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Course writing is a task of responsibility, as the content often reaches a large audience and affects their learning process. While the course topic is of utmost importance, it is also imperative to concentrate on the language, so that your readability and credibility aren’t affected.

To embark on the journey towards perfect course writing, you will first need to recognize the common errors that people make and make sure you avoid those in your course material.

The error areas we will discuss here are:

  • Subject-Verb Agreement
  • Inconsistent Tenses and Pronouns
  • Verbose Sentences
  • Prepositions and Conjunctions
  • And finally, Contractions and Abbreviations

Let’s start with Subject-Verb Agreement.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Many questions may arise in your mind regarding subject-verb agreement errors.

  • Which subject should the verb agree to?
  • Does the sentence sound accurate?
  • Which subject should the verb agree to?

To ensure you don’t make errors in this respect, you have to take care of the following:

  • Finding the correct subject
  • Determining whether it is singular or plural
  • And then reading the sentence again.

Now, let’s discuss a couple of examples.

Look at this sentence.

Meeting new clients is a major part of your job description.

Here, the subject is “meeting new clients”, which is a singular task.

So, the verb will be singular, hence we use “is” instead of “are”.

The second sentence reads:

The data has to be restored and copied to the right location.

Here, the subject “data” is considered a singular mass noun.

So, the accurate verb is “has” instead of “have”.

These kinds of subject-verb errors are very common while writing courses.

Inconsistent Tenses and Pronouns

To avoid inconsistencies in tenses, you should adhere to the following:

  • Choose one tense for the whole content, preferably present tense. Note that present tense is the best choice while writing learning material.
  • Second, mix tenses only when they’re contextually correct. For instance, you can use past tense when talking about an earlier task or a previous software update.
  • And finally, make sure the tenses support the content flow. The sequence of events and the writer’s intent should come through clearly.

Now, let’s discuss one example.

In this sentence, “After I have my breakfast, I had to attend a meeting.” the use of both past and present tenses creates confusion.

You will need to determine whether the sentence talks about a regular action or a past event.

There can be two correct choices here:

After I have my breakfast, I have to attend a meeting.

OR

After I had my breakfast, I had to attend a meeting.

You should choose the correct option depending on the writer’s meaning and context.

Next, we come to Inconsistent pronouns.

Some guidelines to keep away from pronoun errors are:

  • First, choose singular or plural pronoun, depending on whether you are addressing a single user or a group in the audience.
  • Next, stick to gender neutral terms.
  • Avoid using “he” or “she” to specifically denote user roles, as that can be considered gender-bias.
  • Your best option is to use “they” as a singular pronoun.

Look at this example for a clearer understanding.

The incorrect statement says, “The advantage for a Manager is that he doesn’t require special access permissions.”

Here, we have used “he” as a pronoun for the manager, which should be avoided.

Instead, write the sentence using “they”, for example: “The advantage for a Manager is that they don’t require special access permissions.”

Now, let’s look at another example.

The sentence says, “The objects cannot be copied; it requires special permissions.” Although we are talking about objects, which is a plural noun, the pronoun used here is singular.

The correct sentence should be “The objects cannot be copied; they require special permissions.”

We hope this helps you in avoiding pronoun errors.

Verbose Sentences

To avoid verbose sentences in your content, you need to keep three things in mind:

  • Deliver crisp and concise information.
  • Use simple words and avoid jargons.
  • And finally, try your best to reduce redundancy.

Here are some examples of verbose sentences, and how to make them concise.

The first sentence reads, “The article you wrote cannot be understood by anyone.”

We can rephrase it as, “Your article is incomprehensible.”

The second sentence reads, “What is the option that you will choose to restore default settings in the application?”

This can be made concise by rephrasing it as, “Which option restores default settings in the application?”

Please note that these edits are highly subjective, and different writers or editors may choose to frame the sentences differently to reduce redundancy.

Prepositions and Conjunctions

The fourth topic we will discuss is Prepositions and Conjunctions.

For prepositions,

You should use grammatically correct ones, depending on the subject.

Often, more than one preposition may seem correct in a sentence. In that case, refer to your style guide for rules regarding specific prepositions and their usage.

For conjunctions,

You should note that they establish the relationship between phrases and sentences. So, they are necessary to maintain content flow.

However, using conjunctions in every sentence decreases readability. So, use them wisely.

Now, let’s discuss two examples for prepositions.

The first sentence can be written as, “Read the text on the page.” or “Read the text in the page.”

Similarly, the second sentence can be written as “Click on the Edit icon.” or “Click the Edit icon.”

In situations like these, when both the options seem correct, refer to the style guide for clarity.

Now that you have an idea about preposition and conjunction errors, let’s move on to our last topic.

Contractions and Abbreviations

Let’s understand contraction errors with examples.

Look at this sentence.

It’s a cost-effective plan.

Here, “it’s” is a contraction of “it is”, hence we use the apostrophe.

The second sentence says, “The AI can regulate its memory.”

Here, “its” refers to the possessive form of the pronoun “it”, so we will not use an apostrophe.

These are the kind of contraction errors you should avoid.

Now, we come to abbreviations since they are necessary in any technical content.

While using abbreviations, make sure you:

  • Mention and explain the full form in the first occurrence
  • Ensure readers have context of the term and its usage
  • And, standardize the use of articles before them. For example, SQL is pronounced “sequel” and hence we write it as a SQL, not an SQL.

You must determine whether to consistently use “a” or “an”, based on the sound of the abbreviation or the expanded form of the words that the abbreviation represents. This is a point of contention among grammar enthusiasts. So, there is no absolute right or wrong. You are recommended to stick to one standard and be consistent with it.

 

We hope these tips help you make more effective courses. To learn more about Instructional Design, do check out our course, A Practical Approach to Instructional Design on Udemy.

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