Teachers' Study Shows Subject-Verb Agreement Most Frequent Problem

by Larry Bailis, Carol Kreitchet, Carol La Belle

For a number of people in our profession, error (grammatical and mechanical correctness)... is a volatile issue. Some of us declare that the correction of error is the role of the composition teacher while others refuse to count themselves as agents of the "gramar gestapo" and "punctuation police." In any case, the frequency and type of error that occur in students' writing often determine whether or not they are definec as "basic writers." (Cherenka 5)

As English teachers, we assume students entering college commit certain types of writing errors. However, an instructor's expectations may not reflect the frequency of grammatical errors which occur in a classroom. Since the 1970's, research has claimed that formal classroom instruction in grammar has no impact on student writing improvement, and discussions about how to help students solve grammar problems have all but disappeared from the professional literature and the programs at the NCTE and CCCC conferences. Indeed, "The error analysis of basic writers has received sporadic attention since the appearance of the Journal of Basic Writing in 1975." (Robinson 52).

Several years ago, to find out more about the nature of student writing error, we conducted a pilot study of 25 writing placement papers randomly selected from newly admitted students at Community College of Philadelphia. Errors were identified and categorized using the organizational chart of the Harbrace College Skills Handbook (11th edition), and then each paper was evaluated for form and content: thesis, topic sentences, support, coherence, and logic. The errors in form and content were of the type commonly used to characterize a beginning writer's paper. The grammar problems we thought would be the most common among beginning writers were not.

An error which we expected to find with a greater frequency was subject-verb agreement. Many composition instructors believe that students often make subject-verb errors in their writing, and therefore, plan time in their syllabus to teach students how to correct these errors. Since the sample used for the pilot project was based on twenty-five papers, we decided to examine the nature of subject-verb errors using a larger sample of placement papers. We wanted to find out how prevalent subject-verb errors were in our students' writing, the placement level of students who made them, and the category of subject-verb error they made.

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of subject-verb errors made by students placed in developmental writing courses and students placed in college-level writing courses and the types of subject-verb errors each group made.

Procedure

One hundred eighteen writing placement papers were randomly selected. Each paper was read and marked for subject-verb errors. An error was identified when all members of the group agreed that it was, in fact, a subject-verb error. The errors were classified by using the categories of subject-verb error in the Harbrace College Skills Handbook (13th edition) (Chart 1).

Results

Students who scored on their writing placement tests at the developmental level made significantly more subject-verb errors than students who scored at the college level (Chart 2,). Further, the most common type of error, 7A, verbs not agreeing with their subject, which was exclusive from all other types of subject-verb error, accounted for more than fifty per cent of all subject-verb errors (Chart 3).

It was also found that thirty per cent of all papers contained at least one subject-verb error. Seventy-eight per cent of papers with a subject-verb agreement error had only that error.

Summary

Subject-verb agreement is considered a common error. However, not all students need instruction on all types of subject-verb agreement errors. Students who score nine or less on their writing placement test commit more subject-verb agreement errors than students who score above that level. The most frequent type of error is the general category of a verb not agreeing with its subject.

References

Bailis, Larry, Carol Kreitchet, and Carol La Belle. "Assessing Student Writing Errors." Northeast Conference, National Conference of Teachers of English, Hartford. 1994.

Cherenka, Lynn. "Error and the Basic Writer: Priority and Pedagogy." Perspectives and Practice in Developmental Education. New York: New York College Learning Skills Association, 1992. 5-6.

Hodges, John C., et al. 13th ed. Harbrace College Handbook. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998.

Robinson, William S. "Towards a Theory of Error." Teaching English in the Two-Year College. Vol. 26, No.1 (1998): 50-59.n

Chart 1

The number of papers examined totalled 118; 46 were found to have subject-verb errors.

Chart 3