Top10EnglishGrammarMythsandSuperstitionsinEssayWritingbyGoodEnglishEssays

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GoodEnglishEssays

TherearesomemythsinEnglishgrammarthatpeoplecontinuetobelieveandpractiseintheiressaywriting.ItisadismalsituationthatmostEnglishuserslearnthese

Englishgrammarmyths

fromtheirteacherswhodonotbothertoupdatethemselveswiththeevolutioninEnglish.

Neversplitinfinitives

“Topubliclycritiquesomeoneyourespect”isconsideredagrammaticalerrorinthepastbecauseanadverb‘publicly’isplacedbetween‘to’andtheverb.Someprofessionalsmaystillavoidit,butmanypublicationsregarditasacceptable.2.

Neverusecontractionsinessaywriting

SomeEnglishusersbelievethatcontractionsshouldneverbeusedinessaywriting.Theybelievethatcontractionslikewon’t,can’t,shouldn’tetcshouldonlybeusedinspokenEnglish.Thisisnolongertrueasmoreandmorenewspapersandpublicationsareusingcontractionsinthewriting.3.

Neverbeginasentencewith‘and’,‘but’or‘because’(conjunctions)

 AsEnglishevolves,thisisnolongertrue.Itisnowacceptabletobeginasentencewith‘and’,‘but’or‘because’.PeoplepromotingthismythareeithernotreadingnewspapersordonotcaretolearnproperEnglish.4.

Neverbegintheessaytitlewithprepositions

Ithasbecomeawritingstyleforessaywritingtobeentitledusingprepositionslike‘of’or‘on’.ExamplesofessaytitlesthatIcameacrossjustnowwere-OfProfessionalsandDegrees-OnKolejUniversitiTeknikalKebangsaanMalaysia(KUTKM)5.

Neverusefirst-personpronounsinacademicwriting

Thereisasuperstitiousnotionthatsaysneverusefirst-personpronounslike‘I’

and‘we’inessaywritingbecausedoingsowillmakeyouressaywritingtolookunprofessional.Contrarytothenotion,Englishwritersareencouragedtousefirst-personpronounstodrawreaders’attentionandtoputsomelifeintoyourwriting.Corporatelettersshoulduse‘I’topersonalisetheletterandacceptresponsibility.

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Top10EnglishGrammarMythsandSuperstitionsinEssayWriting

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Neverreferthereadersas‘you’

Copywriterswillfindthismythveryfunny.Pleasetakenotethatyoucanactuallyreferthereadersas‘you’or‘we’toincludeyourselves.However,youshouldbeconsistentinusingeither‘you’or‘we’throughoutyouressaywriting.7.

Neveruse‘between’withmorethantwoobjects

ThisisapopularmisconceptionamongEnglishbeginnerusers.Whileitistruethatweuse‘between’whencomparingtwoobjects,itiscorrecttouse‘between’whenmorethantwopeopleorobjectsareinvolved.ExamplestakenfromLongmanDictionaryofContemporaryEnglish(LDOCE):

Comparingtwothings:

InherbookshemakesacomparisonbetweenRussianandBritishballet.

Morethantwopeopleorobjects:

-Tomdividedhismoneybetweenhischildren.-Betweenthefourofthemtheymanagedtoliftherintotheambulance.-Wecollected£17betweenus.8.

Neveruse‘since’asbecause

There’sagroundlessnotionthat‘since’isonlyusedtomeanfromaparticulartimeoreventinthepastuntilthepresent,orinthatperiodoftime.‘Since’canactuallybeusedtogivethereasonforsomething.Thefollowingsentencetakenfromdictionaryisgrammaticallycorrect.-Sinceyouareunabletoanswer,perhapsweshouldasksomeoneelse.