A LITTLE GRAMMAR, A LITTLE PUNCTUATION
Some grammatical mistakes appear in writing every day. Newspapers reporters and editors are rushed, so mistakes slip into print. And some people get in a hurry or have forgotten what they learned in school, and make errors. The following are some of the most common mistakes in usage along with guidelines that I’ve collected. Hopefully, they’ll be useful to some of you.
Excess phrases
Recently, I’ve been writing about using excess words in writing. The column on the left holds commonly-used phrases that contain unneeded words; the one on the right has the shorter and simpler choice to avoid excess words and make your writing clearer:
I am of the opinion --- I believe
as a result of --- because
at the present time --- now
before long --- soon
due to the fact that --- due to or since
for the amount of --- for
inasmuch as --- since
in connection with --- with
in lieu of --- instead
in order to --- to
in regard to --- about
insofar as --- because, since, as
in this day and age --- today
in view of the fact that --- since
prior to --- before
with the exception of --- except
Some excess words that are often used appear below:
Where are you going to? Should be: Where are you going?
What is the reason for your absence? Should be: Why were you absent?
That is a word that can be eliminated in some instances.
Omit that when a dependent clause follows immediately, as in “His secretary said he had left for the day.”
Use that when a time element occurs between the verb and the dependent clause: “His secretary said earlier that he had left for the day.”
There are more rules referring to using or eliminating the word that, but uses are not as prevalent as those listed above. If you are in doubt about whether to include that or not, it’s best to include it.
Problem words that are easily confused when we’re not focusing on what we’re doing.
their - possessive form of they. It means belonging to them.
they’re - contraction of they are.
there - in that place.
example: “They’re in there, but their kids are in the car.”
its - possessive pronoun: The dog eats its food before going outdoors.
it’s - contraction of it is: It’s time for the dog to eat.
example: It’s going outdoors after it eats its food.
accept - to receive something: I accept your offer for a ride.
except - to exclude something: The entire gang is going, except for Ann.
affect - a verb, means to influence: How did the news affect you?
effect - a verb, means to cause: What effect did the news have on you?
Effect can also be used as a noun, which means result, as in:
The news had little effect.
The choice of words:
A is used before a word starting with a consonant sound.
An is used before a vowel or a vowel sound.
That’s why an is used before RV, as weird as that may seem, because the letter ‘R’ is pronounced like the word ‘are,’ a vowel sound.
‘A’ is used before trailer or motorhome, words starting with a consonant sound.
Less/fewer: Generally, less is used for quantity and fewer for number.
The bucket holds less than a gallon. The bucket holds fewer than 20 pears.
That/which/who/whom: Use that and which when referring to inanimate objects and a person or animal without a name. Use who/whom when referring to a person or animal with a name.
Between/among: Between is used when referring to two items or people. Among is used when referring to a group of items or people.
The final choice for winner was between Ann and Jim.
The winner was chosen from among all of the students.
Keep writing simple
Remember, writing is for readers, not the writer. Make it simple, make it clear, and avoid wordiness and pompousness. If you want to get something published, you cannot write to prove how well educated you are. Know your audience! You must write so your reader can understand it without having to grab a dictionary to decipher what you’ve written. Write like you talk. If you’ve used a long word, see if you can’t find a shorter one, or even two short words to take its place. Use your thesaurus!
If you think that you can’t possibly write simply (at the seventh or eighth grade level) consider that the Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is written at the 5th grade reading level. Many award-winning novels have been written for the average reader, which is about the 7th grade level. Today’s best-selling non-fiction writers write for the basic reader because they realize they want a quick read that is easy to understand.
Avoid long paragraphs and sentences. Long blocks of type are boring, and long sentences can become too complex for some readers to understand easily. Readers may have to read it twice to understand what you’ve said, and you might lose them at that point. If you regularly create forty word sentences, reword them or use two sentences in their place.
Avoid using the passive voice. For instance, write: John washed the car. Avoid: The car was washed by John. Active verbs are always more interesting than passive.
Punctuation and quotation marks
Commas and periods always go inside quotation marks.
Colons and semi-colons always go outside quotation marks.
Question marks and exclamation marks go where they make sense. For instance:
Put them outside the quotation mark if they punctuate the sentence that contains the quotation.
Put them inside the quotation mark if they punctuate the quotation, only.
If you are writing a quotation that is more than one paragraph long, don’t use closing quotation marks at the end of each paragraph. Instead, start each paragraph with a quotation mark and use a closing quotation mark only at the end of the final quoted sentence.
If you use a quote inside a quote, set off the inside quote with single quotation marks. Marie remarked, “And he told me ‘I just can’t do this anymore.’”
“‘We’re going to the beach,’ is what she told me,” said Jim.
He told me, “We learned the words to the poem ‘The Raven’ today.”
Comma usage
Set off a person’s name when they are being addressed in a sentence: “Jeannie, what time will you return?”
Use a comma to introduce a quotation: Mary said, “Last week I went to the movies.”
In a series, most people tend to leave off the last comma, but include it unless the last two words are considered as one unit. For instance, “For breakfast, we had biscuits, gravy, and bacon and eggs.” If you write a series of names, such as: “Mary, Jane, John and Sally,” are John and Sally a couple? If not, separate them with a comma for clearer meaning.
Use a comma in a series of adjectives that are equal in rank.
In this instance, omitting a comma can sometimes cost money. For instance, a will was written as follows: “To my daughter and sons: Mary, John and Mike, I leave the sum of $15,000.” The lawyer gave each child $5,000, but Mary challenged the decision, claiming the will specified that she get one-half and John and Mike share one-half. The judge ruled in her favor, so she got $7,500, and John and Mike split $7,500. If the will had been written: “To my daughter and sons: Mary, John, and Mike, I leave the sum of $15,000,” each child would have gotten $5,000.
Always use a comma to prevent confusion. For instance: “The box fell on top of the dog and the cat was already running for the door.” Put a comma after dog. Otherwise, readers might be wondering if the box fell on both the dog and the cat.
Use a comma to set off an explanatory clause. “The minister, who was from Missouri, conducted Sunday’s service.”
A comma can be omitted following an introductory clause unless it would slow comprehension by readers in a sentence like, On the dock below, the passengers gathered to board the ship. If not included in this sentence, it could look like the dock was below the passengers!
You really don’t need to use as many commas as you were taught in school. In most cases, eliminate commas if they don’t clarify the meaning of the sentence.
Prepositions
The last grammatical problem I’ll cover is the use of a preposition at the end of a sentence. Remember in school how teachers would squawk if a student asked something like, “What am I doing this for?” What did the teacher want to hear? “For what am I doing this?”
English teachers were fanatics about sticking to the rules, but the truth is: there is no rule in the English language that says you can’t use a preposition at the end of the sentence. There was a rule against it in Latin, which the English language comes from, but the rule did not carry over from the Latin language. So put your prepositions where they sound best and thank your lucky stars that you don’t have to wrestle with a sentence that ends up saying something like: “I’ll give you this money as soon as you tell me for what you plan to use it.”
For Pete’s sake, just write: “I’ll give you this money as soon as you tell me what you plan to use it for.”
Happy writing!
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
To Outline or Not?
Remember in school how we had to learn to outline, then would have that exercise in class where we would have to outline something we weren’t interested in writing in the first place! Well, the time has come to put that skill into practice—maybe.
Sometimes I make an outline and sometimes I don’t. When I started the book, Portable Writing, I made an outline of what I wanted to cover in the book because there was so much material I wanted to include. All of the projects were taken from my experience, or those of some of my friends, and I knew I could easily forget something if I didn’t make an outline. It’s lucky I did! Immediately after I wrote the outline, I had an emergency health problem that laid me low for three years. During that time, I completely forgot about my book idea and the outline.
Finally, a little over three years after my health scare, we started traveling in the motorhome again and I found my outline safely tucked away. It was like running across something I’d never seen before. I thought to myself, ‘this is a great idea for a book,’ and began writing it right away. The book took longer than it probably would have if I had started it in 1998, when I apparently wrote the outline, but I finally finished the book in 2006. Without that outline, it would never have been done.
That’s not to say that I stuck to the outline. I realized after writing a couple of chapters that I wanted to reverse the order and put those in the back of the book. And most of the time I just typed away, only referring back to the outline after I was finished with a chapter to make sure I had covered everything. It also help when it came time to write a proposal to submit to publishers.
Now that said, I didn’t make an outline for the new book I’m writing on history, other than a list of historic events during the past 65 years that I could recall off the top of my head. That’s what I mailed to those of you who requested it. It’s definitely not an outline, just a memory jogger. With this book, I simply sat down at the computer and started typing, starting with the forties. You can’t outline memories and emotions. That just seems too sterile for the subject matter.
Should you outline your idea for a book? For my first book, Make Room for Success, 1992, I don’t recall if I made an outline or not. I probably wrote some notes down so that I would remember to include certain points or illustrations. And I’m sure I had clippings in a file from previous articles I had written to make sure that information was included.
For the novel I’m currently working on, I made a list of main characters and their personality traits as well as some memories from my career as an interior designer and from RVing that could be used in the book . My lead character in the novel is a young interior decorator living in a place I never lived who gets a chance to travel with her aunt in an RV and encounters a mystery. But to say I wrote an outline would be wrong. I’m not even sure how the mystery will be solved yet. It will evolve as the writing of it evolves.
Sometimes I feel better just jumping into my subject matter and typing as fast as I can before my idea flees. Maybe I’ll make some notes to include somewhere in the article or book, but other than that, an outline becomes a distraction rather than a help.
But is it an important tool to have in your arsenal? Yes! My English teachers didn’t waste their time, but I’m betting they would be horrified if they saw how regularly I ignore that particular lesson.
Remember in school how we had to learn to outline, then would have that exercise in class where we would have to outline something we weren’t interested in writing in the first place! Well, the time has come to put that skill into practice—maybe.
Sometimes I make an outline and sometimes I don’t. When I started the book, Portable Writing, I made an outline of what I wanted to cover in the book because there was so much material I wanted to include. All of the projects were taken from my experience, or those of some of my friends, and I knew I could easily forget something if I didn’t make an outline. It’s lucky I did! Immediately after I wrote the outline, I had an emergency health problem that laid me low for three years. During that time, I completely forgot about my book idea and the outline.
Finally, a little over three years after my health scare, we started traveling in the motorhome again and I found my outline safely tucked away. It was like running across something I’d never seen before. I thought to myself, ‘this is a great idea for a book,’ and began writing it right away. The book took longer than it probably would have if I had started it in 1998, when I apparently wrote the outline, but I finally finished the book in 2006. Without that outline, it would never have been done.
That’s not to say that I stuck to the outline. I realized after writing a couple of chapters that I wanted to reverse the order and put those in the back of the book. And most of the time I just typed away, only referring back to the outline after I was finished with a chapter to make sure I had covered everything. It also help when it came time to write a proposal to submit to publishers.
Now that said, I didn’t make an outline for the new book I’m writing on history, other than a list of historic events during the past 65 years that I could recall off the top of my head. That’s what I mailed to those of you who requested it. It’s definitely not an outline, just a memory jogger. With this book, I simply sat down at the computer and started typing, starting with the forties. You can’t outline memories and emotions. That just seems too sterile for the subject matter.
Should you outline your idea for a book? For my first book, Make Room for Success, 1992, I don’t recall if I made an outline or not. I probably wrote some notes down so that I would remember to include certain points or illustrations. And I’m sure I had clippings in a file from previous articles I had written to make sure that information was included.
For the novel I’m currently working on, I made a list of main characters and their personality traits as well as some memories from my career as an interior designer and from RVing that could be used in the book . My lead character in the novel is a young interior decorator living in a place I never lived who gets a chance to travel with her aunt in an RV and encounters a mystery. But to say I wrote an outline would be wrong. I’m not even sure how the mystery will be solved yet. It will evolve as the writing of it evolves.
Sometimes I feel better just jumping into my subject matter and typing as fast as I can before my idea flees. Maybe I’ll make some notes to include somewhere in the article or book, but other than that, an outline becomes a distraction rather than a help.
But is it an important tool to have in your arsenal? Yes! My English teachers didn’t waste their time, but I’m betting they would be horrified if they saw how regularly I ignore that particular lesson.
Monday, January 01, 2007
A CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
A United States history of the past sixty years is now in the works. In it, I hope to include short articles (two paragraphs to two pages) from a variety of writers of their memories of some of the most historic moments, and how those events affected them.
During the past sixty years we’ve witnessed the end of World War II and survived the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War and now we’re embroiled in the Iraq War. All of those conflicts had an impact on every one of our lives whether we were alive then, heard about them from older siblings and parents, or lost a loved one as a result of one of the wars.
Many of us lived through and were affected by the assassination of President Kennedy plus his brother, Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King. We’ve also lived through the Cuban missile crisis, the civil rights struggle and the anti-war and free-love movement during the late sixties and early seventies. We’ve witnessed the introduction of computer technology and time- and labor-saving machines that make our lives easier. A few of us even remember life before television and cell phones when we gathered in the kitchen or living room to listen to the radio, and talked to friends and family members on party-line telephones with rotary dials!
Those whose contribution is used in the book will receive a free copy after it is published as well as a short biography in the book to help promote your own writing projects. I have some guidelines as well as a list of memory joggers for anyone who is interested in contributing. If you would like to contribute, send an email that requests guidelines to: portable.writer@yahoo.com.
MEETING WORD COUNT RESTRICTIONS - part II
Recently I was asked to write an article for an online ezine. While I wasn’t given a maximum word count, I have written enough online articles to know that they should be short. Readers are not patient enough to read long, wordy articles online. I wrote about the topic as succinctly as I could and was appalled when I did a word count and found that the article held more than 1500 words!
After doing some selective butchering, I finally got it down to 900 words. How did I do it? First of all, I had included more details than were necessary for the article. The piece was meant to be an overview of the subject, not a detailed manuscript. I whittled it down until it held only the amount of information that would get the message across. Even that was too long, so the article was broken into two parts for the ezine.
Try shortening some of the articles you’ve written, whether they’ve been published or not. The more practice you have at cutting manuscripts down to size, the better your writing will become. And who knows, some of those manuscripts you’ve written but never been brave enough to send to a publisher might suddenly look a lot more sales worthy.
Stephen King, well-known horror fiction author, cuts up to ten percent of his manuscript by removing extraneous words and has been quoted as saying, “Only God gets things right the first time.”
So remember, it only makes your manuscript better when you learn to eliminate unnecessary portions and tighten up the remaining words and sentences.
A United States history of the past sixty years is now in the works. In it, I hope to include short articles (two paragraphs to two pages) from a variety of writers of their memories of some of the most historic moments, and how those events affected them.
During the past sixty years we’ve witnessed the end of World War II and survived the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War and now we’re embroiled in the Iraq War. All of those conflicts had an impact on every one of our lives whether we were alive then, heard about them from older siblings and parents, or lost a loved one as a result of one of the wars.
Many of us lived through and were affected by the assassination of President Kennedy plus his brother, Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King. We’ve also lived through the Cuban missile crisis, the civil rights struggle and the anti-war and free-love movement during the late sixties and early seventies. We’ve witnessed the introduction of computer technology and time- and labor-saving machines that make our lives easier. A few of us even remember life before television and cell phones when we gathered in the kitchen or living room to listen to the radio, and talked to friends and family members on party-line telephones with rotary dials!
Those whose contribution is used in the book will receive a free copy after it is published as well as a short biography in the book to help promote your own writing projects. I have some guidelines as well as a list of memory joggers for anyone who is interested in contributing. If you would like to contribute, send an email that requests guidelines to: portable.writer@yahoo.com.
MEETING WORD COUNT RESTRICTIONS - part II
Recently I was asked to write an article for an online ezine. While I wasn’t given a maximum word count, I have written enough online articles to know that they should be short. Readers are not patient enough to read long, wordy articles online. I wrote about the topic as succinctly as I could and was appalled when I did a word count and found that the article held more than 1500 words!
After doing some selective butchering, I finally got it down to 900 words. How did I do it? First of all, I had included more details than were necessary for the article. The piece was meant to be an overview of the subject, not a detailed manuscript. I whittled it down until it held only the amount of information that would get the message across. Even that was too long, so the article was broken into two parts for the ezine.
Try shortening some of the articles you’ve written, whether they’ve been published or not. The more practice you have at cutting manuscripts down to size, the better your writing will become. And who knows, some of those manuscripts you’ve written but never been brave enough to send to a publisher might suddenly look a lot more sales worthy.
Stephen King, well-known horror fiction author, cuts up to ten percent of his manuscript by removing extraneous words and has been quoted as saying, “Only God gets things right the first time.”
So remember, it only makes your manuscript better when you learn to eliminate unnecessary portions and tighten up the remaining words and sentences.
TREASURES IN THE DESERT
When you mention the word treasure in the same breath with the state names of Arizona and California, most people associate it with gold, silver and other priceless metals and gems. However, not all treasures are there for picking up. Some should be collected as experiences to be enjoyed. Obviously, I’m talking about the landscape here.
Just west of Yuma (about fifteen miles) along Interstate 8 are the Imperial Sand Dunes. These dunes hug the highway and spread for several miles on either side. They have been sculpted by the wind and weather over centuries and are beautiful to see—especially at sunset or sunrise.
Early twentieth century travelers across the desert couldn’t maneuver their vehicles through the deep, shifting sand, so plank roads were built to accommodate the earliest automobiles. Planks were laid side by side through long stretches of sand so that cars and trucks could traverse the Dunes, although the ride would have been a bit bumpy. Remnants of the plank road still exist in the Dunes, and are protected for future generations to marvel at and enjoy.
RVers can park overnight in several locations through the Dunes, in spots designated by Bureau of Land Management. Many recreational RVers have discovered the area, so each weekend or holiday the area is packed with RVs hauling off-road vehicles. If you treasure the desert for its peace and quiet, you may be disappointed by the loud roar or these modern day explorers and their all-terrain vehicles.
About five miles west of Yuma, a one-mile road leads to Algadones, Mexico, a small town on the border. You can park on the U. S. side of the gate and walk into the town, where you’ll find great buys on a variety of goods, including prescription drugs, eyeglasses and dental procedures. I’ll tell about our visit to Algadones later, as well as our journey to that favorite wintertime shopping mecca of RVers—Quartzsite.
In Yuma proper is the Yuma Territorial Prison, which will provide you with a glimpse of what life was like for outlaws unfortunate enough to have been caught in the late 1800s. It wasn’t pretty! The tiny cells were likely hot enough to bake bread during the summer. The prison was constructed by inmates and housed up to 350 prisoners between 1876 and 1909.
My uncle likes to tell about his train stopping in Yuma when he was a young Navy recruit on his way to San Diego during the closing days of World War II. He says he stepped out onto the platform of the station and saw nothing in all directions but sand. Things have certainly changed! Surrounding Yuma today are lush green, irrigated fields that help feed the nation.
Just north of Yuma along the Colorado River are Mittry Lake Wildlife Area and Imperial Wildlife Refuge, great locations for bird watching and fishing. Great numbers of water fowl make this their winter home, too, in addition to the thousands of human snowbirds who flock here as soon as the weather turns frosty up north.
When you mention the word treasure in the same breath with the state names of Arizona and California, most people associate it with gold, silver and other priceless metals and gems. However, not all treasures are there for picking up. Some should be collected as experiences to be enjoyed. Obviously, I’m talking about the landscape here.
Just west of Yuma (about fifteen miles) along Interstate 8 are the Imperial Sand Dunes. These dunes hug the highway and spread for several miles on either side. They have been sculpted by the wind and weather over centuries and are beautiful to see—especially at sunset or sunrise.
Early twentieth century travelers across the desert couldn’t maneuver their vehicles through the deep, shifting sand, so plank roads were built to accommodate the earliest automobiles. Planks were laid side by side through long stretches of sand so that cars and trucks could traverse the Dunes, although the ride would have been a bit bumpy. Remnants of the plank road still exist in the Dunes, and are protected for future generations to marvel at and enjoy.
RVers can park overnight in several locations through the Dunes, in spots designated by Bureau of Land Management. Many recreational RVers have discovered the area, so each weekend or holiday the area is packed with RVs hauling off-road vehicles. If you treasure the desert for its peace and quiet, you may be disappointed by the loud roar or these modern day explorers and their all-terrain vehicles.
About five miles west of Yuma, a one-mile road leads to Algadones, Mexico, a small town on the border. You can park on the U. S. side of the gate and walk into the town, where you’ll find great buys on a variety of goods, including prescription drugs, eyeglasses and dental procedures. I’ll tell about our visit to Algadones later, as well as our journey to that favorite wintertime shopping mecca of RVers—Quartzsite.
In Yuma proper is the Yuma Territorial Prison, which will provide you with a glimpse of what life was like for outlaws unfortunate enough to have been caught in the late 1800s. It wasn’t pretty! The tiny cells were likely hot enough to bake bread during the summer. The prison was constructed by inmates and housed up to 350 prisoners between 1876 and 1909.
My uncle likes to tell about his train stopping in Yuma when he was a young Navy recruit on his way to San Diego during the closing days of World War II. He says he stepped out onto the platform of the station and saw nothing in all directions but sand. Things have certainly changed! Surrounding Yuma today are lush green, irrigated fields that help feed the nation.
Just north of Yuma along the Colorado River are Mittry Lake Wildlife Area and Imperial Wildlife Refuge, great locations for bird watching and fishing. Great numbers of water fowl make this their winter home, too, in addition to the thousands of human snowbirds who flock here as soon as the weather turns frosty up north.
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