Okay, who remembers hearing their seventh grade English teacher blathering on (and on) about sentence subjects and predicates? Anyone? Hmm. Only mine, then? Then, in honor of Mrs. Babyock, allow me to remind you: The Subject of a sentence is the person, place, or thing that the sentence is talking…
Poor Service (Or, No Tips for You!)
So, I posted about some of the important elements on a good Services page. Yet, my own Services page is still so very lame, failing in many ways. Let’s explore that, shall we? Why is it so pathetic when I’ve already shown you that I know better? No Specific Services.…
Service with a Smile
So, as I prepare to launch this freelance writing business of mine (coughstill-so-lostcough), one of the vital elements, of course, is a Services page. You may have noticed the very lame Services page I recently added, just to have something there. How do I know it’s lame? Because, well, have…
MM: Fontastic
How often do you think about the font you use? I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately–mostly because I think they’re fun–but like all good things, they can be used well, or they can be used very, very badly. Fonts, or typefaces, are the actual shapes of the letters…
Are You a Journalist?
Did you ever really think about the fact that “Journalist” has two completely separate meanings? American Heritage Dictionary 1. One whose occupation is journalism. 2. One who keeps a journal. I find this fascinating. Naturally, this is a dichotomy that I’ve been more or less aware of. I knew the…
MM: How Do You Feel About a Can of Worms?
Here’s the grammatical equivalent of a trick question: “How are you?” The instinctive answer–here in the U.S., at least–is to say, “I’m good.” Except, of course, that “good” is an adjective, not an adverb, and this inspires lots of debate. Because when you say “I am good,” the word “good”…
Let’s Review Reviews!
I’ve had Writing Reviews on my mind a lot lately (for some strange reason), and I thought I’d share some of the points I think that a good review must have. Bare Facts. No matter what you’re reviewing–books, movies, technology, restaurants–you need to provide the facts. For books, include the…
MM: May vs Can
“Mom, can I have a cookie?” “May I.” “Oh, right. Mom, may I have a cookie? Does this sound familiar to anyone? How about this one? “It’s been really nice meeting you. So, er, can I call you later?” “I don’t know, can you?” There’s nothing quite like using grammar…
Briiing! How and When to Phone in Your Writing
I know, you’ve been thinking to yourself that it seems like I’ve been phoning it in this last week. You know, not actually showing up and putting forth my best effort, but just going through the motions. And, you’re not totally wrong, either. For the last week, I’ve been working…
MM: Misspellings
This one has to be a quickie, today, so I’m just going to give you a list of some commonly misspelled words to remind you what they should be. (American spellings, just in case.) Absence Accommodate Commitment Completely Definitely (My favorite memory-device for this word? It’s got “finite” right in…
Do We Need New Spelling?
There is an article in the current issue of Time Magazine that talks about spelling reform, and discusses the proposal that we offer official, variantions for spellings of some of the most commonly-misspelled words. The senior lecturer in criminology at Bucks New University in Buckinghamshire, England sees so many misspellings…
MM: Hearing Voices
Last week, we briefly discussed the different verb “persons,” but this is important in writing and warrants some extra attention. Because, you see, it comes down to “voice,” and voice is extraordinarily important in narrative. First Person, when the speaker uses “I”. That is, I, We, Me, Us So far…
Baby Talk
So, if people don’t learn grammar in school any more, and they’re not bothering to read the handy usage guides that are in the bookstores, how DO people manage to speak and write correctly? Mostly, it’s in the ear. It’s a fascinating phenomenon, how we humans learn language. Babies begin…
MM: Persons of Interest
So, the last two weeks, we’ve talked about verb tenses and moods. Today, we’ll talk about their person. In their simplest form… First Person: I, We A verb uses first person when the speaker is talking about himself. I love typing. We watched the race. I am going to go…
What Makes a Writer?
Okay, so when you try to identify a “writer,” the first problem is the definition. What is a writer? Someone who makes their living by writing? A novelist? Newspaper journalist? Poet? Advertising Copywriter? Resume-writer? Or someone who writes because they love it, regardless of whether they get paid for it? Because,…
MM: Verbal Mood Swings
Last week, we spoke about verb tenses; today, let’s talk about their moods. Well, not their moods, exactly, but rather, our moods when using the verbs. Indicative Mood This is the most common, and is used to make a statement or ask a question. The dog played with the ball.…
How to Be Convincing
Suppose that you’re writing to convince people of something. Suppose that you’re making your living writing sales copy. Suppose that you have the best product ever and you want to spread the word to as many people as possible. GET PEOPLE TO STOP What do you do? How do you…
MM: Is it Tense in Here?
Let’s take a quick look at verb tenses, shall we? In their simplest form, they’re quite, well, simple. Present Tense: This is the easy one. If it’s happening right now, taking place in the present, the verb is in present tense. Repeat after me: “I am reading Deb’s blog.” See?…
Punctuation is Not Grammar
Well, you blink, and suddenly a week has gone by! So, continuing in the line started by my series of “linguist vs. grammarian,” let me pose this question: Why do so many so-called grammar books actually focus more on punctuation than on actual grammar? They tell you the correct way…
Linguist vs Grammarian–The Fallout
We said last time that we should examine some of the more far-fetched traditions of hidebound grammatical rules and march bravely into the future. But, there is one more thing about ignoring traditional grammar rules you need to be aware of before you go striding off into the unfettered future.…
MM: Email–a Memo or a Letter?
In the comments to last week’s Mangled Monday about the structure of a letter, Melissa asked: “What do you think about emails that don’t have a salutation? I always try to start mine with a greeting unless I get into a really fast-paced conversation with short emails flying back and…
Linguist vs. Grammarian–Tradition
As we said last time, many of the The Rules that we (supposedly) live by, grammatically speaking, were arbitrarily created by literary men of the past who were trying to organize the English language. Then, as time passed, the rules became venerated. Never use a preposition at the end of…
Linguist vs. Grammarian–Making Language GO
Another post inspired by that excellent book of David Crystal‘s, where he mentions that–in an ideal world–we would raise our children to be linguists rather than grammarians–so that they would know the reasons the language works, not just the rules. Personally, I think that’s a wonderful idea. I’ve always been…
MM: Letterquette
People don’t write letters as often as they used to–emails, yes; text messages, yes; the occasional hand-written note, even, yes … but actual letters? Not so much. Especially outside of normal business hours. So, let’s review the essential elements of a basic letter, shall we? Return Address: On both personal…
Verbal Wardrobe Maintenance
So, we talked last time about the idea of casual and formal writing, as filtered through a wardrobe analogy. (A good image that I can only say I wish I’d thought of myself.) I want people’s writing style to be neat and clean, not all tattered and ragged around the…
MM: That Is, for Example….
Two famous, latin abbreviations that so many people seem to get wrong. i.e. is short for “id est” and should be used for “that is.” I strongly recommend the driver of the automobile cease their forward movement at this time, i.e, STOP! This weekend, I played with my kids, ran…
How to Prevent Equipment Failures from Ruining Your Writing
There’s nothing more aggravating than having your writing flow interrupted by bad equipment. It doesn’t matter if you are writing a blog post, a letter, an article, or your doctoral thesis. Interruptions by people are bad enough, but having your equipment let you down is just one, long frustration. So,…
MM: Question
I’ve been racking my brain, trying to think of a punctuation mark we haven’t discussed yet. We’ve covered periods, commas, exclamation points, quotation marks, colons, semi-colons, and hyphens, not to mention parentheses, ellipses, and dashes. What else is there? Then the light dawned. The answer was right there in front…
Dressing Up Your Casual-Wear Writing
I’m in the middle of reading a book called The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left by David Crystal, about language and the way we use, need, and apply rules. His premise is that grammar pundits who insist on rules are not acting in the best…
MM: Semi-Colon
The primary use of a semi-colon is to link two sentences together. Now, obviously, sentences are usually kept separate and distinct. Sometimes, however, they are very involved with each other, and like to keep close. Like twins, or mirror images, they’re more connected to each other than to the sentences…