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!