit and improve them in the same way that
people can use engineering principles to make
explicit and improve their understanding of
mechanical systems.

Parallelism

Parallelism between large elements

a. Parallelism between sentences
First, a good paragraph has unity: focuses on a
single idea or theme. Second, a good
paragraph has coherence: one sentence leads
to the next in some kind of logical sequence.
Finally, a good paragraph has adequate
content: each sentence contains appropriate
details to support the main idea.

b. Parallelism between paragraphs and

larger elements of the same text

Parallelism

Parallelism between large elements

A good paragraph has

unity, coherence, and
adequate content.

Examples

The group was quiet and in a serious

mood after the meeting.
Judge people by what they say and their
actions.
The building is 140 long, 80 feet wide and
is ten meters high.
The duties of the writer involve
Definition of readers problems
describing the solution
writes and edits the report.
A sentence is a statement that is capitalized,
punctuated, and has at least one verb.

Examples
1. The employees present assignment is to
develop a software for operations, to
reside in the computer memory, and to
control software functioning.
2. His present occupation is repairing
typewriters, duplicating machines, and
printing machines.

Dangling Modifiers

Examples of Dangling Modifiers

.

1 Loaded or not, the

truck drivers will
arrive in time.

2 Loaded or not, the

truck drivers will
arrive in time.

3 Loaded or not, the

trucks will arrive in
(on) time.

Examples of Dangling Modifiers

4 To arrive in time,

the train will depart

at 5:00 p.m.
.

5 Laughing, the
problem was
wisely solved.

6 In writing reports,
word processing is
useful.

7 In report writing,
word processing is
useful.

Examples of Dangling Modifiers

1 Loaded or not, the

drivers will arrive in
.
time.

2 Loaded or not, the

3 Loaded or not, the

4 To arrive in time, the

5 Laughing, the problem

6 In writing reports, word

drivers will arrive in

time.
trucks will arrive in time.
train will depart at 5:00
p.m.
was wisely solved.

processing is useful.

Dangling Modifiers

Modifiers are words, clauses or

phrases, which alter the meaning of
sentence elements by restricting,
emphasizing, and describing them.
He works in a place not very far

from downtown.

A person who produces quality work

is a fortune these days.

Modifiers are dangling when there is

no word to which they can clearly
relate.

Dangling Modifiers
While being chairman, I am sure
many good things were done.
While being chairman, I am sure
he made many good things.

While being chairman, he made

many good things.

Modifiers occur in various forms

Loaded, the truck will be
Participial on time.
To save time, use the
Infinitive computer.
Using the new technique,
Gerund
he has saved time.
Elliptical

When (I was) using the

new technique, I saved
10% of the time.

Structure of the dangling sentence

Leading phrase (LP), a main clause:
LP, MC.
Or
MC TP.
LP (TP) is an action, or an adjective
There is a dangling situation when
MC does not start with a noun.
LP or TP is not tied to a noun in MC.

While being president, I am

sure that he made many good
things.

Example
While being president, I am sure that he made
many good things.
While being president, Mr. X made many good
things.

I am sure that many good things were made

while being president.
I am sure that Mr. X made many good things
while being president.
Many things were made while Mr. X was
president of the .

1. In operating the press, the hand was

injured.
2. Using the technique, hours are
saved.
3. To save time, the computer is used.
4. Not able to find the way, one came to
my rescue.
5. After reading the minutes, a heated
discussion started.
6. To determine its value, it will be
examined.
7. The paint is to be stored when
finished.
8. While asleep, someone picked his
money.

1. Considering his age, his health is good.

2. Assuming x=y, the function will

degenerate.
3. After sitting calm for a while, the building
began to shake, and we rushed out to
open areas.
4. Arriving late, the crew had already left the
place.
5. For checking spelling, a dictionary is
essential.
6. Ready to pitch the camp, orders changed
to move to a new location.
7. Once made, you should execute the
decision.

Correcting Dangling Modifiers

1. Change LP to a leading clause.
When he was only 8 years old,
computer games fascinated him.
2. Start MC with the missing noun.
When only was 8 years old, he was
fascinated by computer games.
3. Insert LP into an idiomatic
expression.
For mastering vocabulary, a good
dictionary is essential.
A good dictionary is essential for
mastering vocabulary.

4. Shift active/passive voice of MC if

necessary.
When heavily used, you need to
regularly maintain hardware.
When heavily used, hardware
should be maintained regularly.
5. Make other necessary changes
without affecting the original
meaning
The icon will be examined in order
to determine its value.

Squinting Modifiers
Those who watch television
rarely read much.
.
.
? .
I only told what happened to him.

Recognize the structure in the following

Unlike readers of the academic world, most
readers of the real world read selectively:
rather than digesting a piece of writing,
they skim-read most of it, skipping from
one main idea to another until they come to
something that particularly interests them.
Used to refer to things or repeating
reference to the same thing, noun
compounds are made of two or more words
usually without functional words.
If word class is considered, the structure of
the two-word noun takes seven forms.

Like most reorganizations, this

one wasnt easy. It will be no
surprise to many of you that this
was a stressful period, both for
those who participated on the
reorganization team and those
who waited to learn the outcome.

When faced with two

conflicting obligations,
both of which appear to be
justified, one approach is
to try to find a way to
satisfy both of them.

To study the level of the English language

and the style of abstract writing, a group of
persons interested in the usage of English
language has reviewed the majority of the
technical abstracts submitted to EGPC
14th Conference (approximately 140
abstracts). .
After verifying the primary impression, the
group decided to make further in-depth
analyses on nearly 50% of the abstracts,
randomly selected from the initially
reviewed ones.

In addition, many
companies do not have
clear publication policies
or writing guidelines to
guarantee a quality
product.