As you probably know already, a lot is at stake when a professional composes formal documents such as grant applications, project proposals, formal reports, and cover letters.  Hiring managers will throw out an entire application from an applicant if they see a single punctuation error. Potential clients may think you aren’t very professional if you keep making the same grammatical errors over and over again. Therefore, it is important to learn a few skills that will help you to identify recurring writing errors in your work.  Even experts in the field make mistakes, but Writing Studies scholars have demonstrated that self-awareness can be developed in order to improve our technical writing.

We cannot overemphasize the importance of correct grammar, consistent use of either Canadian or American spelling in your written assignments, and proper citation of sources.  Your ability to write well not only demonstrates your professionalism, but also establishes your writerly ethos, which demonstrates your credibility on the page.

The following chapters will be a little different from the rest in our textbook. In the next few chapters, you will explore and reflect on common writing problems as they apply to you. Citation is certainly an important part of this process, but we will discuss that later in a future chapter.

We will start by providing an overview of sentence structure, and then you will have a chance to review a writing issue that is relevant to you.