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English has thousands of language usage rules and conventions, many of which only professional copyeditors know. However, anyone writing in a professional context should have full command of the basic rules of English usage, grammar and punctuation, or what can be considered language usage essentials, defined below.
- Every sentence is complete; that is, it has both a subject and a predicate. Otherwise, it is a sentence fragment.
- Sentences that have more than one clause are correctly punctuated.
- Verbs are in the proper tense, and, in the case of irregular verbs, the correct past tense (e.g., took) or past participle (e.g., risen) is used.
- Verbs agree in number with their subject (plural subjects require plural verbs; singular subjects require singular verbs).
- Pronouns are in the correct case and number, and refer to a clear antecedent.
- The use of punctuation marks (periods, commas, semicolons, colons, question marks, quotation marks) follows correct standard usage.
- Possessives are correctly punctuated (its, our, the university's, students' work).
- Spelling is correct (that is, the spelling appears in a dictionary, whether Canadian, American or British).
- Modifiers are correctly placed, and when they are in the form of participles (e.g., Walking past the building ), they have a subject in the main clause (otherwise they are "dangling").
- Elements that are playing the same role in a sentence are parallel in structure (e.g., Parallel: The student registered for her courses, paid her fees and bought her textbooks. Not parallel: The student registered for her courses, paid her fees, and she bought her textbooks).
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