Tutorial
Section 1: Grammar
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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 sentences incorrectly joined). A third common error of grammar is faulty parallelism, which often occurs with items in a list. 
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 struggled with faulty parallelism, view Film 3.

Film 3: Maintaining parallelism.
If you struggled with misplaced modifiers, view Film 4.

Film 4: Avoiding misplaced modifiers.
Congratulations on finishing the grammar section.
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.
Acknowledgments

This self-study guide was made possible by funds provided by the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education in the College of Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. Providing technical assistance on the films is the Office of Digital Learning, which is also in the College of Engineering at Penn State. 
Role
Name
Department
Institution
Faculty Editor
Professor Michael Alley
College of Engineering
Penn State
Film Editor
Casey Fenton
Office of Digital Learning
Penn State
Film Editor
Elaine Whitmer
Office of Digital Learning
Penn State
Student Editor, 2022
Olivia Brencovich
Mechanical Engineering
Penn State
Website Editor, 2022
Marissa Beighley
Computer Science
Penn State
​References
  1. Peg Tyre, "The Writing Revolution," The Atlantic Monthly (October 2012), pp. 99-100.
  2. Catherine Walker, "Time to Stop Avoiding Grammar Rules," The Guardian (September 2012).
  3. Tessa Schlesinger, "Why Grammar Matters," Owlcation (7 September 2017). 
  4. Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Writing, 4th ed. (New York: Springer, 2018), Appendices A, B, and C.
  5. Cheryl Glenn and Loretta Gray, The Writer's Harbrace Handbook, 5th ed. (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2012).
  6. William A. Sabin, The Gregg Reference Manual: A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting, 11th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010).
  7. Theodore Bernstein, The Careful Writer, 2nd ed. (New York: Free Press, 1995).
Please feel free to provide comments, questions, and suggestions for the films, text, and quizzes of this website. To help us understand your feedback, please let us know whether you are a student or faculty member (or other professional).