This week, I enjoyed reading about parallel structure. I am usually pretty good about using parallel structure, but it was nice having a refresher. When constructing a sentence, it's important to keep a series of items balanced and not mix up verbals. It's also vital not to change voice or verb tenses in the middle of a sentence.
One of my biggest grammar pet peeves is changing tenses mid-sentence. For example, if your first verb ends in -ing, stay consistent with the -ing tense throughout the sentence. When you shift from past tense to present tense to future tense within one thought, the message of the sentence becomes unclear.
One point I had never thought of before was changing voice. Changing voice means you switch from passive voice to active voice. We all know using active voice is better, but if you must use passive, make sure to stay passive throughout the sentence. If your writing isn't consistent, it confuses the reader.
The editing mistake I found this week was actually in a text. One of the reporters who writes stories for my show wrote, "Whose anchoring the show today?" Granted it's only a text message, but it is still poor grammar. The word whose is in the possessive form. In the sentence he texted me, he should have used the word who's indicating the contraction who is.
That's all I have to say this week. Good luck on the test everybody!
Good catch on the whose and who's.
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