Grammar for Clear Writing
Ditch the guesswork and write with genuine clarity. Learn how sentences actually fit together, how to fix confusing phrasing, and how punctuation controls reader pace.
Like Duolingo, but for Grammar for Clear Writing. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Building a Solid Sentence and Flow and Structure. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Grammar for Clear Writing
- A complete sentence must contain both an actor (subject) and an action or state of being (verb)
- Descriptive phrases and missing-actor clauses sound like thoughts but fail as complete sentences
- Prepositional phrases and descriptive words tucked between a subject and verb do not change the subject's number
- A singular subject ('box') still takes a singular verb ('rests') even when followed by plural nouns ('photographs', 'letters')
- Subjects combined with 'and' combine into a plural team and take a plural verb
- When subjects are linked by 'or' or 'nor', the verb matches whichever subject sits closest to it
- Active sentences place the person or thing doing the action right before the verb
- Leading with the receiver of the action pushes the true actor into the background or drops them entirely
- Readers mentally attach descriptive phrases to whatever noun sits right next to them
- Placing a descriptive phrase next to the wrong noun creates unintended, often comical meanings
- To fix a misplaced modifier, move it adjacent to the specific noun it is supposed to describe
- A pronoun must point directly to one specific noun called its antecedent
- If two people or things fit the same pronoun in a sentence, the reader cannot tell who is acting
- Replacing the pronoun with the person's actual name eliminates the confusion
- Pairing a pronoun with someone else's name tricks the ear into picking the wrong word
- Dropping the other person and saying the sentence with just the pronoun immediately reveals the correct form ('gave the tickets to me')
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Grammar for Clear Writing the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Which of these is a complete sentence rather than just a descriptive phrase?
Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.
Where Grammar for Clear Writing takes you
- 1
Building a Solid Sentence
- The Sentence Engine: Subjects and Verbs
- Directing the Action: Pronouns and Modifiers
- 2
Flow and Structure
- Connecting Thoughts: Clauses and Conjunctions
- Punctuation as Road Signs
2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Grammar for Clear Writing is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Grammar for Clear Writing today.
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