24 rules of English grammarThe rock-bottom basics for writers

The number of rules of English grammar and other writing topics governing correctness is far more than we can teach students before high school graduation.

Unless we define which rules we mean when we tell students to use "good English," we're setting ourselves and our students up for failure.

Before employers or colleges consider them competent writers students have to know and use 24 rules in their writing. They are not all actually rules of English grammar. Some are actually rules for correct spelling and correct punctuation.

Below, broken down into three categories of writing mechanics, is a list of 24 essential practices students must routinely follow in their written work. They incorporate a beginning writers' list of essential rules of English grammar.

7 essentials of correct spelling

1. Start sentences with capital letters.

2. Capitalize the first letters of proper nouns.

3. Don't use texting abbreviations (like u r instead of you are) unless you are sending a cell phone text message to a close friend or family member.

4. The sure way to get a reputation for bad spelling is to confuse homonyms such as its/its or their/their/they're. Identify homonyms you misuse. Learn to correct your writing to eliminate those errors.

5. Learn to spell correctly the words you use regularly, whether they are one-syllable words or long, technical terms.

6. Don't capitalize common nouns.

7. Don't use abbreviations without first writing the term out in full unless the abbreviation is listed in general dictionaries.

11 essentials of correct grammar

1. Write in full sentences. Don't write sentence fragments or fuse two sentences without using a conjunction or punctuation.

2. Make subjects agree with their verbs.

3. Make pronouns agree with their antecedents.

4. Make pronouns refer to the last previously mentioned noun of the same person and number.

5. Be sure a modifier refers to something within its sentence.

6. Make modifiers cuddle up to the words they modify.

7. Keep your verbs in the same time (tense) unless the time frame you are discussing changes.

8. Maintain a single pronoun perspective. Don't, for example, refer to singular subjects with plural pronouns.

9. Identify the verb endings that you use regularly and get wrong. Memorize the correct endings. Keep a good reference handy for the verbs you don't use regularly but get wrong.

10. Set your grammar check to search for the errors you make; then use grammar check on all your writing.

11. Write shorter sentences for clarity, especially when using electronic communications.

6 essentials of correct punctuation

1. Punctuate according to the grammar of the sentence, not by the sound of the sentence.

2. Commas are separators. Don't join two sentences (main clauses) with commas.

3. Put a comma before a conjunction that joins the sentences in a compound sentence,

4. Put a comma after an introductory element in a sentence to separate it from the sentence.

5. Set off restrictive elements — those not essential to the meaning of the sentence— with commas.

6. Put closing punctuation at the ends of sentences.

Good English usage is idiomatic

I deliberately omitted correct usage from the list of English grammar rules. What is good usage depends largely on the situation. Usage is idiomatic, not rule driven. People learn it hearing and reading rather than by studying rules.

A student with poor usage needs to hear native speakers, read widely, and consult a dictionary or reference guide to idioms when in doubt as the meaning of a word or phrase.

Regularly applying these 24 rules of English grammar, punctuation, and spelling is adequate to give most writers a reputation for using good English.

Let writing status guide grammar

If you define precisely what beginning writing students must learn, you need not spend much more time getting students to write with competent grammar than you used to spend achieving incompetence.

If a learner is learning to write, but not yet competent as a writer, do only just-in-time grammar teaching to allow the student to focus on writing. Save formal grammar

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Guidance for DIY grammar study for students

The procedures for teaching rules of English grammar that I describe in these web pages are the procedures I use in classes I teach.

My students asked for help to keep on developing their ability to correct their own grammar errors after our course together ended. The material I wrote for those students is now available to others an e-book: Grammar Abusers Anonymous. The book guides mature high school, college and adult students in learning how to study grammar using their own error-riddled writing as practice exercises.