CRAFT OF SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION
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Tutorial
Section 1: Grammar
​​

        From a writer's perspective, grammar is the way that words are arranged into sentences. Because engineers and scientists are expected to write in sentences, you should know what a sentence is and is not. By definition, a sentence is a group of words with a subject and verb that gives a complete thought.
        In science and engineering, two grammatical errors to avoid are a fragment (an incomplete sentence) and a run-on (two or more sentences incorrectly joined). A third common error of grammar is faulty parallelism, which often occurs with items in a list. In addition to helping you avoid grammatical errors, knowing grammar is important for recognizing telltale signs of AI-generated text.
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If you selected all of the correct answers on the Kahoot, you can move to the next section: Punctuation​. However, if you missed questions, you should work through the films and quizzes (below) that correspond to those missed questions. 

If you struggled with fragments or run-ons, view Films 1 and 2 and take the review quiz on fragments and run-ons. Note that if you are unfamiliar with the grammatical terms in these films, you should see the appendix at the end of this section of the guide.

Film 1: Avoiding fragments.


Film 2: Avoiding run-ons.


If you do not understand faulty parallelism, view Film 3.

Film 3: Maintaining parallelism.


If you do not understand misplaced modifiers, view Film 4.

Film 4: Avoiding misplaced modifiers.


Take the Grammar Kahoot
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Appendix: Grammatical Terms

This appendix contains the following three items: (1) a list of important grammatical terms, (2) links to a glossary of those terms, and (3) additional films that explain many of those terms. While you do not need to have textbook definitions of the terms [4-6], you should feel comfortable enough with the terms that you could use them in a critique of a colleague's professional document:

Sentence
Subject (of Sentence)
Noun
​Pronoun
Main Verb (of Sentence)
Clause
​Independent Clause
Dependent Clause
​Fragment
Phrase
​Conjunction (Coordinating)
Subordinating Conjunction
​Run-On


Grammar: Clauses versus phrases.


Grammar: Joining Independent Clauses.


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Editor:
​Prof. Michael Alley, Pennsylvania State University ([email protected])
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  • Home
    • Teaching Films
  • Writing
    • AI Writing >
      • Strong AI Examples
      • Writing Styles of AI >
        • Writing Style of ChatGPT
        • Writing Style of Claude
      • Faculty Quotations: AI Writing
    • Emails and Letters >
      • Professional Email Format
      • Professional Letter Format
    • Reports >
      • Sample Report Format
      • Design Reports
      • Laboratory Reports
    • Research Papers
    • Grammar Refresher >
      • Grammar
      • Punctuation
      • Usage
      • Grammar Glossary
  • Posters
    • Poster Examples
    • Poster Templates
    • Even Better Posters
  • Presentations
    • AE Tutorial
    • AE Templates
    • Research Talk Tutorial
    • REU Resources