June 27, 2016

Rumors of the Death of the Period Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

In case you missed it, a recent New York Times piece has proclaimed that the period "may be dying." But if you read what the experts quoted in the story actually said, that's not quite it. Periods are out of vogue in one- or two-sentence text messages, as well as in 140-characters-or-fewer tweets. Fascinatingly, when a tweet or text does include a period, the punctuation takes on a new connotation: snark.

But that doesn't mean the period's dying. Decide for yourself. Here's the Times piece.

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June 20, 2016

Commas, Subject-Relative Pronoun Agreement and More

Some questions that made it into my recent column touch on serial commas, where to put commas and periods relative to quotation marks, and whether "Betty is one of those people who like(s) cupcakes" takes the plural or singular verb. All those answers and more here.

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June 13, 2016

Sometimes Danglers Are a Problem

Recently, the Los Angeles Times described the movie "Dheepan" as the "Palme d'Or winner about Sri Lankan refugees trying to escape their violent past in France." That made reader Rod do a double-take.

"The question is where the 'in France' should go," Rod wrote. "There's a serious difference between a violent past in France and being in France trying to escape a violent past, presumably in Sri Lanka."

Agreed. Here's my full take on the sentence and the problem therein: the dreaded dangling modifier.

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June 6, 2016

A Quick Hyphen Refresher (as opposed to a quick-hyphen refresher)

For compound adjectives and adverbs you make up yourself, use a hyphen anytime it aids readability or comprehension: a lobster-eating man.

Adverbs ending in ly are the exception. These don't take a hyphen: a happily married couple.

For compound adjectives that already exist, check the dictionary's hyphenation: good-looking.

For nouns, check a dictionary: self-esteem.

For verbs, check a dictionary: fact-check.

Note that it's often the case that the verb form is open while the noun is closed or hyphenated: Five traits make up his personality makeup. On Tuesday, I have to pick up Tom's pick-up from the dealership.

Note that the reigning aesthetic in publishing today leans toward less punctuation, so compounds adjectives that could logically take a hyphen usually don't unless the hyphen is needed.

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May 30, 2016

Some Words You May Not Know as Well as You Think You Do

Peruse. Forgo. Enormity. Rein.

If you think you know everything there is to know about these words, maybe you do. But maybe you don't. Here's a roundup of 10 sometimes misused, sometimes misunderstood words that deserve a closer look.

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May 23, 2016

A Day in the Life of a Grammar Columnist

FROM: USC David
TO: June Casagrande
SUBJECT: Wrong!

I realize the article is almost 2 years old, but I barely saw it.

You claimed a lot of people don't know that "Talk to Mary or me" is grammatical. It's not. It's "Talk to me or Mary."

FROM: June Casagrande
TO: USC David
SUBJECT: Re: Wrong!

Actually, grammar has no rules about the order of nouns or pronouns in a coordinate noun phrase, regardless of whether it's functioning as a subject or object.

So "Talk to Mary or me" is just as grammatical as "Talk to me or Mary.

Grammar's funny like that: It's about syntactical function, not propriety. That's why it's also perfectly grammatical to say "I and John went to the movies." No one would say that, of course. But it's as grammatically correct as "John and I went to the movies."

Perhaps you're confusing grammar with properness? They're very different.

Thanks for writing!

FROM: USC David
TO: June Casagrande
SUBJECT: Re: Wrong!

If it makes you feel better to make up the rules, fine. I'm amused on a daily basis about the dumbing down of America. Thanks for showing how we've gotten here. You point out an error and people try to argue the point, no matter how wrong they are, rather than taking advantage of the opportunity to learn & grow.

See ya!

FROM: June Casagrande
TO: USC David
SUBJECT: Re: Wrong!

You're right: I should seek out more information and learning opportunities.

So please tell me where I can learn more about the wrongness of "talk to Mary or me." I have a dozens of grammar books and not one of them backs you up. So if you have some good sources that contradict them, that would indeed be very educational for me.

FROM: USC David
TO: June Casagrande
SUBJECT: Re: Wrong!

I have no need to read more of your stupidity. I hit delete without even opening it.

Some people don't want to learn and that's ok. I just don't need to be a part of it.

See ya!!

FROM: June Casagrande
TO: USC David
SUBJECT: I want to learn. Teach me. Point me to good sources.

Had you wanted to learn how I'd replied to your last email, you'd have read this:

<<You're right: I should seek out more information and learning opportunities.

<<So please tell me where I can learn more about the wrongness of "talk to Mary or me." I have a dozens of grammar books and not one of them backs you up. So if you have some good sources that contradict them, that would indeed be very educational for me.>>

FROM: USC David
TO: June Casagrande
SUBJECT: Re: I want to learn. Teach me. Point me to good sources.

In addition to not being able to write, you can't read either. Your notes go right in the trash.

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May 16, 2016

A Test for Your Semicolons

Here's a test to see whether that semicolon in your sentence should stay: Try recasting the passage without it. If the result is clearer, shorter, less cumbersome sentences, then you have your answer. More than 90% of the time, I find that semicolons result in worse sentences, not better ones. Turns out, the writer included the semicolon not for the reader's benefit -- that is, not to organize the information in best way possible -- but for his own benefit -- that is, to show off his own semicolon prowess.

That's why I'm anti-semicolon: They lead to clunky, inelegant, long, poorly organized sentences that don't take into account that it's the writer's job to serve the reader.

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May 9, 2016

Of Drunken Members of Parliament and Modifying Phrases

In 2014, to promote a new exhibit on Vikings, the British Museum set sail with a clever public relations spectacle: an authentic-looking vessel manned by a motley crew that sailed down the Thames and past government buildings where members of Parliament had a front-row seat for the show.

 
As one insightful observer reported: "A longboat full of Vikings, promoting the new British Museum exhibition, was seen sailing past the Palace of Westminster yesterday. Famously uncivilized, destructive and rapacious, with an almost insatiable appetite for rough sex and heavy drinking, the MPs nonetheless looked up for a bit to admire the vessel."

This joke was brought to you by a grammar concept called modifying phrases. If you want to know more, here's a recent column.

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May 2, 2016

John McIntyre's Peeve Peeves

For about 14 years, I've been engaged in the less-than-endearing  task of telling readers of my newspaper column that their grammar peeves are, in fact, superstitions. So I figured I'd let someone else bear the bad news -- Baltimore Sun copy editor and columnist John McIntyre. And if you still think it's wrong to split an infinitive, start a sentence with "and," end a sentence with a preposition, use "hopefully" to mean "I hope" or use "they" to refer to a single person, McIntyre would like a word.

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April 25, 2016

Bad News for Good Editing

The Bay Area News Group, which operates more than two dozen small newspapers, has announced it will lay off all 11 of its copy editors, sending stories to press without any copy editing at all. For those of us who've spent years refining the craft this isn't welcome news.

I've been hoping that the decline or absence of editing standards at many online outlets would, instead of bringing down standards across the board, separate the top-quality stuff from the pack. I mean, I know that most readers don't consciously notice subtle style and grammar infelicities, but as Malcolm Gladwell so effectively argued in "Blink," the can't-put-my-finger-on-what's-wrong subconscious can still discern between good and bad. I was hoping that, in light of all the typos you see on line, this all added up to good news for us advocates of good editing. I'm getting more pessimistic.

Here's a link reporting the Bay Area News Group announcement.

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