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Cream of the Crop 21
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Cream of the Crop 21 (Terry Blount) (October 1996).iso
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PCPROOF.TUT
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1996-06-06
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^2
┌─────────────────┐
│VERB DISAGREEMENT│
└─────────────────┘
To check if the subject and verb agree, make a short sentence that
only contains the main subject and verb of the sentence.
EXAMPLE: "The boat that held the lobsters are coming home."
The main subject is "The boat." The phrase "that held the lobsters"
only helps to describe "the boat" and should be ignored when deciding
subject/verb agreement. The main verb "are coming" comes after the main
subject and any descriptive phrases. The sentence "The boat are coming"
doesn't sound correct because the subject and verb do not agree.
The correct sounding sentence would be "The boat is coming."
CORRECTION: "The boat that held the lobsters IS coming home."
When determining subject/verb agreement, do not be fooled by phrases
such as "that held the lobsters" which only describe the main subject.
The main subject is not always the noun which is next to the main verb.
^3
┌──────────────────┐
│UNUSUAL WORD USAGE│
└──────────────────┘
This message covers a variety of common errors. These errors include:
(1) Accidentally leaving out a word
EXAMPLE: "A teacher tried [] teach a difficult class."
(2) Putting in an extra word
EXAMPLE: "The [those] cars are good."
(3) Misspelling a word into another word
EXAMPLE: "I put the car [it] the garage." (should be "in" instead of "it")
Since the program usually cannot pinpoint which type of problem has
occurred, you should carefully proofread the sentence word-by-word. You
should pay special attention to the words highlighted in the error
message. However, the mistake can be located anywhere before the
highlighted words.
You may also get this message if your sentence is difficult to understand
or if the sentence is poorly punctuated. Check if you need to set off
any phrases with commas. If you cannot find any mistakes in the sentence
after proofreading it, you can ignore this message.
^4
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│PRONOUN USAGE - AFTER THE VERB│
└──────────────────────────────┘
Examine the highlighted pronoun to make sure that you are using the
appropriate form of the pronoun. Pronouns usually come in two forms.
One kind is used before the main verb (subjective) and the other kind is
used after the main verb (objective). Examples of subjective/objective
pairs include "I" and "me", "he" and "him", "we" and "us", and "they"
and "them". If the highlighted pronoun is the object of a verb, then
you should change the pronoun to its objective form. ║
EXAMPLE: "I wanted to help Larry and he."
To check if the pronoun is used correctly, make a sentence which only
contains the pronoun in question. The sentence, "I wanted to help
he." doesn't sound correct because "he" is a subjective pronoun which
cannot be used after the verb. The objective form of "he" is the word
"him".
CORRECTION: "I wanted to help Larry and him."
^5
┌─────────────────────────┐
│USING REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS │
└─────────────────────────┘
Check if the highlighted pronoun needs to be replaced by a reflexive
pronoun such as "myself", "himself" or "yourself".
If a sentence contains two pronouns and they both refer to the same person,
then the second pronoun must be in a reflexive form.
EXAMPLE: "I like me."
The pronouns "I" and "me" both refer to the same person. Therefore, the
second pronoun "me" should be in the reflexive form.
CORRECTION: "I like myself."
^6
┌───────────────────────────┐
│REFLEXIVE PRONOUN AGREEMENT│
└───────────────────────────┘
Check if the highlighted reflexive pronoun refers to the same person
mentioned earlier in the sentence.
If you use a reflexive pronoun such as "himself", "yourself", or "myself",
it must agree with the pronoun it refers to earlier in the sentence.
EXAMPLE: "I would like to find himself."
The reflexive pronoun "himself" does not agree with the pronoun "I".
These pronouns refer to different people. To correct this sentence,
one of the pronouns would need to be changed to match the other.
CORRECTION: "I would like to find myself."
or ...
"He would like to find himself."
^7
┌───────────────────────────────┐
│PRONOUN USAGE - BEFORE THE VERB│
└───────────────────────────────┘
Examine the highlighted pronoun to make sure that you are using the
appropriate form of the pronoun. Pronouns usually come in two forms.
One kind is used before the main verb (subjective) and the other kind is
used after the main verb (objective). Examples of subjective/objective
pairs include "I" and "me", "he" and "him", "we" and "us", and "they"
and "them".
If the highlighted pronoun is the subject of a sentence, or a phrase
then you should change the pronoun to its subjective form.
EXAMPLE: "I know that them are good."
Although the word "them" is not at the beginning of the sentence, it
is the subject of the phrase "them are good." Starting a sentence
with the word "them" is incorrect because this word is in the objective
form.
CORRECTION: "I know that they are good."
^9
┌─────────────────────┐
│ MISSING PUNCTUATION │
└─────────────────────┘
Every sentence must end with a punctuation mark. The most common marks
are the period (.), the question (?), and the exclamation (!). Check
if you need to add a punctuation mark to the end of your sentence. Also
check if your sentence is broken into two sections. There should never
be a blank line in the middle of a sentence.
EXAMPLE: "This is an example of
a sentence that is broken into sections."
This example shows that there is a blank line in the middle of the
sentence. This blank line should be removed.
^11
┌───────────────────┐
│PLURAL NOUN PHRASES│
└───────────────────┘
Check if there are any words in the sentence which would imply that the
highlighted noun must be plural.
Certain words such as "several" and "many" imply that there are several
objects involved. When you create a noun phrase which uses one of these
words, all the nouns must be in a plural form.
EXAMPLE: "John found several problem with the car."
The word "several" does not agree with the singular noun "problem."
The word "problem" should be replaced by the word "problems" which is
plural. Plural noun phrases can also be required after sentences which
use the word "there."
EXAMPLE: "There are the car."
The verb "are" implies a plural number of objects. This disagrees with
the singular noun phrase "the car." It should be changed to "the cars."
^13
┌──────────────────────────┐
│USING CONJUNCTIONS - NOUNS│
└──────────────────────────┘
^14
┌───────────────────────┐
│DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND│
└───────────────────────┘
This message means that the program was unable to find a specific
problem in the sentence. However, you should carefully proofread
the sentence since the sentence could not be fully processed.
You should check for extra, missing, or misused words. Carefully check
for an error near the highlighted word. However, the error could be
located anywhere in the sentence.
You may also get this message if your sentence is difficult to understand
or if the sentence is poorly punctuated. Check if you need to set off
any phrases with commas. If you cannot find any mistakes in the sentence
after proofreading it, you can ignore this message.
^16
┌─────────────────────┐
│SINGULAR NOUN PHRASES│
└─────────────────────┘
Check if there are any words in the sentence which would imply that the
highlighted noun must be singular.
Certain words such as "a" and "one" imply that there is only one
object involved. When you create a noun phrase which uses one of these
words, all the nouns must be in a singular form.
EXAMPLE: "John found a proble