With exam season upon us, it is good to keep in mind a few minor rules and procedural issues that come up with writing essays. Here are a few common mistakes I have been seeing while proofreading and editing papers:
(1) Subject-verb agreement and quantitative words.
There are two basic rules for this. Generally, singular subjects get singular verbs, and plural subjects get plural verbs. Seems simple enough, right? Well, unfortunately the english language loves anarchy, and so there are exceptions to every rule. Here we see some misleading words like:
News, economics, information, advice.
(A) You would not say, “The news are good.” Despite the ‘s’ ending, ‘news’ is treated as a singular word. Ergo, “The news is good” (unless the news is bad).
(B) Economics is a field of study, and something that is written about in newspapers. Again, even though economics ends in ‘s’, it is treated as a singular word.
(C) While ‘information’ can (and usually does) refer to a plural amount of data, it is treated as a singular word. E.g., “The information was helpful.” You would not say, “The information were helpful,” nor would you say, “The informations were helpful.” ‘Information’ stays ‘information’.
(D) ‘Advice’ follows the same path as ‘information’. It can refer to a plural set, but is used as a singular subject, and never changes form. (You do not say “advices” or “the advice are.”)