I am old enough to know this but can I get a refresher? I wrote an article at work and...?

Question

I was told I had an awful lot of grammatical errors. As I don't want to look bad again please remind me of how to distinguish when one should start a new paragraph. I know if the subject is changed you start a new one but there is a fine line to me sometimes, meaning if it qualifies for a new paragraph or if just elaborating on the same subject needs a new one.
I just have been out of school too long.
Were there any mistakes in how I composed this question. Thanks.

Answer 1

You are write to say that you should start a new paragraph when the subject has changed. The first line on the paragraph is the topic sentence and should set the tone for the rest of the paragraph. You need to have a concluding sentence as well. It is important to put the facts in order and to not through in any random sentences that have to do with the topic, but really don't have a role in explaining what you are trying to say. Make sure you don't have run on sentences, and if you have a long sentence instead of separating it with a comma, use a semicolon and then continue like this.... the car broke down when they had it because.....blah blah blah; however, we found the car to work perfectly. And yes you have a few errors in your question. First of all "awful lot" sounds like something a little child would say. You should replace that phrase with a more mature and eloquent sounding adjective like "I was told there were numerous gramatical errors in an article I wrote." and you made a mistake in saying "i know if a subject is changed" you should have said "I know if a subject has changed" or "I know if one changes the subject" I'm not sure what you said was wrong, but it just doesnt sounds right. You should used spell check and also, if you cant think of a good word, right click on the word and then choose synonyms to come up with a list of other words that sound better.

Answer 2

I hate to be a critic...

I was told I had an awful lot of grammatical errors.

I would have written:

I was informed that my article had many grammatical errors.
(Your subject matter was not clear. Is it you that has the grammatical errors or the article you wrote?)

As I don't want to look bad again please remind me of how to distinguish when one should start a new paragraph.

(Normally you do not start off a sentence with a prepostion. In a single sentence you expressed the concepts, " I don't want to look bad", "I want a few tricks, hints, clues, to ge me by.", and "When should I start a new paragraph? This is two statement and one question in a single sentence. That once sentence could have been a nice paragraph.)

I would have written:

I would like to present myself in a better light by improving my writting skills. How should I change my writting style to present my ideas and concepts in a more clear fashion. What should I limit to a single paragraph before having to start a new one?



You wrote: I know if the subject is changed you start a new one but there is a fine line to me sometimes, meaning if it qualifies for a new paragraph or if just elaborating on the same subject needs a new one.

You have problems keeping a single concept to a single sentence. Your sentences run on as the topic changes.

I would have written: I know if I change the subject, I should start a new paragraph. I am having problems determining how different the subject must be to start a new paragraph. As long as the subject matter hasn't changed, I do not need to start another paragraph.

(A paragraph has an opening statement, body, and closing statment. The opening sentence the subject. The body of the paragraph gives more detail than would be understandable if you tried to put all the inforation in one sentence. The last line of the paragraph can summarize the paragraph or act a lead in or segway to the next paragraph.

Compare each sentence in your paragraph to the subject sentence. If there is not a strong connection to the subject sentence, it belongs in a new paragraph.)

I would have written:

My writting skills are rusty and I have forgotten some of the basics. If you find any mistakes in my question/composition, please let me know. I would like to see alternative wording as an example.

(There is no guaranttee that my response is free from grammatical errors.)

Answer 3

Sometimes it's appearance as well - a standard paragraph when written in Times New Roman Font that is size twelve, is approximately five to eight lines long. Whilst traditionally the subject being changed indicates the beginning of a new paragraph, this is not always the case in this day and age.

I personally (based upon my experience) prefer to keep the same topic in the same paragraph and only break it up if exceeding eight lines.

As long as you haven't had repitition - ie, using the same form of a word a number of times, or clearly incorrect grammar such as starting sentences with 'And', 'Because' or 'But', or had inappropriate use of nouns - ie not mentioning the proper noun (the person's name) at the start but rather 'She' throughout, you can't go too wrong.

Are you able to include a sample of this 'awful lot of grammatical errors by way of a paragraph that was recently criticised?

The only thing I could find - after much scanning your writing here, was this:
When referring to a noun, don't make more than three references to the noun as being 'that', 'it', he, she etc without naming the object. Also when referring to a noun through a paragraph (and I'm not saying this was your error here), use the noun's proper title (whether it be a name etc) at least once every three references and definitely make sure your first paragraph reference to the noun has the noun's proper title. Think of each paragraph as a mini-essay / story - if the reader doesn't know the name of the character and they start reading, they get confused.

Feel free to run stuff by me via e-mail if you require further feedback.

Sincerely, Meg

Answer 4

Mommy_227 said a lot of very true things. Another thing you could do is have someone proof read it also. Try reading it out loud, when you read things out loud your brain processes things differently; you can see your mistakes a lot better.

I'm not a grammar person as you can tell, but have written enough "bad" papers in my life to get around them lol.