Writing Lessons & Advice: Parts of Speech
A study from Stanford University identified the top twenty errors found in undergraduate writing. The number one error is using the wrong word in a certain context. As explained in a previous lesson, the confusion stems from the fact that many words have such close similarities or subtleties that spelling, pronunciation and/or usage are the main ways to tell them apart.
A word’s spelling and pronunciation should be self-explanatory. While a word’s usage pertains to one of eight parts of speech or word classes within a sentence: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and articles.
Thinking about these may take some people back to learning them in early years of English or Language classes. They’re a foundational part of writing, base ingredients to all proper sentences, if you will. But more still, the parts of speech/word classes can provide some guidance in avoiding wrong words in the wrong places because usage, spelling and/or pronunciation influence one another at times. A word’s spelling or pronunciation can vary based on what it's doing in a sentence or a word’s spelling or pronunciation can help identify its use. I’ll try to give practical examples of this as I reintroduce these elementary ideas.
Parts of Speech/word classes
Noun- In simplest terms, nouns are words that identify one or multiple people, places, things, or ideas. Within nouns are common and proper nouns. Common nouns are general or generic terms like: rulers or leaders. While proper nouns are specific names that start with capital letters, like Cleopatra, King Charles III, or President George Washington.
Pronoun- in the grammatical sense, pronouns are words that substitute for nouns. For instance, in a speech, essay, or conversation about one of the aforementioned leaders, at some point, you would refer to them with pronouns he or she instead of repeating their name every time. That said, pronouns should have antecedents before them so the audience knows to whom (or what) is being referenced.
Verb- verbs are words that refer to action or feeling. Verbs have much of the variety in spelling or pronunciation as they have certain forms or endings that are dictated by tense and subject-verb agreement. Referring back to our leaders, you would discuss Cleopatra’s or George Washington’s doings in past tense since they lived long ago. King Charles III is the current British monarch and still living as of August 2023, so you might use present or even future tense verbs to discuss what he is doing or will do as the present leader of the Commonwealth.
Side note: more "types" of nouns, verbs, and subject-verb agreement are discussed in other and/or future lessons!
Adjective- adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns. If you think of ways to characterize Cleopatra, George Washington, or King Charles III as either leaders or individuals, you likely think of these kinds of words. Examples: George Washington was patient and humble.
Cleopatra was said to be cunning and charismatic.
Adjectives also vary word spellings/pronunciations when they have endings that emphasize comparison, like -er, or -est. Example: King Charles III is the oldest monarch ever crowned in British history.
Adverb- adverbs are words that can describe verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or sometimes whole sentences. Adverbs often end in -ly, bringing a little more variety to word sounds and spellings. Examples:
George Washington bravely served in the French and Indian War.
“bravely” describes his action.
Interestingly, Washington is the only Founding Father without a college education.
“Interestingly” describes the following statement about Washington’s academic experiences. Who knew?
Modern historians believe Cleopatra was less than exceptionally attractive.
“Exceptionally” describes the adjective: attractive. Also, in this context, it further emphasizes the overall fact she only had average beauty.
Preposition- prepositions are words or phrases that indicate relationship between two things in a sentence. Examples:
The Washington Monument is east of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
“Of the Lincoln Memorial” and “In Washington D.C”. create prepositional phrases that convey the location of the Washington Monument.
Cleopatra was likely educated at the institution that once housed the Library of Alexandria.
“At” is a preposition that indicates location.
After King Charles, Prince William is next to inherit the throne.
“Next to” is a phrase that indicates William’s position to the throne.
Conjunction- conjunctions are words that connect related sentences or sentence clauses. If you remember other grammar basics--be it from school or my lessons--you may recall that
compound sentences are often formed with coordinating conjunctions and complex sentences are formed with subordinating conjunctions.
Articles- In grammar, articles are short words (a, an, the) before a noun that indicate either specificity or generality. A and An are general, indefinite articles while the is a definite article that indicates distinction. To illustrate a little further, two of our mentioned leaders would be included in a general group of monarchs: Charles is a king and Cleopatra was a queen. However, Charles is the king of England, while Cleopatra was the queen of Egypt.
These are your key ingredients to crafting proper sentences. Every well-written line obviously has some combination of these parts of speech/word classes. Several of them have specific guidelines that modify a word or sentence to better fit their purposes (Check out the source material for a deeper-dive into these). Written text would not sound right or be clearly understood without following them. Recognizing these guidelines should reduce some of your qualms with confusing words.
Writing requires a proper balance in its ingredients, just like cooking or baking, but enough practice, study, and experience helps it come easier. Proofreading after drafting plays a big part in this development as well so don’t forget to do so!
Hopefully this lesson refreshed your memory on the parts of speech and gave you some insight into writing better sentences and making better word choices!
If there's a topic you want me to cover in the future, you're welcome to reach out to me on the web chat feature or socials!
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