Academic Writing

1 Five areas of difficulty
The main problem areas for international students are shown below.
(a) Nouns should agree with verbs, and pronouns with nouns:
Those problems
are unique
There are many arguments in favour
(b) Uncountable nouns and irregular plurals usually have no final ‘s’:
Most students receive free tuition
The main export is tropical fruit
(c) General statements normally use the plural:
State universities have lower fees
(d) ‘Each’/‘every’ are followed by singular noun and verb forms:
Every student gets financial support
(e) Two linked nouns should agree:
Both the similarities and differences are important
Singular or
Plural?
UNIT
2.12
The choice of singular or plural can be confusing in various situations, such as in
the use of countable and uncountable nouns. This unit illustrates the main areas of
difficulty and provides practice with these.

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Find the mistake in each of the following sentences and decide what type (a–e on

p. 134) it is.
(a) The proposal has both advantages and disadvantage.
(b) A majority of children in Thailand is vaccinated against measles.
(c) There are few young people in rural area.
(d) Many places are experiencing an increase in crimes.
(e) Each companies have their own policies.
2 Group phrases
2.12: Singular or Plural?
135
singular + plural
plural + singular
plural + uncountable
half the universities
two types of institution
three areas of enquiry
a range of businesses
various kinds of course
several fields of research
one of the elements
many varieties of response
different rates of progress
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Study the following ‘group’ phrases.
Note that if a verb has more than one subject it must be plural, even if the preceding noun
is singular:
Scores of students, some teachers and the president are at the meeting
Their valuable suggestions and hard work were vital
Certain ‘group’ nouns (e.g. team/army/government) can be followed by either a singular or
plural verb:
The team was defeated three times last month (collectively)
The team were travelling by train and bus (separately)