The document discusses active and passive voice, indefinite pronouns, and subject-verb agreement. It provides examples of active and passive sentences and how to change between the two. It defines singular and plural indefinite pronouns and their use. Finally, it outlines nine rules for subject-verb agreement.
3. The active voice is preferred in academic writing.
Passive: The car was washed by the students.
Active: The students washed the car.
Exceptions: In some cases it is necessary or even
desirable to write in the passive voice for instance if
the subject is not know or if the writer wants the
focus to be on the recipient of the actions.
The store was robbed. (We don’t know who robbed
the store.)
The President was sworn in. (The president (object)
is more important than the person doing the action.
4. To change a sentence from passive to active voice, do the following:
1. Move the passive sentence's subject into the active sentence's direct object slot
Passive: The car (subject) was washed by the students.
Active: washed(verb) the car (direct object)
2. Remove the auxiliary verb be from the main verb and change main verb's form if
needed
Passive: The car was washed by the students.
Active: remove “was washed” and change to “washed.”
3. Place the passive sentence's object of the preposition by into the subject slot.
Passive: The car was washed by the students.
Active: Remove “by” .
Active Sentence: The students washed the car.
6. Are Singular if they are not countable, and Plural of
they are countable. For example, dirt and sugar are
non-countable, while trees and marbles are.
Some of the dirt has become a permanent part of the
rug.
Some of the trees have been weakened by the storm.
Singular: One, someone, anyone, no one, everyone,
each, somebody, anybody, nobody, everybody,
(n)either, something, anything, nothing, everything.
Somebody is coming to dinner.
Neither of us believes a word Harry says.
Plural: Both, Few, Several.
Both are expected at the airport at the same time.
Several have suggested canceling the meeting.
7. Indefinite pronouns use apostrophes to indicate possessive case.
Examples:
The accident is nobody’s fault.
How will the roadwork affect one's daily commute?
Some indefinite pronouns may also be used as determiners
one, each, either, neither, some, any, one, all, both, few, several, many,
most
Note the differences:
Each person has a chance.
(Each is a determiner describing person.)
Each has a chance.
(Each is an indefinite pronoun replacing a noun.)
Both lawyers pled their cases well.
(Both is a determiner describing lawyers.)
Both were in the room.
(Both is an indefinite pronoun replacing a noun.)
9. Care should be taken to ensure that the verb
agrees with its subject in number (singular or
plural).
Correct: Neither the highest scorer nor the lowest
scorer in the group had any doubt about his or her
competence.
Incorrect: Neither the highest scorer nor the
lowest scorer in the group had any doubt about
their competence.
There are nine rules to follow which are outlined in
the following slide:
10. 1. A phrase or clause between subject and verb does not change the
number of the subject.
2. Singular indefinite pronoun (See rules for indefinite pronouns) subjects
take singular verbs, while Plural indefinite pronoun subjects take plural
verbs.
3. Compound subjects joined by and are always plural.
4. With compound subjects joined by or/nor, the verb agrees with the
subject nearer to it.
5. Inverted Subjects must agree with the verb.
6. Collective Nouns (group, jury, crowd, team, etc.) may be singular or
plural, depending on meaning. (Are they acting as one unit? Or
individuals?)
7. Titles of single entities (books, organizations, countries, etc.) are
always singular.
8. Plural form subjects with a singular meaning take a singular verb. (e.g.
news, measles, mumps, physics, etc.) while, Plural form subjects with
singular or plural meaning take a singular or plural verb, depending on
meaning. (e.g. politics, economics, etc.)
9. With subject and subjective complement of different number, the verb
always agrees with the subject.
