Identification of Common Grammatical Mistakes

The three different types common grammar mistakes I would frequently make would primarily be that of sentence fragments, pronoun reference and subject verb agreement. For this entry, I’ll explain how the grammatical structure should be used correctly and show some examples of the mistakes and correct version.

Sentence fragments are basically incomplete sentences. To have a complete sentence, it needs a subject in each independent and dependent clause. We would be able to correct the sentences by either removing or adding punctuations to link the sentence correctly. Some sentences are also written as main clauses but lack a subject or main verb. Some examples are:

1a) He fell down. As he was running down the stairs. [Wrong]

(b) He fell down as he was running down the stairs. [Correct]

2a) His room in a mess. [Wrong]

(b) His room was in a mess. [Correct]

Pronoun reference usually refers to a noun phrase or another pronoun(called the antecedent) and should come before the pronoun. When there is more than one pronoun in the sentence, we have to ensure the pronoun refers to only one of them. The pronoun should refer to a specific antecedent rather than an implicit antecedent. The reader will have to guess or read through a few times before he/she can identify if the sentence’s meaning. Some examples are:

1a) Bring the speaker to the shop to fix it.

(b) Bring the speaker to the shop to fix the speaker.

2a) Although the ice cream container was empty, we were tired of eating it.

(b) Although the ice cream container was empty, we were tired of eating the ice cream.

For subject verb agreement as the name implies, we have to match the subject and verb correctly. For a singular subject, we have to match it with a singular verb form and for a plural subject, we have to have plural verb form with it. Some sentences might be unclear and the trick is to locate the subject closest to the verb and choose the correct word for it. Examples or subject verb agreements are:

1a) The books lying on his desk is messy. [Wrong]

(b) The books lying on his desk are messy. [Correct]

2a) Each of the boys are taking his lunch now. [Wrong]

(b) Each of the children is taking his lunch now. [Correct]

These are the common grammatical mistakes I commonly face. I shall be more careful in future whenever I write any sentences and from the English lessons attended so far, I would be able to spot more of such common errors made from the various grammar lessons taught in the past weeks.

RoundTable Discussion Summary

The first group mentioned biofuels as an alternative source for petroleum is by far not a new subject. Many countries such as USA and China have tried for biofuels and although the technology sounds promising, there are many disadvantages regarding the technology. The group discussed the pros and cons and some advantages biofuels have is that it can replace the need for petroleum and reduce air pollution. It also creates job for people as there have to be more farming sites catered for cultivation of the crops. However, the cons is that such technology still requires a very large area of land for cultivation and biofuels absorb more energy than they produce. The large amount of fertilizer, pesticides can pollute soils and might create algae bloom that can suffocate fishes in rivers. Many also feel that the large amount of crops grown for biofuels should instead feed the hungry in many third world countries.

The second group mentioned Green chemistry, such as converting waste products into less harmful substances and recycling them into useful things again is what the group discussed. They mentioned the idea of melting and converting used plastic bottles into a strong carbon microsphere that is even harder than diamond and such technology could replace the high cost of using expensive diamond for cutting purposes. There would also not be any harmful by products produced which helps save the environment from future harm. Recently, there have been many events happening around the Earth that have been triggered due to global warming. Green chemistry although expensive, should be researched even more so that more can be done to reduce pollution and waste products.

The last group mentioned low-pressure carbon filter process technology. The main idea is that this technology extracts most of the useful carbon dioxide produced by factories or heavy industries and recycles them for use in enhancing oil and methane recovery. Although such technology is good for the environment as it greatly reduces carbon dioxide emissions, we have to question the safety of building such plants and would the large amount of carbon dioxide emitted by factories everyday be 100% used up by enhancing oil and methane as not many countries around the world has oil refining facilities. Thus, not all countries would be able to implement such technology and it will defeat the purpose of building so many of such plants. Other questions we can ask it how they are going to link the pipes connecting the waste carbon dioxide to the plant and useful carbon dioxide to the refining factories. Long pipes might leak and the cost of implementation might not be feasible.

Microchips for Humans

In the article “Humans will be implanted with microchips”, the author quoted from a prominent academic as saying that all Australians could be implanted with microchips for tracking and identification in future. We know that microchips are commonly implanted into animals which can reveal their identification details such as their owner, age and any medical conditions. A US company VeriChip is already using such microchips on humans for medical purposes which focus on high-risk patients.

The article tells us that such microchips that are implanted in humans could allow that person to be located in an emergency or identification of corpses after a large scale disaster or terrorist attack where the corpse of the person might be unidentifiable. Microchip implants might also eliminate the need for passports and identification cards.

Some argue against the implantations of microchips as they feel it is equivalent to the loss of human rights as your personal privacy and data can be accessed easily.

In the second article “Microchip for people may cause cancer”, we see the manufacturer assuring FDA about the safety of their microchips and the benefits it would provide. However, we see that the manufacturer didn’t mention about the research findings that micro chipping in laboratory rats and mice causes malignant tumours in them.

To date, about 2000 RFID devices have been implanted in humans worldwide according to VeriChip Corp. and the company states that they were not aware of any studies that have resulted in malignant tumours in laboratory rats and mice. There was also no mention of the findings on animal tumours by the American Medical Association which only touted on the benefits of implantable RFID devices. There were studies in different countries which showed cancerous cells that developed as a result of implanting microchips in laboratory rats and mice such as France and Germany although it affected only a very small percentage of the rodents.

This percentage, even how insignificant is already a cause for alarm for most people and even cancer specialists are wary of implanting microchips in humans until such technology is proven to be very safe. Others are less concerned and felt rats and mice are different from humans and they were felt the experiments were not conducted in a large enough scale or didn’t comprise other animals. A veterinarian at Ohio State University, Dr. Cheryl London even noted that ten of thousands of dogs have been chipped and there haven’t been any reported outbreaks of such cancer or tumours in the place where the dogs have been chipped.

As the microchip is implanted in patients, hospital staffs are able to go to the internet and access a patient’s medical profile which is maintained in a database by VeriChip Corp. However, the risk patients must take includes microchips migrating around the body, difficulty of extraction, risk of interference with defibrillators and incompatibility with MRI scans.

From the above two articles, we see the several advantages microchips have and what are the disadvantages and cause of concern with implanting microchips in humans. Implanting such chips might really one day eliminate the hassle of carrying identification cards, passports and medical reports and the convenience and possibilities of such technology is encouraging as it also saves plenty of time. However, the ethical problems such as loss of human rights and privacy and most importantly the safety of such technology must first be overcome before such technology will be accepted by everyone.

References

McGrath. J, How Pet Microchipping Works. February 28, 2009, http://animals.howstuffworks.com/pets/pet-travel/pet-microchip.htm

MSNBC, The Associated Press, Microchips for people may cause cancer. February 28, 2009, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20643620/

Transponder - A radio or radar transmitter-receiver activated for transmission by reception of a predetermined signal.

Encapsulated - To encase in or as if in a capsule.

Literature - the writings dealing with a particular subject

Subcutaneous - situated or lying under the skin, as tissue.

Malignant - very dangerous or harmful in influence or effect.