Write down the subject of the sentence. The subject could be a person or an object. For example, if you wish to write a sentence about a television, the TV is your subject. The subject could also be a proper noun like “Henry” or a pronoun like “he.”
Write down the verb of the sentence. The verb is the action word. It indicates what’s happening in the sentence. For example, if you wish to write about a towel that fell off a hook, “fell” is the verb. In the sentence, “Henry thought about the dinner menu,” the word “thought” is the verb.
Make your subjects and verbs agree with each other. This means that both of these parts of the sentence are either plural or singular. For example, you would write, "Each of the colors was used in the design." The subject is "each," which is singular, so it takes a singular verb, "was." To take a plural verb, "colors" would need to be the subject, such as, "The colors used in the design complemented each other perfectly."
Use the correct pronouns. A pronoun must agree with its noun in number. An example of incorrect pronoun agreement is: “The chef burned the dinner, but they were able to fix it.” Written correctly, this sentence is: “The chef burned the dinner, but he was able to fix it.”
Collective nouns often trip people up. Another incorrect example would be something like this: "The department's management team pushed for their marketing ideas." It might sound awkward to use "its" to agree with "management," so recasting the sentence could improve it. "Three members of the department's management team pushed for their marketing ideas."
Collective pronouns also cause writers problems, such as in this incorrect example: "Everyone had to plan what they'd bring to the holiday cookie exchange." Pronouns such as "everyone" and "someone" agree with singular verbs and pronouns. This is another instance where recasting the subject of the sentence might be the best option.
Connect two clauses. Select an appropriate conjunction, such as “and,” “or,” “but” or “yet.” A conjunction connects the parts of your sentence. For example, write, “Henry thought about the dinner menu, but he couldn’t think of anything interesting to cook.” The word “but” is the conjunction. It requires a comma before it, because both of the clauses around it are independent. That is, each has its own subject and verb. If the second clause did not have its own subject, no comma would be used: "Henry thought about the dinner menu but couldn't think of anything interesting to cook." In this example, both "thought" and "could think" are connected to the subject "Henry" and should not be separated by a comma. They are a compound predicate, just like "Henry and Sheila" would be a compound subject.
Add a prepositional phrase, if appropriate. Examples of prepositions are “across,” “between,” “about” and “on.” Combine one of these with other words to form a prepositional phrase. For example, “Henry placed the dinner menu on the table.” The word “on” is the preposition, and "on the table" is the prepositional phrase.
Add a dependent clause where needed. Dependent clauses do not have their own subjects and add more information or description. For example, "Henry placed the dinner menu, which had been printed by his wife's company, on the table." The description of the menu is a nonessential, or nonrestrictive, clause. With or without the clause, the sentence is still grammatically correct and clear. It is set off by parenthetical commas and called an appositive. There is only one menu, and his wife's company printed it.
A restrictive clause, or essential clause, specifies one of many, for example. The sentence, "Henry placed on the table the dinner menu that his wife's company had printed" signifies that there is a menu that his wife's company had printed and one or more that her firm did not. It specifies and adds more information to what's being talked about. There is no comma to set off a restrictive clause. Its inclusion essential to the accuracy and clarity of the topic at hand.
Check for parallel construction in your sentence. Parallel construction means that all the parts of a series are constructed of the same elements. For example, don't mix verbs and gerunds. A gerund is a word that is functionally a noun, but it has the “-ing” of a verb, such as “giving.” An incorrect example of parallel construction is: “Henry’s work includes to cook, bake, chopping and blending.” Written correctly, this sentence is “Henry’s work includes cooking, baking, chopping and blending.”
Check for parallel construction in other areas. Don't mix verbs and dependent clauses, for example: “The President told Congress that they should pass the bill, that they should work together and to increase the debt limit.” Written correctly, this sentence is: “The President told Congress to pass the bill, to work together and to increase the debt limit.” You will also note that the incorrect example also has a pronoun mistake. Congress is a collective noun, so it does not take a plural pronoun.
Check your sentence for tense shifts. Tense shifts switch the sentence from the past to the present or vice versa. An incorrect tense shift is: “Henry took a cooking class, met new people and has a great time.” This sentence is incorrect because “took” and “met” are past tense, whereas “has” is present tense. The word “has” should be “had.”
Check your sentence for point of view shifts. A POV shift occurs when the sentence has two or more points of view, such as second person (you) and third person (she). An example of an incorrect POV shift is: "Writers should adhere to proper grammar for clarity, and you should also proofread before submitting." The phrase "Writers should" is third person, and "you should" is second person.
Check for run-on sentences. A run-on sentence either lacks the proper punctuation, or it uses a comma splice. A comma splice occurs when you insert a comma between two sentences (or independent clauses) instead of a period. An example of a comma splice is: “Henry is an excellent chef, he cooks dinner all the time.” The correct text should read: “Henry is an excellent chef. He cooks dinner all the time.” Or "Henry is an excellent chef, and he cooks dinner all the time." A third possible correction would be: "Henry is an excellent chef; he cooks dinner all the time."
Another example of a run-on sentence is: “Dinner is getting burned, but Henry is too busy to notice, and I can't believe the fire alarm hasn't gone off.” It has three independent clauses in a row.
Fix sentence fragments. For example, the words “Cooking school in Virginia” is a sentence fragment. There is not a verb in the phrase. Both a subject and a verb are needed to create a complete sentence. You can turn this into a complete sentence by writing something like, “Go to cooking school in Virginia,” or "That cooking school in Virginia is renowned." In the first example, the subject of the sentence is the implied "You."
Watch out for misplaced or dangling modifiers. These are often prepositional phrases that are in the wrong place. For example, "Henry placed the dinner menu on the table that his wife's company had printed." The company did not print the table but the menu.