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Hello,

I’m trying my best to improve my grammar but need some help understanding. For the below errors what makes them wrong?

1. The book is a wonderful and fun entry in the series(, )(;) on the surface, it appears there will be little at stake but as the book progresses there is the matter of reconciling families and entire countries!
2. A pleasant and surprising addition to a children’s book. (Sentence fragment)
3. As well as this the book is exceptionally well-edited. (Sentence fragment)
4. The book is full of positives(,)(;) however, whilst the book is compelling and easy to read I find it difficult to decide who it is aimed at.
5. The story is a little short on character building(,)(;) however, I have chosen not to mark it down because of this.

Hi Jack -

I don't know what you do to help proof your work, but I use the following grammar checkers. Over time, repeatedly correcting my commas using these tools - I'm learning. Commas are a "b."

1) https://quillbot.com/grammar-check
2) https://www.scribens.com/
3) https://prowritingaid.com/grammar-checker
4) https://www.grammarcheck.net/editor/

Yes - I use them all and run all of my reviews through *all of them*. By the time I have done that, I have made several significant changes to my review. I still need to use my brain/logic because these online checkers often suggest crazy stuff that doesn't make sense.

Here are resources I have gotten from people on this site that are also helpful...

1) https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/ (punctuation help)
2) https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/capital.asp (capitalization rules)
3) Pinned in this forum - Scott's guide is also helpful viewtopic.php?f=72&t=130072

If you take your first sentence and put it in Quillbot (first link above) you'll see it rips the sentence apart - literally.

Hope that helps.

Emily

Jack King wrote: ↑17 Mar 2023, 10:45 Hello,

I’m trying my best to improve my grammar but need some help understanding. For the below errors what makes them wrong?

1. The book is a wonderful and fun entry in the series(, )(;) on the surface, it appears there will be little at stake but as the book progresses there is the matter of reconciling families and entire countries!
2. A pleasant and surprising addition to a children’s book. (Sentence fragment)
3. As well as this the book is exceptionally well-edited. (Sentence fragment)
4. The book is full of positives(,)(;) however, whilst the book is compelling and easy to read I find it difficult to decide who it is aimed at.
5. The story is a little short on character building(,)(;) however, I have chosen not to mark it down because of this.

Hi Jack,

Emily has given some great sources. I use four grammar checkers, Natural Reader, read it aloud myself, and let it sit for a day somewhere in the process before I consider my review ready to submit. I did not discover Natural Reader until later, and it saved me many times when the word was spelled correctly (and grammar checkers missed it), but it was not the correct word for the context. And, as Emily said, do not take the suggestions from grammar checkers blindly.

Examples 1, 4, and 5 are comma splices. This occurs when you combine two independent clauses with only a comma. A stronger punctuation mark (such as a semicolon) or a conjunction is required. There is a simple definition with examples in this link: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/comma-splice

Specifically, in examples 4 and 5, “however” is used as a conjunctive adverb and requires a semicolon instead of a comma preceding it. See the “SEMICOLON” section in this Purdue OWL link: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writ ... unctuation

Example 2 is not a complete sentence because there is no verb. I’m assuming this was a continuing thought from the prior sentence. If so, consider connecting it to the previous sentence with an emdash or even a comma if the phrase is describing the last word in the prior sentence.

I’m not sure example 3 is a sentence fragment; there may have been a disconnect in parsing it. Perhaps a comma is needed after “this” to distinguish it as an introductory adverbial phrase. The rest of the sentence is complete.

I hope these additional explanations have been helpful.

Thank you both, I have just submitted my first review following these suggestions. Each one seemed to pick up different errors which is good!

Oooo, I hope you get a great score!

Emily Meadows wrote: ↑20 Mar 2023, 08:53 Oooo, I hope you get a great score!

I have now submitted 2 reviews with the advice above, across 4 scorecards I have had 100% twice, 90% and one 80%. Definitely a winning formula, thank you so much guys!

Jack King wrote: ↑26 Mar 2023, 14:04

Emily Meadows wrote: ↑20 Mar 2023, 08:53 Oooo, I hope you get a great score!

I have now submitted 2 reviews with the advice above, across 4 scorecards I have had 100% twice, 90% and one 80%. Definitely a winning formula, thank you so much guys!

Woo hoo!

Emily Meadows wrote: ↑26 Mar 2023, 16:05

Jack King wrote: ↑26 Mar 2023, 14:04
I have now submitted 2 reviews with the advice above, across 4 scorecards I have had 100% twice, 90% and one 80%. Definitely a winning formula, thank you so much guys!

Woo hoo!

That is great news. Keep on winning!