Shift in Tense

The tense of your verb tells when events are taking place—whether in the past, the present, or the future. Early in your writing process, establish a "base tense" for your paper, and shift away from it only for good reason. If you're writing about past events, use the past tense as your base tense. If you're writing about the present or the future, build around one of those tenses.

Early in your writing process, establish a "base tense" for your paper, and shift away from it only for good reason.

Change:	We went into Bruno's and ordered a pizza. The waitress comes over and brings us our drinks. I can see she's going to spill one.
to:	We went into Bruno's and ordered a pizza. As the waitress came back with our drinks, I could see she was going to spill one.

The first example, perhaps effective in casual conversation, isn't precise enough for writing. We can't tell what happened when. The second version locates the experience in the past. Of course when, as in the following example, logic insists you change tense—you should.

During high school I lived with my parents, but now I live with a close friend. Someday I will have a family of my own.

Pronoun Reference

Faulty pronoun reference means the antecedent of your pronoun is not totally and immediately clear. There is no single rule for making pronoun reference clear in all cases. Most often a reader will try to connect the pronoun with the subject of a previous clause or sentence:

Your reader should connect your pronoun with its antecedent at once.

When Andre cut his finger, he screamed out in pain.

But not always, sometimes the reader will connect it with the closest noun:

When Andre cut his finger, it started to bleed.

In both cases the meaning is clear, and so there is no problem. Problems occur, though, when two words compete as antecedents and the meaning blurs:

Finally, he wrapped his finger in a bandage, and it stopped bleeding.

Or when the antecedent is not named explicitly:

The danger of creosote build-up has not been properly publicized by the makers of wood burning stoves. This should be looked into thoroughly.

Pronoun/antecedent Agreement

Just as subjects and verbs must agree, pronouns must agree with their antecedents. A pronoun is a word that substitutes for a previously mentioned noun. If that noun (called the antecedent) is plural, the pronoun standing-in for it must also be plural. If the antecedent is singular, so must the pronoun be.

Change:	My club is having a bake sale. These should help our finances.
to:	My club is having a bake sale. This should help our finances.

In the first example, "these" refers back to the antecedent "bake sale," but because "these" is plural and its antecedent is singular, an agreement problem results. Making both pronoun and antecedent singular solves the problem.

Six Problem Areas - Subject/Verb Agreement

This rule comes first because understanding it can help you understand some of the others. In most sentences you follow it

naturally, but it can cause trouble. The rule is as follows: The subject and verb of each clause must agree in number.

The subject and verb of each clause must agree in number.

If you have a singular subject, you need a singular verb. If you have a plural subject, you need a plural verb. Singular and plural tell how many. Singular means one. Plural means more than one. Both your subject and verb must give the same signal as to how many you are talking about.

Read the following sentences and see if you can find any problems with subject/verb agreement.

1. The cat come home tired.

2. The cat comes home tired.

3. The cats come home tired.

4. The cats comes home tired.

Can you explain the problem in sentences one and four? If not, consider that with most nouns, our language forms the plural by adding an s, but with verbs, an s is added only in the third person singular.

Person/Number Chart

	Singular	Plural
1st person	I come	we come
2nd person	you come	you come
3rd person*	he, she, it, this, or that comes the cat* comes	they, these, or those come the cats* come

*All nouns—words such as table, cat or frog—should be considered 3rd person.

Expanding the Basic Pattern

Activities

  Some word groups listed below contain a subject and predicate and are therefore complete sentences. Others do not and can therefore be considered fragments or parts of sentences. If the word group is a sentence, put an S in the corresponding space. If it is a fragment, put an Fr in the space.

a. __ Beyond the big river.

b. __ Huge waves lapped the prow.

c. __ More than enough money.

d. __ Sitting down together for Sunday breakfast.

e. __ Her wound healed.

f. __ Earlier and earlier each night.

g.__ The sun slipped below the horizon.

h. __ Steeping the neighborhood in shadow i. - Calling us in from our play.

j. __ Our mother was cooking supper.