Grammar Tip of the Day

The Return of the Subjunctive -- a poem

2011-11-16T04:25:00.001-08:00

This poem was featured recently on Garrison Keillor's Writers' Almanac:

The Return of the Subjunctive

Oh, the Subjunctive,
May it make its bold return!
May it ride back proud
In liveried coach,
May its two fine horses snort
And paw the ground,
And, escorted by its staunch
Attendants If and Whether,
May it descend in velvet cloak
And black-gloved hand
The lacquered steps of hope
And happenstance.
May it fix upon us its deep
Uncertain gaze!
I shall be there to greet it
Though my company
Be small and moody.
I shall beg it stay
And may its presence give
Some respite from the steely glare
Of Indicative, a mantle to shield us
From Passive's clammy chill.
May it light again the land
Between the world that was
And is, and that which still might be,
And may we tread again desire's
Leaf-dappled path
Of possibility.

"The Return of the Subjunctive" by Tamara Madison, from Wild Domestic. © Pearl Editions, 2011. (buy now)

It's time to tax big-time moneymaking athlete-exploiting college sports

2011-10-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

In a well-wrought story in Chicago Life magazine, Allen R. Sanderson makes an excellent case for imposing a sin tax on the revenues that intercollegiate football and basketball generate for everyone but the players.

"This money," writes Sanderson, "could be set aside to provide funding for the ex-players to return to earn a degree, enter a graduate program, and/or start a small business."

Sanderson puts forth a novel idea for addressing the exploitive system by which everyone in big-time college sports makes big money except the athletes.

The peculiar system presided over by the NCAA was laid out very well by Jesse Fox Mayshark in Exploiting U.: The Issue of Paying College Players Grows Along With Coaches' Rising Salaries, a story later cited as the best sports story in East Tennessee in 2010.

While players are obliged to invest the time appropriate to a full-time job, they are forbidden by NCAA rules even to hold part-time jobs, as other college students do.

Use adverbs instead of incorrect adjectives, even if it makes you sound like a smarty pants!

2011-09-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

We are accustomed to athletes use manly sounding adjectives where more prissy-sounding adverbs should be. "I take this serious! Real serious!" whined Arizona Cardinals quarterback Derek Anderson after a wag questioned his commitment. "I put my heart and soul into this every single week!"

In certain parts of the nation, a person using an adverb in a quote like the one above might be seen as a snob or, worse, of harboring any number of seditious beliefs --from evolution and global warming to banning guns in bars.

This is probably why the development coordinator of Ijams Nature Center, an educational enterprise, was quoted in a recent Knoxville News Sentinel story as saying, "Absorbing that [budget] cut meant we were going to have to do things different. We did not elect to lay off staff, so we reshuffled the deck, changed things around."

Our language is slowly losing the distinction between adjectives and adverbs, but for now we should follow the rule:

Harbrace Rule 4a: Use adverbs to modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs

NOT Leela played her part perfect.
USE Leela played her part perfectly. [The adverb perfectly modifies the verb played.]

NOT The plane departs at a reasonable early hour.
USE The plane departs at a reasonably early hour. [The adverb reasonably modifies the verb early.]

Most dictionaries still label the following as informal usage: sure for surely, real for really, and good for the adverb well.

INFORMAL The Broncos played real good during the first quarter.
FORMAL The Broncos played very well during the first quarter.

How to Stop the Drop in Verbal Scores

2011-09-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

How to Stop the Drop in Verbal Scores
By E. D. HIRSCH Jr.
The New York Times, Sept. 19, 2011
A decline in reading and writing scores on the SAT demonstrate that current reform strategies focused on testing and improving teacher quality are not enough.
----------------

A nice story, but no mention of grammar!

4 ways to improve quotes in press releases

2011-08-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

These tips come from no-nonsense Texan Laura Hale Brockway's excellent blog, impertinentremarks.com, and from Ragan's PR Daily:

Trash those lazy verbs.

A common problem with press release quotes is that they’re full of lazy corporate verbs such as synergize, utilize, leverage, or facilitate.
“We are leveraging cutting-edge technology to meet our customer’s needs.”
What does that even mean? Instead, describe your customer’s needs and how your product solves it: “Suppliers often do not have real-time access to customers. This app enables them to send secure, instant messages to anyone in the supply chain.”

Keep it conversational.

Another problem with press release quotes—particularly those from the CEO or another executive—is that your audience knows these quotes are made up.
When was the last time you actually heard someone say, “This new app will foster a new synergistic environment where suppliers and customers can leverage the new social media environment to communicate”?
Conversational quotes are more believable.

Can you paraphrase?

PR professionals are often given quotes from clients, and that may be all you have to work with.
How can you improve the quotes if you can’t go back to the client and ask for something else?
Can you paraphrase what’s been sent? Can you break up the quote? Do you have to use the quote at the beginning of the press release?
For example, take this quote:
“I plan to continue this legacy of providing innovative products and services to our customers. With over 30 competing companies for our customers to choose from, we have some challenges ahead. I am confident that we can meet those challenges successfully. And the first step is the release of our new app," says XYZ President and CEO John Johnson.
And turn it into this:
President and CEO John Johnson believes the release of the new app will provide customers with the communications tools they need, setting XYZ Company apart from more than 30 competitors.

Step up your interviewing skills.

Want better quotes? Ask better questions.

If you are interviewing the person you’ll be quoting, consider these interviewing techniques from Ken Metzler’s book Creative Interviewing: The Writer's Guide to Gathering Information:
• Ask for anecdotes. Is there a real-world example you can use to enliven your quotes?
• Ask for metaphors. How does the product or service compare to something familiar to your readers?
• Listen for crossroads and epiphanies. What led to the creation of the product or service? What were the stumbling blocks along the way? When did they realize it would work?
• Ask follow-up questions. If the interview is over and you don’t have what you need for a good quote, ask more questions.

Make your quotes worth quoting. Keep the language conversational and free of jargon. Paraphrase when possible. Ask probing questions.

Behold the colon -- in punctuation, not anatomy

2011-08-23T08:19:00.000-07:00

Harbrace 17d (p. 235 in the 17th edition) The colon

A colon calls attention to what follows. It also separates numbers in parts of scriptural references and titles from subtitles.

(1) A colon directs attention to an explanation, a summary, or a quotation.

When a colon appears between two independent clauses, it signals that the second clause will explain or expand on the first.

No one expected the game to end as it did: after seven extra innings, the favored team collapsed.

A colon is also used after an independent clause to introduce a direct quotation.

Marcel Proust explained the importance of mindfulness: "The true journey of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having fresh eyes."

Although an independent clause should always precede the colon, a phrase may sometimes follow it.

I was finally confronted with what I had dreaded for months: the due date for the final balloon payment on my car loan.

(2) A colon may signal a list that follows.
Writer frequently use colons to introduce lists

Three students received internships: Asa, Vanna, and Jack.

Avoid placing a colon between a verb and its complement (1c) or after the words including or such as.

The winners were Asa, Vanna, and Jack.
Many vegetarians do not eat dairy products such as butter and cheese.

(3) A colon separates a title and a subtitle.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

(4) Colons are used in reference numbers.
Colons are often used between numbers in scriptural references.
John 3:16

(5) Colons have specialized uses in business correspondence.
A colon follows the salutation of a business letter and any notations.

Dear Mr. Horner: Dear Maxine: Enc:
To: From: Subject: Date:

Common English phrases found in the King James Bible

2011-08-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

The list below comes from a very nice NPR story celebrating the 400th birthday of the King James Bible.

Though it cannot be said that all of these phrases originated in the Bible, notes NPR, it is likely that the King James Bible was the first time that many of them appeared in English.

Savvy reader Katherine Armour noted that NPR's report ignored the contribution of William Tyndale, whose translation accounts for 84% of the New Testament and 75.8% of the Old Testament books in the King James. (For his trouble, of course, Tyndale was executed. Sic semper literatus.)

A drop in the bucket (Isaiah 40:15)

A house divided against itself cannot stand (Matthew 12:25)

A man after his own heart (Samuel 13:14 or Acts 13:22)

A wolf in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15)

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21; Matthew 5:38)

Apple of your eye (Deuteronomy 32:10, Zechariah 2:8)

At their wits' end (Psalms 107:27)

Baptism of fire (Matthew 3:11)

Bite the dust (adapted from Psalms 72)

Broken heart (Psalms 34:18)

By the skin of your teeth (Job 19:20)

By the sweat of your brow (Genesis 3:19)

Can a leopard change its spots? (Jeremiah 13:23)

Cast the first stone (John 8:7)

Chariots of Fire (2 Kings 6:17)

Cross to bear (Luke 14:27)

Don't cast your pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6)

Eat drink and be merry (Ecclesiastes 8:15)

Fall by the wayside (Matthew 13:4)

Fall from grace (Galatians 5:4)

Fat of the land (Genesis 45:18)

Feet of clay (Daniel 2:31-33)

Fight the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12)

Fire and brimstone (Genesis 19:24-26)

Flesh and blood (Matthew 16:17)

Fly in the ointment (adapted from Ecclesiastes 10:1)

Forbidden fruit (Genesis 2:9)

From strength to strength (Psalms 84:7)

Give up the ghost (Mark 15:37)

Heart's desire (Psalms 21:2)

He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword (Matthew 26:52)

Holier than thou (Isaiah 65:5)

How the mighty are fallen (Samuel 1:19)

In the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52)

It's better to give than receive (Acts 20:35)

Labour of love (Hebrews 6:10)

Lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7)

Land of Nod (Genesis 4:16)

Law unto themselves (Romans 2:14)

Letter of the law (2 Corinthians 3:6)

Living off the fat of the land (Genesis 45:18)

Love of money is the root of all evil (Timothy 6:10)

Manna from heaven (Exodus 16:15)

Many are called but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14)

My cup runneth over (Psalms 23:5)

No rest for the wicked (adapted from Isaiah 57:20)

Nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

O ye of little faith (Luke 12:28)

Out of the mouths of babes (Psalms 8:2, Matthew 21:16)

Peace offering (Leviticus 3:6)

Pride goes before a fall (Proverbs 16:18)

Put words in her mouth (2 Samuel 14:3)

Put your house in order (2 Kings 20:1)

Reap what you sow (adapted from Galatians 6:7)

See eye to eye (Isaiah 52:8)

Set your teeth on edge (Jeremiah 31:30)

Sign of the times (Matthew 16:3)

Sour grapes (Jeremiah 31:30)

Sweat of your brow (Genesis 3:19)

Tender mercies (Psalms 25:6)

The blind leading the blind (Matthew 15:14)

The ends of the earth (Zechariah 9:10)

The root of the matter (Job 19:28)

The powers that be (Romans 13:1)

The salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13)

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41)

The Straight and narrow (Matthew 7:13/14)

There's nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Two edged sword (Proverbs 5:4)V

oice crying in the wilderness (John 1:23)

Wages of sin (Romans 6:23)

Wash your hands of the matter (Matthew 27:24)

White as snow (Daniel 7:9)

Woe is me (Job 10:15)

Writing is on the wall (Daniel 5: 5/6)

Note: Most of these phrases are direct quotations. Others have slight word order changes that make the modern phrase quicker and catchier.

That pesky college application essay - the Times and its readers weigh in

2011-08-12T06:49:00.000-07:00

Last week, The New York Times ran an interesting story about students using summer experiences to beef up their "personal statement" college application essays. This week, readers weighed in with their thoughts on the matter. Both are linked below.

N.Y. / REGION August 06, 2011 For a Standout College Essay, Applicants Fill Their Summers By JENNY ANDERSON Students preparing to apply to college are increasingly tailoring their summer plans with the goal of creating a better personal statement.

OPINION August 12, 2011 Letters: How to Make That College Essay Special Readers respond to a recent article about students pursuing activities over the summer than will help them write a strong essay for college applications.

One handy tip for writing application essays is to start the process in the summer months, when there might be time to look over the various topics on the applications, brainstorm ideas on an unrushed morning, and start a draft or two that can be revised upon a few days reflection (and many times thereafter).

Once the school year starts and those application deadlines start looming, it's much tougher to be clearthinking, fresh and original.

Apostrophe -- its use and abuse

2011-07-26T07:47:00.001-07:00

Garner's Usage Tip of the Day

The Apostrophe ['].

This punctuation mark does three things:

First, it often indicates the possessive case {Wright's treatise}.

Second, it frequently marks the omission of one or more elements and the contracting of the remaining elements into a word (or figure) -- e.g.: "never" into "ne'er"; "will not" into "won't"; "1997" into "'97."

Third, it is sometimes used to mark the plural of an acronym, number, or letter -- e.g.: "CPA's" (now more usually "CPAs"), "1990's" (now more usually "1990s"), and "p's and q's" (still with apostrophes because of the single letters).

Two contradictory trends -- both bad -- are at work with apostrophes.

First, careless writers want to form plurals with wayward apostrophes -- e.g.: "The bishop's [read 'bishops'] of the United Methodist Church have issued an urgent appeal for funds to assist the victims of flooding in the Midwest." Monte Marshall, "Special Offering for Flood Relief," United Methodist Rep., 3 Sept. 1993.

The same problem occurs in third-person-singular verbs: In the early 1990s, a sign at an Austin service station read, "Joe say's: It's time to winterize your car." And a distressing number of signs on mailboxes and entryways are printed, e.g., "The Smith's" [read "The Smiths"].

The second unfortunate trend is to drop necessary apostrophes: there is a tendency to write "the hotels many shops" or "Martins Pub." The only possible cure is increased literacy.

Finally, U.S. place names drop possessive and associative apostrophes by government policy. So, what was once Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, became Harpers Ferry.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt charged the U.S. Board on Geographic Names with standardizing place names. One resulting policy is that each name become a "fixed label" so that, under this questionable rationale, "[t]he need to imply possession or association no longer exists."

Contracting apostrophes {Lake O' the Pines} and surname apostrophes {O'Bannon Mill} remain.

How to get perfect sixes on the SAT essay

2011-07-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

The SAT essay is scored by two readers, each of whom grades on a scale from 1 to 6. So you're aiming for two sixes -- boxcars in dice-throwing terminology.

In the story below, Tamar Lewin of The New York Times shows that you don't need to be perfect, or even have perfect spelling, to get a 6. To read the story and see several sample essays, click here.

One kid got a 6 even though he quoted from the musical Cats, which might earn an automatic 1 from some graders. Another did such a good job discussing Elie Wiesel's Night that the graders forgave his misspelling of "hindrance."

West High School English teacher Shannon Jackson, who grades AP essays, says that, indeed, graders are supposed to think of the esays as drafts, because of course that's what they are. So you truly can get a perfect 6 without being perfect.

Scoring The Essay Question
Perfect’s New Profile, Warts and All
By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: September 3, 2006

WHEN it comes to the SAT, perfect is now a whole lot harder. But take heart if you favor cursive over printing, the third person over the first, and more over less. You may have an edge.
More than 1,000 students got a perfect 1600 last year, when the college-admissions test consisted of the time-honored two 800-point sections, verbal and math.

But now that the test has been revamped and expanded to nearly four hours, with a new writing section that includes an essay, the average scores have dropped by seven points — and only 238 students received the new perfect score of 2400.

Technically, even perfect isn’t necessarily perfect. Students can get the top score even if they miss a few questions.

“We actually don’t know how many got a perfect perfect,” said Caren Scoropanos, a spokeswoman for the College Board.

What the College Board does know is that the top scorers comprised 131 boys and 107 girls, or just 0.017 percent of the almost 1.5 million college-bound seniors who took the test.
It seems to be the writing test that has made the number of perfects plummet. While the math and reading sections each had more than 8,000 top scores, only 4,102 students were rated perfect on the writing test, the only part of the exam where girls outscored boys.

Most of the writing test — and three-quarters of the writing score — consists of multiple-choice questions on grammar and usage. But most of the anxiety among high school students centers on the 25-minute essay, graded on a scale of one to six by at least two readers, who spend about three minutes on each essay. Their two scores are added. And, the College Board said, the reason so few students won top marks on the writing section is that so few — less than one percent — got sixes from both readers, for that perfect 12.

The SAT Scoring Guide says an essay gets a six if it “effectively and insightfully develops a point of view on the issue,” “demonstrates outstanding critical thinking,” “is well organized and clearly focused,” and “exhibits skillful use of language.” Grading is holistic, with no points off for spelling errors or small linguistic flaws.

Last week, when the board released 20 top-scoring essays, all on the topic of whether memories are a help or a hindrance, it was impossible not to notice that many were — what’s the right word? — awkward:

“Memory is often the deciding factor between humans and animals,” one started.
“It is a commonly cited and often clichéd adage that people learn from their mistakes,” wrote another.

“We reason only with information, that is, reason is the mortar that arranges & connects pieces of information into the palace of understanding,” said a third.

Ed Hardin, who helped develop the writing test for the College Board, has an explanation: “Someone has to get a six,” he said. “Student writing, over all, is not very strong, which is the reason we added the writing test to the SAT. We hope they’ll get better.

After analyzing the results, the board had these insights for the next crop of SAT-takers:

Eighty-four percent of the essays took up more than one page, and longer essays were more likely to get a high score than shorter ones. (Two pages is the limit.)

Most essays were printed, but those written in cursive got slightly higher scores.

About half the essays were written in the first person, but those that did not use the first person got slightly higher scores.

“You can certainly write a first-person essay and get a six, but it’s also true that a lot of very low-performing students write first person,” Mr. Hardin said. “What we tried to show, in releasing these top-scoring essays, is that lots of different things can work. You can select any style, any approach that you think suits your strengths as a writer.”

And on the essay, at least, it’s possible to get a six without coming anywhere near perfect.

WHAT PRACTICE MADE? Misspellings are no “hinderance” to a perfect score on the SAT essay. Scorers looked for “clear and consistent mastery” in areas like critical thinking. They found it, apparently, in these essays, whose opening words are shown. Students were asked, “Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present?”

How to structure the SAT essay

2011-07-15T11:46:00.001-07:00

As mentioned in the post below, the essay section of the SAT presents an opportunity to excel for those who are prepared.

Below are tips from St. Albans School math teacher Linda DeBord. In her SAT-prep program, students compose two to five essays under test conditions, which Mrs. DeBord then assesses and scores.

"Learning to outline and write an essay under pressure was invaluable," said one student. "The corrected essays were also helpful, as we learned from our mistakes."

Of course a student should briefly outline the essay before writing. "In the brief 25 minutes, the up-front planning is critical," says Mrs. DeBord, "but the students need to keep a careful eye on the time.

"I suggest that in the opening paragraph, after they state their thesis, they should mention two examples they will use. The examples should be clear in their relationship in supporting the thesis.

"The conclusion should restate, in an interesting way (if possible), the thesis and then re-tie in the examples."

So, the structure of the essay goes pretty much --

State thesis

Preview two supporting examples

Elaborate thesis

Flesh out examples

Conclusion
a) restate thesis (interesting way)
b) re-tie in the examples

Outlining in a hurry on the SAT essay

2011-07-12T14:16:00.000-07:00

This is the first of several Grammar Tips of the Day about the SAT essay.

One key to success is knowing how to sketch out a brief outline.

This skill, always important on essay tests, is especially highlighted by the essay section of the SAT: In just 25 minutes, kids have to plan their time, think through their arguments and put them on paper. Many test-takers interviewed on TV said they didn't finish in the allotted time.

Harbrace Section 33e: Choose an appropriate method or combination of methods for arranging ideas offers some good tips on listing ideas, outlining and writing essays.

The trick with the new SAT is in doing all this swiftly and effectively. (And, of course, as in all things, penmanship counts!)

In those opening moments, the essayist must consider the topic and map out a course of action---making a list of ideas to touch on and a conclusion to be heading toward.

This is the time to take a deep breath, look at this list, amend as appropriate, and plan those minutes. If there are five minutes to go and you're halfway through your outline (this happens) you must make the remaining points quickly and get to that conclusion.

Of course, the best keys to success are a) knowing what you want to say, b) practicing saying them in alloted periods of time, and c) feigning confidence, so the kids all around you panic. :-)

"Self-depreciating" and other common malapropisms

2011-07-11T06:57:00.000-07:00

From today's West Side Shopper-News, page C-2:

"[Former UT and NFL linebacker Mike] Stratton spoke with self-depreciating humor . . . "

Many people confuse the term "self-deprecating" with the malapropism "self-depreciating," which might more properly apply to a piece of self-aware farm machinery.

Malapropisms, or malaprops (both are correct) are the misapplications of words, usually humorous, specifically, the use of words sounding somewhat like the ones intended but ludicrously wrong in their contexts. The words come from a character, Mrs. Malaprop, in a 1775 R.B. Sheridan comedy.

We all hope that magazine articles are filled with interesting "antidotes" (should be "anecdotes").

A recent story in the Knoxville News Sentinel referred to a coach at an Southeastern Conference meeting making the only "descending" (should be "dissenting") vote against merging basketball divisions.

We often hear TV announcers refer to "lacksadaisical" play on defense. The word "lackadaisical" comes from "lackaday," an alteration and shortening of the archaic interjection "alack the day!" used to express regret.

Of course we all get "flustrated" with the officiating -- something between flustered and frustrated -- but in the end it's always a "mute" point. (It should be "moot" [deprived of practical relevance; no longer at issue], not "mute" [unable to speak].)

Lackaday! It all makes us yearn for the days of the St. Louis Cardinal pitcher and radio announcer Dizzy Dean, who once described a base runner, having "slud" into a base, as standing there "cool and confidential." [Linguistics professors like to point out that "slud" was the correct form of the past tense just a few hundred years ago.]

Yogi-isms are apparently-nonsensical-but-often-sagacious malapropisms created by longtime Yankee catcher and manager Yogi Berra, who once received an honorarium check for a speech made out to "Bearer" and asked of his host, "You've known me all these years and still don't know how to spell my name?"

How to write the perfect college application essay

2011-07-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

Here is good advice from the Boston College admissions office website:

First of all, let us debunk the myth. There is no such thing as a perfect essay. There, we've said it.

Now you can clear your mind of the anxiety that typically accompanies students as you sit down to write.

Instead, you can focus on using the essay as a tool to let the Committee on Admission learn more about you as an individual.

Many of us feel that in the fall of your senior year, the college essay is the only portion of your application remaining on which you can still have a significant influence.

Granted, you will need to continue working hard in your classes, but you have already met people who will speak highly of you in a recommendation, you have already been involved in various extra-curricular activities, and you have likely completed your standardized examinations. The one remaining portion is the college essay.

We realize how hectic your senior year is, but take advantage of this opportunity.

The best essays that we read are ones that tell us not only about a specific event, mentor, excursion, or accomplishment, but also tell us how the writer has been affected by their experiences. For example, a typical essay might inform the reader of a trip to France that the student took the previous summer. It might focus on the challenges faced in getting to their destination, the French culture, or even the people that the student met.

The better essay, however, takes it to the next level. It makes the experience personal. The student might choose to explain what surprised, frustrated, or inspired them about the trip. The student might choose to focus on how they now view the world a little bit differently after this newfound international perspective.

Another common example is students' essays on a person who influenced their lives. Frequently, we read essays about applicants' grandparents, for example. Many essays simply focus on the attributes that a grandmother has that make her special to the applicant. They may focus on the challenges that a grandmother has overcome or the successes she has enjoyed. They leave the reader knowing that the student loves his grandmother, but not knowing anything more about the student.

The better essay, however, might also focus on the way the writer has attempted to emulate these admired qualities. The student might choose to share how learning of his grandmother's life experiences has helped him better understand the world. This allows us to learn more about the student and what makes the student special.

As you can see, in both of these examples, the first essay simply tells us of an experience, but the second essay shows us more about the individual. We walk away from it knowing a bit more about the qualities the applicant possesses and how he or she might fit into our campus community.

We hope that you will not view the college essay as a roadblock between you and your college choice, but as a unique opportunity to be in the driver's seat in the college process. Let your qualities, characteristics, and personality shine through.

Best wishes as you begin your journey,

Boston College Undergraduate Admissions

Email Tip: Use Your Subject Line Effectively

2011-07-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

When sending an email, the subject line is one of the most important parts of your message – yet the one many people spend the least time on.

With so many emails in everyone’s Inbox, many messages are unopened long after they’ve been received – or never opened in some cases.

The ideal subject line provides two things:
1) Enough information to make a recipient want to open the email,
2) Key information in case the message becomes buried under a dozen other emails.

Yet the subject line should be relatively short.

Here are some tips on crafting effective subject lines:

If possible, summarize the content of an email. For example, a subject line such as “What time is good for our staff meeting?” tells the recipient more than just one that reads “Meeting.”

When replying, avoid “Re: Re:-itis” by changing your subject line to reflect your answer. For example, “1 pm is better for me” is more helpful to recipients than “Re: Meeting” or “Re: Re: Meeting.”

If you’re announcing an event, try to include the date, time and place in the subject line. This helps everyone refer to the key points later. Note: Use hyphens instead of back slashes in numerical dates. For example, “Staff meeting Thurs. 6-24, 1 pm, WT7 Rm 325” is more helpful and informative than just “Staff Meeting.”

Invigorate your prose: find hidden verbs

2011-07-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

From A Plain English Handbook, put out by the Securities and Exchange Commission to encourage Wall Street denizens to make their stock and bond offerings halfway intelligible to the public:

Find Hidden Verbs
Does a sentence use any form of the verbs "to be," "to have," or another weak verb, with a noun that could be turned into a strong verb? In the sentences below, the strong verb lies hidden in a nominalization, a noun derived from a verb that usually ends in -tion. As you change nouns to verbs, your writing becomes more vigorous and less abstract.

before after
We made an application... We applied...
We made an determination... We determined...
We will make an distribution... We will distribute...

before
We will provide appropriate information to shareholders concerning ....

after
We will inform shareholders about ...

before
We will have no stock ownership of the company.

after
We will own no company stock..

before
There is the possibility of prior Board approval of these investments.

after
The Board might approve these investments in advance.

Affect and effect -- the peskiest homonyms

2011-06-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

From: Ruge Rules:

Homonyms are words similar or identical in sound but different in spelling and meaning.

Affect and effect are the two most frequently confused homonyms. Each can be used in several different senses, but if you learn only the meanings below, you will obviate (prevent by anticipatory action) 95 percent of the trouble most people have with these two words.

affect v.

To cause a change to take place in, to influence (to produce an effect upon):
Smoking affects the health. The mayor's reform will affect the life of every citizen.

To touch or move emotionally: The play so affected me that I cried.

To pretend, to imitate: I affect an aire of supercilious disdain. ("Affected" in "He is an affected ass" is the past participle of the verb affect as used in sense 3.)

Note: The word "affect" is never a noun, except in one sense, used by psychologists, who refer to "affective states" and "affect" -- with regard to a person's face and the feeling or range of feelings expressed therein. As in: "The patient had an unusual affect that probably traced back to an unhappy childhood."

The word "effect" is a noun or a verb

effect v.

To bring into being, to bring about, to cause to happen, to accomplish: I effected an honorable solution to a tough problem.

effect n.

A result or consequence (anything produced by an agent or cause): What effect will the mayor's reforms have upon the citizens?

The effect of the win was improved morale

More mnemonic spelling aids

2011-06-29T11:46:00.001-07:00

Try these mnemonic devices --

There is a rat in separate.

I have an independent dentist. (We also have an independent superintendent, who comes from Boston.)

The principal is my pal. "Principal" can also refer to a matter or thing of primary importance, or the capital sum placed at interest, due as a debt, or used as a fund, as in the principal of a loan.

A principle is a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine or assumption. As in, you are always true to your principles.

For the dance, your attendance is requested, just as it will be for you descendants.

A vast area was devastated.

Finally, something definite.

Like the letters you'll write on it, stationery has an "e" in it. (As opposed to stationary, or unmoving, objects.)

We're all all grateful for congratulations.

The U.S. Capitol building has a dome on it -- as do the "o"s in both words. Confusingly, Washington., D.C., is the capital of the United States. Why? The former word comes from the Capitoleum , the temple of Jupiter at Rome that sat atop the Capitoline hill. The latter comes from the Latin capitalis, meaning chief, or principal, (derived from the Latin word caput, meaning "head"). All you have to remember is the building has a domed "o." All other meanings are with an "a."

FedEx executive Shane O'Connor writes, "I remember one class in which [Ferdinand E.] Ruge was teaching us a way to remember how to correctly spell “exhilarate,” since it is often misspelled “exhilerate.” He stood in front of the class in his gray pinstriped three-piece suit and swung his pocket watch fob around as he sang, "La la la la la la la. Exhi-LA-rate exhi-LA-rate."

How can you learn for sure to spell tough words, like occurrence, or accommodate? Or parallel?

One good start is to pay a visit to Harbrace Chapter 18: Spelling and Hyphenation. The first seven pages are invaluable for anyone.

Neither leisure foreigner seized the weird heights

2011-06-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

Today's Knoxville News Sentinel reports that a Knox County Commission auditor sent emails to a county commissioner that included the sentence, "And your family are weirdos that go to a wierd (sic) church!" (Click here to read the whole story.)

The auditor, apparently unsure of the spelling of "weird," went ahead and spelled it both ways, figuring to be correct on one of them.

He would have done well to recall the mnemonic device that helps us remember the major exceptions to the "I before e" rule--i.e., the unforgettable sentence "Neither leisure foreigner seized the weird heights."

A mnemonic device is one that assists the memory, from the Greek mnemon--mindful. Mnemosyne (right) was the Greek goddess of memory and the mother, by Zeus, of the Muses.

Of course the "I before e" rule is, "I before e, except after c, or when sounded as 'a,' as in neighbor or weigh." ]

More mnemonic devices for spelling tomorrow.

Lay versus lie

2011-06-22T07:10:00.001-07:00

Today's Garner's Usage Tip of the Day takes up a longstanding quandary: the distinction between lay and lie.

Very simply, "lie" (= to recline, be situated) is intransitive -- it can't take a direct object {he lies on his bed}.

But "lay" (= to put down, arrange) is always transitive -- it needs a direct object {please lay the book on my desk}.

The verbs are inflected "lay-laid-laid-laying" and "lie-lay-lain-lying."

Because "lie" is intransitive, it has only an active voice {lie down for a while}. And because "lay" is transitive, it may be either active {he laid the blanket over her} or passive {the blanket was laid over her}.

To use "lay" without a direct object, in the sense of "lie," is nonstandard {I want to lay down} {he was laying in the sun}. But this error is very common in speech -- from the illiterate to the highly educated [to Bob Dylan -- "Lay, lady lay. Lay across my big brass bed."].

In fact, some commentators believe that people make this mistake more often than any other in the English language. Others claim that it's no longer a mistake -- or even that it never was. But make no mistake: using these verbs correctly is a mark of refinement.

The most unusual of these inflected forms, of course, is "lain," but most writers have little difficulty getting it right -- e.g.: "Katrina Kuratli said she and her husband, Dan, had just lain down in their bedroom when the bomb went off around 10:45 p.m." Mack Reed, "Pipe Bomb Rips Car, Jolts Simi Neighborhood," L.A. Times, 30 Apr. 1994, at B9.

Click here to email Bryan Garner.

To subscibe to garner's Usage Tip of the Day, click here.

How the 'Harbrace Handbook of English' Changed the Way Americans Learn About Writing

2011-06-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Click here to read the MetroPulse story by Brooks Clark and Cari Wade Gervin paying homage to Dr. John C. Hodges (right) of the University of Tennessee.

It was 70 years ago that Hodges wrote the Harbrace College Handbook, which today reigns as the best-selling textbook of all time.

Bryan Garner takes on four cases of grammatical illogic; hilarity ensues

2011-06-09T07:17:00.000-07:00

Today Bryan Garner's Usage Tip of the Day takes on four common cases of grammatical illogic, providing amusing examples.

Illogic (3).

Part A: Danglers and Misplaced Modifiers. Every dangler or misplaced modifier perverts logic to some degree, sometimes humorously -- e.g.: "I saw the Statue of Liberty flying into Newark." To avoid these disruptions of thought, remember that a participle should relate to a noun that's capable of performing the participle's action.

Part B: The Disjointed Appositive. Phrases intended to be in apposition shouldn't be separated -- e.g.: "A respected English legal authority on the common law, the view of William Blackstone permeated much of the early thinking on freedom of expression." John Murray, The Media Law Dictionary 11 (1978). (Blackstone himself, not Blackstone's view, is the respected authority.)

Part C: Mistaken Subject of a Prepositional Phrase. This problem crops up usually when a word or phrase intervenes between the noun and the prepositional phrase referring to that noun. Often, as here, the noun ("school bus") functions as an adjective: "Wallin was the school bus driver in which [read 'Wallin was driving the school bus in which'] Hillman and Ellington and Kleven were passengers."

Part D. Poor Exposition of Sequence. Don't ask your readers to assume what is not logically possible by your very assumptions -- e.g.: "The twin-engine turbo prop Merlin Fairchild 300 carrying driver Alan Kulwicki and three other men suddenly dropped off the radar screen and crashed shortly before landing." Karen Allen & Erik Brady, "Motor Sports," USA Today, 5 Apr. 1993, at C9. (Because the plane "landed" when it crashed, the logic of the temporal sequence is flawed.)

To subscribe to Garner's Usage Tip of the Day, click here.

Semicolon with 25-cent connecting words

2011-06-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

Harbrace rule 14a: Use a semicolon to connect independent clauses not linked by a coordinating conjuction (and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet).

Another fairly handy semicolon construction is the following:

Use a semi-colon before such 25-cent connecting words as "hence," "however," "moreover," "nevertheless," and "therefore" if they connect two complete thoughts and if they are the first word in the second.

Right: Duke is a good dog; however, he has a serious problem with his Milk Bone habit.

A comma follows these words if they cause a pause in the reading. You have to play it by ear. "Therefore," for example, often doesn't need a comma after it.
As in --
I think; therefore I am. (Cogito; ergo sum.)

Note: make sure to use commas around these words when they are used "parenthetically" in the middle of a sentence.

As in -- My fear for Duke, however, is that his Milk Bone addiction will affect his ability to love and work.

End of an era -- no more hyphen in "email"

2011-06-06T07:21:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press Stylebook, which rules like a god over its journalistic subjects, announced in March that the abbreviated term for “electronic mail” is losing its hyphen. So we are now supposed to write "email" instead of "e-mail."
This is a bigger deal than the change last year from "Web site" to "website."
This signals the end of an era, as one blogger put it, as we put aside a relic of a simpler time when Internet technology needed to be explained very carefully.
Snail mail is still to be written as two words. Is it time for a change there, too?

That pesky subjunctive

2011-06-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

A subhed in this week's Metro Pulse: "After five years locked up, Scott West has a lot to say -- about prison, downtown Knoxville, and people who wish he was [sic.] a little more repentant."

What the heck do we do with the subjunctive mood?

In the 1946 edition of Harbrace, University of Tennessee Professor John C. Hodges wrote, "Only a few distinctive forms of the subjunctive remain," noting the top two --

Required Subjunctive -- chiefly in 'that' clauses of motions, resolutions, recommendations, order or demands." [e.g., "I demand that he see a physician."]

Preferred or Optional Subjunctive -- especially in contrary-to-fact conditions and in expressions of doubts, wishes, or regrets. [e.g., "If the apple were ripe, it would be delicious."]

Hodges also made the distinction between formal and colloquial expression, giving four examples of colloquialisms we hear all the time, such as the one in the example above, "I wish that he was here."

More recent Harbraces state Rule 7d(2) as follows: The mood of a verb expresses the writer's attitude toward the factuality of what he or she is saying. The indicative mood makes statements--a definite attitude; the imperative mood issues commands or requests--an insistent attitude; and the subjunctive mood expresses situations that are hypothetical or conditional--a tentative attitude.

Indicative Dannice calls me every day.

Imperative Call me every day, Dannice

Subjunctive It is important that Dannice call me every day.

Examples of mis-subjunctification:

Atop our Sunday's "Week in Review" section of The New York Times stood the jarring headline: "If Bill Clinton Was President." It was corrected in later editions and on the Times website to read, "If Bill Clinton Were President."

Here's a similar case from the Knoxville News Sentinel a couple of years ago: "A photo from Tuesday's game showed [Pat Summitt] with her hand on [Shannon] Bobbitt's shoulder, delivering instructions as if she was whispering a secret in Bobbitt's left ear.

David Hunter's op-ed on grammar mistakes we see all too regularly

2011-05-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

In his Knoxville News Sentinel column entitled (sic.) You're grammatical errors can cost you, former cop David Hunter notes a few mistakes we (unfortunately) see all the time.

Set off non-restrictive phrases or clauses in commas

2011-05-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

Click here for a discussion of this all-important rule.

The challenge of putting "only" where it belongs

2011-05-19T09:01:00.001-07:00

Nothing tests the precision of our writing like the placement of modifiers like "only" and "just."

Note how the meaning in the following sentences changes according to the position of only.

She said that she loved only him. [She loved no one else.]
She said that she only loved him. [Even love has its limitations.]
She said that only she loved him. [No one else loved him.]
She said only that she loved him. [She said nothing else.]
Only she said that she loved him. [No one else said it.]
She only said that she loved him. [She didn't mean it.]

This is covered in Harbrace Chapter 25, entitled Coherence: Misplaced Parts, Dangling Modifiers, which starts with the straightforward advice, "Keep related parts of a sentence together. Avoid dangling modifiers."

Rule 25a: To make your meaning clear to readers, place modifiers near the words they modify.

Section 25(1) reads, "In formal English, place modifiers such as almost, only, just, even, hardly, nearly and merely immediately before the words they modify."

The placement of "only" and "just" can change the meaning of a sentence in any number of ways.

Here are several examples of misplaced "only"s:

From the Knoxville News Sentinel: "A Parade All-America, [tailback Gerald] Riggs only managed 256 yards before [coach Trooper] Taylor's arrival."
The point is that 256 yards were not that many, so the "only" should go next to 256. As the sentence reads now, it implies that Riggs only "managed" 256 yards--that is, he didn't do something else with them.

In another News Sentinel story, the point guard for the Christian Academy of Knoxville hoops team commented on a 6'5" youngster who had recently arrived at his school: "They said he was only playing baseball." [This could mean that he was doing the sport more for fun than for long-term ambition.]
The point guard meant to say, "They said he was playing only baseball,"-- that is, not playing basketball, as a 6'5" youngster should.

Before the college football bowl season a few years ago, the News Sentinel explained that UT fans had been asked to send in ticket requests for two bowl games, so the ticketing process would be further along when bowl selections were announced. In the story, an otherwise carefully worded sentence reads, "Fans are only obligated to purchase tickets for the bowl in which Tennessee plays."
With the word "only" placed as it is, the meaning of the sentence is that fans are only obligated to purchase tickets, they are not required or bound in some stricter way. To achieve the meaning intended, it should read, "Fans are obligated to purchase tickets only for the bowl in which Tennessee plays."

Harmon Killebrew's beautiful handwriting

2011-05-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

Harmon Killebrew, who hit 573 home runs for the Washington Senators, Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals, died of cancer yesterday at age 74.

As Thomas Boswell writes in today's Washington Post, Killebrew was always known for his gracious demeanor, his great strength and his self-discipline on and off the field.

As the autograph above attests, he also had beautiful handwriting. Killebrew wrote this note at the request of Sports Illustrated baseball writer Steve Wulf, who knew of my affection for the old Senators, who moved to Texas to become the Rangers in 1970, one step removed from Killebrew's old, old Senators, who moved to Minnesota to become the Twins in 1961.

Killebrew was born and grew up in Payette, Idaho. He said he got his great strength from hustling 10-gallon milk cans in his summers as a young man. Presumably there was a grammar school teacher in Payette who taught him his elegant hand.

In a fond obituary in today's Minneapolis StarTribune, La Velle E. Neale III writes that "former Twins outfielder Torii Hunter remembered Killebrew as a mentor, both on and off the field. He said Killebrew looked at his autograph several years ago and deemed it to be illegible. 'I had a doctor's signature,' said Hunter, now with the Los Angeles Angels. 'I had a 'T' and an 'I' and a dot-dot. He said, "What the hell is this?" Killebrew told Hunter that if kids found that baseball, they would start throwing it around the park because they couldn't read the signature.' "

Commas after introductory words containing a verb form

2011-05-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

From Ruge Rules

The Rule: Place a comma after any purely introductory group of words containing a verb form.

As in: Instead of forgetting about the incident, he sought out the culprits.

Or: After working the problem, he sat down.

Or (with an understood, or elliptical, "I am"): Once in bed, I go right to sleep.

BUT: be careful about words at the start of a sentence with a verb among them that are actually the subject of the sentence.

As in: To expect every student to do his or her reasonable best is not to expect too much. (No comma.)

This is in the Harbrace College Handbook, under 12b (1).

Rule 12b(2) pertains to Introductory phrases before independent clauses.
It says, "Omit the comma after introductory prepositional phrases when no misreading would result:

As in: In a crisis we chose Lincoln and FDR. In between we choose what's-his-name.

Compare: Because of this, beauty differs radically from truth and goodness in one very important aspect.

Back to grammar fundamentals, says Kim Brooks of Salon.com

2011-05-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

Death to high school English

by Kim Brooks of Salon.com:

My college students don't understand commas, far less how to write an essay. Is it time to rethink how we teach?

Still life: John C. Hodges and the first six editions of the Harbrace College Handbook

2011-04-08T11:53:00.000-07:00

Libel against grammarians in today's Times

2011-01-14T07:54:00.000-08:00

"As Mr. Loughner has tried to explain it in Web postings, English grammar is not merely usage that enjoys common acceptance. Rather, it is nothing less than a government conspiracy to control people’s minds. Perhaps more bizarre, even potentially troubling, is that he is not the only one out there clinging to this belief. Some grammarians say they hear it more often than you may think."
-- Clyde Haberman in today's Times.

N.Y. / REGION January 14, 2011
NYC: Subjects and Verbs as Evil Plot
By CLYDE HABERMAN
Even before the Tucson shootings, Jared L. Loughner acted weirdly and darkly in many ways. Nonetheless, for bizarreness, his rants about grammar stand out.

"While" -- a comma makes it mean "whereas"

2011-01-12T07:44:00.000-08:00

From today's News Sentinel:
Power forward Alex Tyus led the way for the Gators with 18 points, while shooting guard Kenny Boynton scored 17, including five in overtime.

From Ruge Rules:

The Rule: "While" can be used to mean "during the time that," and it can be used to mean "whereas."

In the former case, while is not preceded by a comma.
In the latter case, while must be preceded by a comma.

So: I can't study while my little brother is beating on his drum.
And: The Blue Ridge mountains are beautiful, while the Rockies are grand.

Purists and copyeditors tend to frown on the use of "while" to mean "whereas," because the meaning depends upon the comma and points of punctuation have a perverse way of not being where they should be.

If you choose to use "while" to mean "whereas," it's important to be assiduous in your punctuation.

Minimize prepositional phrases

2011-01-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

Today we pass along Garner's Usage Tip of the Day:

The Preposition Quotient.

In lean writing, it's a good idea to minimize prepositional phrases. In flabby prose, a ratio of one preposition for every four words is common; in better, leaner writing, the quotient is more like one preposition for every 10-15 words.

Five editorial methods can tighten sentences marred with too many prepositions.

The prepositional phrase can be deleted as surplusage; for example, it's often possible in a given context to change a phrase such as "senior vice president of the corporation" to "senior vice president" -- if the corporate context is already clear.

Uncovering buried verbs often eliminates as many as two prepositions each time; thus, "is in violation of" becomes "violates."

It's sometimes possible to replace a prepositional phrase with an adverb; so "she criticized the manuscript with intelligence" becomes "she criticized the manuscript intelligently."

Many prepositional phrases resolve themselves into possessives; thus, "for the convenience of the reader" becomes "for the reader's convenience."

And finally, a change from passive voice to active often entails removing a preposition; so "the ball was hit by Jane" becomes "Jane hit the ball."

To subscribe to Garner's Usage Tip of the Day, click here:

Make those antecedents and pronouns agree!

2010-12-30T07:52:00.000-08:00

Here is the lead sentence in the lead story in a recent Knoxville News Sentinel: "Ask anyone involved in managing stormwater runoff to cite their biggest problem, and the answer is universal -- enforcement."

One quick fix is to replace "their" with "his or her." Antecedents like "everyone, " "someone, " "everybody," "each," "either" are singular.

[We used to treat "none" strictly as singular, because it is a contraction of "not one," but these days Harbrace 6a(7) says, "When used as subjects, "all," "any," "some," and "none" may take either a singular or a plural verb, generally depending on the context. Praise be.]

A better fix in the sentence above might be to change "anyone" to a plural -- e.g., people, folks, civil engineers, those.

Note: Harbrace 6b(1) deals with agreements of antecedents and pronouns and has lots of great tips.

In the mood . . . for the subjunctive

2010-12-14T08:04:00.000-08:00

Atop our Sunday's "Week in Review" section of The New York Times stood the jarring headline: "If Bill Clinton Was President." It was corrected in later editions and on the Times website to read, "If Bill Clinton Were President."

Here's a similar case from the Knoxville News Sentinel several years ago: "A photo from Tuesday's game showed [Pat Summitt] with her hand on [Shannon] Bobbitt's shoulder, delivering instructions as if she was whispering a secret in Bobbitt's left ear.

Harbrace (14th edition) Rule 7d(2): The mood of a verb expresses the writer's attitude toward the factuality of what he or she is saying. The indicative mood makes statements--a definite attitude; the imperative mood issues commands or requests--an insistent attitude; and the subjunctive mood expresses situations that are hypothetical or conditional--a tentative attitude.

Indicative Dannice calls me every day.

Imperative Call me every day, Dannice

Subjunctive It is important that Dannice call me every day.

What the heck do we do with the subjunctive mood? Even between the 14th and 15th editions of the Hodges' Harbrace Handbook, the editors made some changes to the section on mood.

Neither one of those sections is much of an improvement over what University of Tennessee Professor John C. Hodges had in his 2nd edition, back in 1946. "Only a few distinctive forms of the subjunctive remain," wrote Hodges, who went on to describe the top two, the --

Required Subjunctive -- chiefly in 'that' clauses of motions, resolutions, recommendations, order or demands." [e.g., "I demand that he see a physician."]

Preferred or Optional Subjunctive -- especially in contrary-to-fact conditions and in expressions of doubts, wishes, or regrets. [e.g., "If the apple were ripe, it would be delicious."]

Hodges also made the distinction between formal and colloquial expression, giving four examples of colloquialisms we hear all the time -- e.g., "I wish that he was here."
"Many writers don't know what that subjunctive case is, using 'was' when 'were' is correct," observes David Burns of Knoxville, who had Hodges for freshman English in 1950 and still has his copy of the 1946 edition of the Harbrace College Handbook, inscribed by Hodges himself.
"He was a grammarian through and through," says Burns. "I think of him when I read even magazines that have good writers and see one grammatical error after another." Burns remembers Hodges' particular insistence about the use of the gerund: "It is a noun, not a verb. I appreciate your coming not you coming."
"He was an imposing presence," Burns remembers. "There was no mistaking that he was around. I never heard the first critical comment about him, and I don't think you could find anyone who would have. He was simply one of the finest gentlemen I ever knew."

Adverbial Clauses--Two warnings about

2010-11-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

Here's the first sentence of a pretty good column in today's University of Tennessee Daily Beacon:

"This last election has seen a rather interesting polarization of American politics, something of which I have been guilty myself, such as when I wrote a column after the health care vote on how Democrats were trying to destroy America."

It conveniently illustrates both warnings in the Ruge Rule below -- about adverbial phrases as predicate nominatives and as objects of prepositions.

Corrected:

"This last election has seen a rather interesting polarization of American politics, something of which I have been guilty myself, such as [when] the time I wrote a column after the health care vote [on how] asserting that Democrats were trying to destroy America.

Here's an SAT Question of the Day that turns on the same rule:

British author Charles Dodgson, best known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll, is renowned for when he wrote two of the most famous and admired children’s books in the world, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass.
A. is renowned for when he wrote
B. renowned in that he wrote
C. received renown, he wrote
D. is renowned for writing
E. was renowned and wrote

From Ruge Rules

1) An adverbial clause may never be the object of a preposition.

Wrong: I suppose death is like when you go to sleep and don't wake up.
Right: I suppose death is like going to sleep and not waking up.
(Note: in correcting for the used of the adverbial clause as the object of the preposition "like," we are automatically correcting for the used of the indefinite "you.")

2) An adverbial clause may never be used as a predicate nominative.

Wrong: The reason I like my math class is because Doc Arnds keeps me on my toes.
Right: The reason I like my math class is that Doc Arnds keeps me on my toes.

Wrong: Cheating is when you copy someone else's work.
Right: Cheating is copying someone else's work.

Be careful about the spelling of "bated breath"

2010-11-09T13:27:00.000-08:00

No. 2 on Daphne Gray-Grant's Top 25 grammar and language mistakes is misspelling "bated breath."
"If you write baited breath," explains Gray-Grant on Ragan.com, "everyone will suspect fishing is your favorite hobby. The word should be spelled bated, which comes from abated, meaning held."

Another good one on her list is No. 5:
Confusing “racked” with “wracked.” If you are racked with nerves, you are feeling as if you are being stretched on the torture device, the rack. You rack your brain when you try to write difficult stories. Wrack, on the other hand, has to do with ruinous accidents. With luck, this won’t apply to your writing, but it might just apply to the stock market, which has been wracked by recession.

And then there's the very important No. 21:
Using “they” when referring to a business. “Starbucks said they would give everyone a free latte today.” Although this might sound right, the correct sentence is: “Starbucks said it would give everyone a free latte today.” And if that grates on your ears, then rewrite the sentence to avoid the problem: “Starbucks is offering everyone a free latte today.”

Mnemonic Devices (for spelling)

2010-11-08T13:25:00.001-08:00

John T. Bird of Birmingham, Ala., is an old friend best known for writing Twin Killing: The Bill Mazeroski Story and successfully campaigning to get the longtime Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Lately Bird has put his energy behind mnemonic devices for spelling, as he prepares to publish Fuchsia Shock: 151 Common But Difficult Words You Will Never Misspell Again!

With illustrations by Stefanie Slaughter, Fuchsia Shock coaches us to associate exhilarating with hilarious. "Example: laughing in the theater at the hilarious movie was an exhilarating experience."

In one entry, Bird advises us to associate potato with NATO. Similarly, he advises us to think of currency to remember that second "r" in occurrence. When the book comes out, it should be a hit, although Bird and Slaughter may find themselves adding words in future editions.

A mnemonic device is one that assists the memory, from the Greek mnemon--mindful. (Mnemosyne was the Greek goddess of memory and the mother of the Muses by Zeus.)

We all know "I before e, except after c, or when sounded as "a", as in neighbor or weigh." Fewer people know the mnemonic sentence that can help us remember the major exceptions: "Neither leisure foreigner seized the weird heights."

FedEx executive Shane O'Connor writes, "I remember one class in which [Ferdinand E.] Ruge was teaching us a way to remember how to correctly spell “exhilarate,” since it is often misspelled “exhi lerate.” He stood in front of the class in his gray pinstriped three-piece suit and swung his pocket watch fob around as he sang, "La la la la la la la. Exhi-LA-rate exhi-LA-rate."

Try these---

There is a rat in separate.

I have an independent dentist. (We also have an independent superintendent, who comes from Boston.)

The principal is my pal. "Principal" can also refer to a matter or thing of primary importance, or the capital sum placed at interest, due as a debt, or used as a fund, as in the principal of a loan.

A principle is a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine or assumption. As in, you are always true to your principles.

For the dance, your attendance is requested, just as it will be for you descendants.

A vast area was devastated.

Finally, something definite.

Like the letters you'll write on it, stationery has an "e" in it. (As opposed to stationary, or unmoving, objects.)

We're all all grateful for congratulations.

The U.S. Capitol building has a dome on it -- as do the "o"s in both words. Confusingly, Washington., D.C., is the capital of the United States.
Why? The former word comes from the Capitoleum , the temple of Jupiter at Rome that sat atop the Capitoline hill. The latter comes from the Latin capitalis, meaning chief, or principal, (derived from the Latin word caput, meaning "head"). All you have to remember is the building has a domed "o." All other meanings are with an "a."

How can you learn for sure to spell tough words, like occurrence, or accommodate? Or parallel? One good start is to pay a visit to Harbrace Chapter 18: Spelling and Hyphenation. The first seven pages are invaluable for anyone.

James Webb, Scots-Irish culture and guns

2010-11-04T09:42:00.001-07:00

In this week's MetroPulse, Jesse Fox Mayshark does an excellent job of answering the question, "Why do East Tennesseans love their guns?"

Among many insights, Mayshark hits paydirt when he invokes Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, Sen. James Webb's 2004 book that was featured in a political context a couple of years ago in a Grammar Tip of the Day.

In Mayshark's story, he quotes University of Tennessee law professor (and blogger) Glenn Reynolds as he eloquently describes the Scots-Irish culture of Appalachia as follows:

“Their model is that of the independent frontiersman who takes care of himself and his family with no interference from the state.

"They are conservative in the sense that they cling to America’s unique pre-modern tradition—a non-feudal society with a sort of medieval liberty at large for everyman.

"To these people, ‘sociological’ is an epithet. Life is tough and competitive. Manhood means responsibility and caring for your own.”

The 50th Anniversary of Ted Williams' last game -- and "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu"

2010-09-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

Fifty years ago today, the Splendid Splinter played his last game and hit a homer in his final at bat. John Updike memorialized the moment in“Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,” which Charles McGrath described in Sunday's New York Times as "probably the most celebrated baseball essay ever." [To read McGrath's story, click on here.]

McGrath notes that "Updike had actually scheduled an adulterous assignation that day. But when he reached the woman’s apartment, on Beacon Hill, he found that he had been stood up: no one was home. 'So I went, as promised, to the game,' he wrote years later, 'and my virtue was rewarded.' "

Strangely, Updike never wrote another baseball story before or after. For years there was a small letter from Updike framed on the wall of the managing editor's office at Sports Illustrated, declining an offer to write another baseball story and noting the irony that, based on the "Hub Fans" piece, everyone assumed Updike was a baseball aficionado, which, Updike said in his letter, he was not.

Nonetheless, as McGrath writes, "It’s not too much to say that “Hub Fans” changed sportswriting. Affectionately mocking the tradition of sports clichés (as in the title, which didn’t actually appear in any of Boston’s seven dailies at the time, but easily could have), the essay demonstrated that you could write about baseball, of all things, in a way that was personal, intelligent, even lyrical. Updike compares Williams to Achilles, to a Calder mobile, to Donatello’s David, standing on third base as if the bag were the head of Goliath.
"A groundskeeper reminds Updike of Wordsworth’s mushroom gatherers. In a couple of memorable phrases, calling Fenway Park a “lyric little bandbox” that looks “like the inside of an old-fashioned, peeping-type Easter egg,” Updike gave the place a freshly painted sheen, so that if you grew up in Boston, as I did, you could never look at the old ball yard the same way again."

Near the end of Updike's story, he described the moments after Williams' home run, when he refused to emerge from the dugout and doff his cap to the cheering fans: "The papers said that the other players, and even the umpires on the field, begged him to come out and acknowledge us in some way, but he never had and did not now. Gods do not answer letters."

To read "Hub Fans," click here.

Dartmouth President touts the importance of effective writing

2010-09-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

At the 241st Convocation of Dartmouth College, Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim said, "Among the many things I have learned from the Dartmouth faculty, one of the most significant lessons is that the ability to write clearly, effectively, and creatively may very well be the most important skill you will be taught in your time here.
"My expectation, as I have always said, is that each of you must go out and change the world after you have completed your time here. After many years of working on social problems like world poverty and lack of access to health care, it has become clear to me that for you to succeed in your world-changing mission you must leave Dartmouth with the ability to think clearly, imaginatively, and critically, and then render your thoughts in the written word. . . .
" . . . Now, don’t get me wrong: I am still a wildly enthusiastic believer in the power of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to help us solve problems. But it was in graduate school that I realized changing the world would require the ability, as one of your professors put it to me just the other day, to “see the world as it is, imagine the world you want to create, and then render that vision in a way that convinces others that it is both attainable and desirable.”

To read Kim's full address, click here.

Review of Carry the Rock by Jay Jennings

2010-09-14T07:03:00.001-07:00

Click here to read the excellent Wall Street Journal review of Jay Jennings' book Carry the Rock: Race, Football, and the Soul of an American City.

Are tests biased against the apathetic?

2010-09-06T08:28:00.001-07:00

An interesting study hints that caring matters on standardized tests. Listen to a report here.

Profile of University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley

2010-09-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

To read Brooks Clark's profile of Derek Dooley, click here.

Above, then-UVA coach George Welsh with receiver Derek Dooley.

perquisite; prerequisite

2010-06-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

From Garner's Usage Tip of the Day

"Perquisite" (often shortened to "perk") = a privilege or benefit given in addition to one's salary or regular wages {executive perquisites such as club memberships}.

"Prerequisite" = a previous condition or requirement {applicants must satisfy all five prerequisites before being interviewed}.

Although Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage says there is "almost no evidence of the words' being interchanged," the confusion certainly does occur -- e.g.:

"Have executive salaries, bonuses and other corporate prerequisites [read 'perquisites'] been cut, or will the proposed rate increase maintain them?" "Sorry, Wrong Numbers," Wash. Post, 11 July 1993, at C8.

"Then, it needs to start selling permanent seat licenses, luxury boxes and club seats, all the wonderful prerequisites [read 'perquisites' or 'perks'] an NFL owner requires." Ken Rosenthal, "Forget Legal Avenues, Take Baltimore's Route to NFL," Baltimore Sun, 30 Nov. 1995, at D1.

"The five-year contract has an effective date of March 1. In addition to salary, it also provides for negotiated prerequisites [read 'perquisites' or 'perks'] and compensation features." Doug Hensley, "Tech, Dickey Agree to $ 1 Million Deal," Amarillo Daily News, 7 May 1996, at D1.

"Job descriptions are detailed and present information on duties, salaries, prerequisites [read 'perquisites'], employment and advancement opportunities, relevant organizations, and special advice for getting into the desired field." Kent Anderson, Book Rev., School Arts, 1 Dec. 1996, at 46.

Setting off in commas states (after cities) and years (after dates)

2010-04-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

Not sure why, but many college students have trouble setting off states (after cities) and years (after dates) in commas , as in -- Boston, Massachusetts, is the cradle of liberty. And, Tracy applied for the job on April 13, 1993, and accepted it on Monday, May 24, 1993.

This falls in a note under the sacred of Harbrace section 12d, which states:

Commas set off nonrestrictive and other parenthetical elements as well as constrasted elements, items in dates, and so on.

Nonrestrictive clauses or phrases give nonessential information about a noun or pronoun. They can be omitted without changing the meaning. Restrictive clauses or phrases are essential to the clear identification of the word or words they refer to. They limit (rather than describe) those words by making them refer to a specific thing or person or to a particular group.

Subnote:
Geographical Names, Items in Dates and Addresses
This subnote contains the examples above. Note that commas are omitted when the day of the month is not given or when the day of the month precedes rather than follows the month (European style), as in -- Tracy applied for the job in April 1993 and accepted in on Monday, 24 May 1993.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Kathleen Parker thanks her 11th-grade English teacher

2010-04-14T07:16:00.000-07:00

A sprig of verbena and the gifts of a great teacher
By Kathleen Parker
In 11th grade, my life changed in a flicker of light

Mr. James Gasque enters the Grammar Tip of the Day pantheon.
Bring back diagramming sentences!

From Ann Wylie's Writing Tips

2010-04-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

Ann Wylie is a great writing teacher, and her Wylie's Writing Tips e-newsletters are filled with useful, practical ideas. (Click here to subscribe.)

Here are three tips from her April issue:

After a couple of months of reading on a reader, I decided to review my clippings. What I found will help me — and, I hope, you — model the masters, or steal techniques from some of the year's best writers to make your own writing more creative and compelling.

1. Use metaphor, not modifiers.
One problem with modifiers — thin, lean, straight — is that they don't paint pictures in your readers' heads. Instead of simply describing your subject with adjectives and adverbs, engage your readers' senses with analogy.
Meg Gardiner used this technique to describe a charismatic religious leader in her Edgar Award-winning mystery, China Lake:
"Peter Wyoming didn’t shake hands with people; he hit them with his presence like a rock fired from a sling-shot. He was a human nail, lean and straight with brush-cut hair, and when I first saw him he was carrying a picket sign and enough rage to scorch the ground."
Find yourself writing an adjective or adverb? Could you develop an analogy instead?

2. Coin a word.
Rebecca Goldstein is quite the neologist. In 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, she creates half-and-half words in this passage:
"Auerbach harbors such impatience for the glib literati—the 'gliberati,' as one of his own digerati had christened them—that Cass has wondered whether there might not be some personal history."
Can't find just the right word? Why not make one up?

3. Twist a phrase.
To call attention to an idea, change a word or two in a colloquialism to give it new meaning.
After seeing David Mamet's Boston Marriage hilariously performed by the Kansas City Actors Theatre, I read the play to make sure I didn't miss any lines like this phrase twister:
"ANNA: Have you taken a vow of arrogance?"
Want to call readers' attention to your point? Surprise and delight your readers with twist of phrase.

Seven tips to improve your writing

2010-03-10T12:16:00.000-08:00

From Writing that Works

SEVEN TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING

Writers must keep pushing to improve and to stay interested. Here are some ways to do both.

1. Read about writing. Look at many new books and buy the 10 to 12 a year that seem to offer at least two or three ideas or to reinforce the basics.

2. Attend writing seminars. At least once every other year attend a writing seminar to get reinforcement and hear others' points of view.

3. Soak in good writing. Read such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated and Vanity Fair. Read what you like and admire. Read as a writer; when you read something really good, go back and analyze it. Look for techniques you can use.

4. Notice how broadcast interviewers work. For example, Bill Moyers does extensive homework and shows intense interest in his subjects. Watch for questions and techniques you can use.

5. Don't try to perfect everything at once. Work on different elements on different pieces. For instance, on your next piece focus on writing great verbs.

6. Edit a paragraph or two of someone else's writing each day. Select a paragraph, perhaps from a newspaper, and improve it.

7. Talk shop. Keep your batteries charged by talking to other writers, whether in monthly departmental meetings or in groups writing completely different material.

SOURCE: WRITING THAT WORKS, a print-only, bimonthly newsletter.
Nonsubscribers may sign up here for a free trial subscription.

Scotty Hopson of the UT Vols profiled in Metro Pulse

2010-03-05T07:43:00.000-08:00

Despite the Behind-the-Scenes Drama, the UT Men's Hoops Team Rallies Together

Heading into March Madness after a soap-opera season, the Vols’ men’s team finds an unlikely hoops hero: Scotty Hopson

By Brooks Clark
Metro Pulse
Wednesday, March 3, 2010

For a profile of UT basketball player Scotty Hopson, click here

Article summary: "The University of Tennessee’s athletic program has certainly seen its share of controversy in the past several months, with various arrests and sudden estrangements. And with the dismissal of star player Tyler Smith, it looked to be a grim season for the men’s basketball team after several rebuilding years under coach Bruce Pearl. But what do you know—in classic underdog fashion, the team pulled together a strong season. And one of its new leaders became Scotty Hopson. As the team heads into March Madness, Brooks Clark introduces us to its unlikely hero."

As the clock ticked down to zero against Florida, University of Tennessee guard Scotty Hopson picked up his dribble and launched the basketball high into the Thompson-Boling Arena rafters.
More.

Sad day for spelling -- "Mohammed Ali" in The New Yorker

2010-01-21T07:25:00.000-08:00

In Ken Auletta's story about the Obama Administraton and the media in this week's New Yorker, Auletta quotes from Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson's book The Battle for America 2008: "At the risk of triggering the very reaction that concerns me, I don't know if you are Mohammed Ali or Floyd Patterson when it comes to taking a punch. You care far too much what is written and said about you."

Since the name of arguably the greatest athlete of the 20th century is spelled "Muhammad Ali, " The New Yorker should have put a [sic.] in there. This is especially strange since the editor of The New Yorker, David Remnick, is the author of the fabulous book King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero. (Although, to be fair, the name in the title is misspelled in several places on the Amazon listing.)

Tomorrow: an anecdote from the 1970s about English director Jon Amiel, whose movie Creation is reviewed in this week's New Yorker.

Use the comparative degree with 2, superlative with 3 or more

2009-11-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

From yesterday's Parade magazine: "[Hugh] Grant grew up in London, the youngest of two brothers."

Harbrace 4c (1) Use the comparative to denote a greater degree or to refer to two in a comparison.

The metropolitan area is much bigger than it was five years ago.
She's the older of his two children.

(2) Use the superlative to denote the greatest degree or to refer to three or more in a comparison.

The interests of the family are best served by open communication.
Bert is the fastest of the three runners.

Lost Chapters of "A Death in the Family" and the Agee centennial celebrations

2009-11-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

This fall the University of Tennessee has been celebrating the James Agee Centennial.

This coming weekend includes lectures by two prominent UT professors -- Paul Ashdown on Agee’s lost writings by and Michael A. Lofaro on his five years of editing work on A Death in the Family: A Restoration of the Author's Text (UT Press).

As Knoxvillians know, James Agee's original manuscript had been reworked by a friend of Agee's after Agee's sudden death in 1955. Four of many "lost chapters" appeared in Harper's under the headline "Enter the Ford."

Knoxvillians will delight in many descriptions of 1913 Knoxville, such as that of riding the open streetcar from Gay Street downtown out to Chilhowee Park for the fair, where Agee's father takes offense at an imagined slight by a carnie, which initiates a long, priceless series of whupass-type exchanges like the following: "If you're lookin for trouble," the man said, "just say the word, cause there's plenty here that's paid to find it."

"Just if you want it," daddy said. "If you want it I'll give you all I got. You and them too. Way you talked tother Satdy you was looking for it."

The lost chapters present a new element to the novel -- that of "daddy's" new Ford as an alluring, yet ominous addition to the idyllic world of Agee's childhood. At one point Laura, the mother says, "... something dreadful is going to happen, Jay. Something irreparable. To our family. In that auto."

We also see an early example of road rage, as a speeding, honking, begoggled driver on Highland Avenue roars by a horse and buggy and then Jay's Ford, toppling the family to the side of the street, then looks back with a grin. "Why you crazy God damn son of a bitch I like to bust yer f---- God damn jaw!" And his door was already wrenched open and one foot was out before he realized the uselessness. "I swear to God I could kill a man like that," he said. "I mean it. I could kill him and it'd be a pleasure to."

Some things haven't changed too much on Knoxville's roadways.

"Who's your Daddy" redux: the New York Post taunts Pedro Martinez

2009-11-05T06:54:00.000-08:00

The New York Post strives each day to equal the greatest tabloid headline of all time: Headless body found in topless bar.

Yesterday, perhaps testing the bounds of objective journalism, the Post's ran the front page above.

The "Daddy" reference goes back four years, to Martinez's memorable words after a tough outing against the Yankees.

To honor the Bronx Bombers, we reprise the discussion of who's vs. whose and other pesky contractions vs. possessives.

Right: "Who's interested in finding out whose books these are?"
Right: "Who's your Daddy?" chanted the crowd at Yankee Stadium when Pedro Martinez, then with the Red Sox, came on in relief.
Right: Whose team won the ACLS?

Like "your" and "you're" and "its and it's," "whose" and "who's" are misused every day, I guess because the apostrophe makes you think "possessive."

Anyway --

"Who's" is a contraction of "who is."
"Whose" is the possessive pronoun.

"You're" is a contraction of "you are."
"Your" is the possessive pronoun.

"It's" is a contraction of "it is."
"Its" is the possessive pronoun.

Click here for a full discussion of the expression "Who's your daddy?"

Click here for photos of Yankees fans taunting Pedro back in 2005.

Praise for Chuck Berry, the poet laureate of rock 'n' roll

2009-11-02T08:53:00.000-08:00

As John Lennon once said, "If you tried to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry." Berry's advice (much like that of Strunk & White): "When you're writing a song, nouns and verbs will carry you right through."

OPINION
November 02, 2009
Editorial Notebook: Memphis
By VERLYN KLINKENBORG
Chuck Berry's "Memphis, Tennessee" has been haunting me - the metrical precision of the lyrics, its emotional realism and, of course, the revelation in the penultimate line.
--------------

In the Times op-ed piece linked above, Klinkenborg mentions that "Memphis" reminds us how much country was in Chuck Berry's rock 'n' roll. Yes, Berry's first hit was a country parody, Maybellene. But he also wrote lyrics like ---

Milo Venus was a beautiful lass,
had the world in the palm of her hand.
She lost both her arms in a wrasslin' match,
to meet a brown-eyed handsome man.

And of course --

Roll over, Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the news.

Odious -- one of the most fun words in our language

2009-09-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

from wordsmith.org

odious

PRONUNCIATION:
(O-dee-uhs)

MEANING:
adjective: Highly offensive; inspiring and deserving hatred.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin odium (hatred), from odisse (to hate). Ultimately from the Indo-European root od- (to hate) that is also the source of the words annoy, noisome, and ennui.

USAGE: "All over the US there are people whose lives are being destroyed for lack of proper health care provision, and there is no sight more odious than the rich, powerful, and arrogant trying to keep it that way."Simon Hoggart; Why the American Right Make Me Sick; The Guardian (London, UK); Aug 15, 2009.

College Advice, From Nine Perspectives

2009-09-09T07:08:00.000-07:00

From Sunday's New York Times
OPINION
September 06, 2009
Op-Ed Contributors:

College Advice, From People Who Have Been There Awhile
Educators give some helpful advice to young adults entering school this fall.

The Hunt for a Good Teacher
By STANLEY FISH
Find the best teachers and take a writing class.

An Argument Worth Having
By GERALD GRAFF
Cut through the jargon, analyze and debate.

Get Lost. In Books.
By HAROLD BLOOM
Read the authors that are difficult and demand rereading.

Don’t Alienate Your Professor
By CAROL BERKIN
Once in class, participate.

Play Politics
By GARRY WILLS
Have passion for learning and for your beliefs.

Go the Wrong Way
By MARTHA NUSSBAUM
Think about life, not just a job.

Off-Campus Life
By JAMES MacGREGOR BURNS
Read a good newspaper; it will be your path to the world at large.

My Crush on DNA
By NANCY HOPKINS
Fall in love with your vision of the future.

Change Course
By STEVEN WEINBERG
College is never what one expects.

Losing ground on the "like" vs. "as" front

2009-08-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

From TrueMajority.org:
"Everybody is talking about health care - but they don't understand it like Ted Kennedy did."

The use of "like" before an expression with a verb in it is basically accepted now in newspapers, including the N.Y. Times, even though it is not AP Style. It has always been accepted in conversation, in quotes in stories, for veracity ("We didn't play like we wanted to"), and in Peter Frampton songs such as "Do you feel like we do?"
But students need to know that such usage can burn them big time in serious writing. And would it kill anyone to say "as" or "the way"?

Defenestrate -- toss out a window

2009-08-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

from wordsmith.org

defenestrate

PRONUNCIATION: (dee-FEN-uh-strayt)

MEANING: verb tr.: To throw someone or something out of a window.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin de- (out of) + fenestra (window).

There have been many defenestrations over the course of history, but the most famous, and the one that inspired the word defenestration, was the Defenestration of Prague on May 23, 1618 . Two imperial regents and their secretary were thrown out of a window of the Prague Castle in a fight over religion. The men landed on a dung heap and survived. The Defenestration of Prague was a prelude to the Thirty Years' War.

See a Lego sculpture of the Defenestration of Prague. Also, check out the defenestration of various articles of furniture in this unique San Francisco sculpture.

USAGE: "When someone in a Joe Lansdale novel is defenestrated, you feel like shaking the glass shards out of your lap."Jeff Salamon; The Further Adventures of Hap and Leonard; The Austin American-Statesman (Texas); Jul 4, 2009.

Simpatico -- like-minded, Mediterranean style

2009-08-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

from wordsmith.org

simpatico

PRONUNCIATION:
(sim-PAH-ti-ko, -PAT-i-)

MEANING:
adjective:1. Like-minded; compatible.2. Congenial; likable.

ETYMOLOGY:
Via Italian or Spanish from Latin sympathia (sympathy), from Greek sympatheia, from sym- (together with) + pathos (emotion, suffering).

USAGE:
"Basil and tomatoes are simpatico in so many ways. One major trait they share is that neither should ever be refrigerated unless they have been chopped." - Bill Ward; Warm, Flavorful, Fresh Summer Food; The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson); Jul 29, 2009.

Yay! Personality assessments being added to the college-admissions circus!

2009-08-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

from The Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2009
Adding Personality to the College Admissions Mix
by Robert Tomsho

For years, colleges have asked applicants for their grade-point averages and standardized test scores.

Now, schools like Boston College, DePaul University and Tufts University also want to measure prospective students' personalities.

Using recently developed evaluation systems, these schools and others are aiming to quantify so-called noncognitive traits such as leadership, resilience and creativity. Colleges say such assessments are boosting the admissions chances for some students who might not have qualified based solely on grades and traditional test scores. The noncognitive assessments also are being used to screen out students believed to be at a higher risk of dropping out, and to identify newly admitted students who might need extra tutoring.

For the rest of the story, click here.

Equanimity -- evenness of temper

2009-08-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

from wordsmith.org

equanimity

PRONUNCIATION:
(ee-kwuh-NIM-i-tee, ek-wuh-)

MEANING:
noun: Evenness of temper in all circumstances.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin aequanimitas, from aequus (equal, even) + animus (mind, spirit).

USAGE:
"Even as a young netball star, Tharjini had no inflated opinion about herself nor did she ever take offence at the numerous teasing remarks or stares that her height drew. She met both celebrity status and silly remarks with equanimity."
-- Thulasi Muttulingam; A Player With Many Highs in Her Life; The Sunday Times (Colombo, Sri Lanka); Jul 12, 2009.

Lie vs. lay -- Dylan should have sung "Lie, Lady, Lie"

2009-08-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

I once heard a lecture on the poetry of Bob Dylan, in which the lecturer described the tension in the lyric "Lay, lady, lay /Lay across my big brass bed" as deriving from the fact that it should be "Lie, lady, lie," but the singer fears that by uttering the word "lie" he might open up the possibility of her lying to him, turning their love into a falsehood.

Sally Alexander -- longtime English teacher at the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Md. -- offers this perspective on those oft-misused verbs to lie and to lay.

Sally writes:

Principle parts: lie (pres. tense) lay (last tense) lain (participle). This verb is intransitive - i.e., does not take an object. E.g., I lie on my bed, yesterday I lay on my bed, I have lain on my bed all day. (On my bed is an adverbial prepositional phrase, not an object.)

Principle parts: lay (present tense), laid (past tense), laid (participle). This verb is transitive - i.e., must take an object. E.g., I lay the book on the table, yesterday I laid the book on the table, every day this week I have laid the book on the table.

I once had a male teacher in the English department at Holton who, when I pointed out that these two verbs should be taught in the ninth grade, told me, "Teach it somewhere else. I'm not telling fourteen year-old girls that you can lie by yourself, but you have to lay something."

assiduous -- "all over it" from the root sed "to sit"

2009-08-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

from wordsmith.org

assiduous

adjective: Constant; persistent; industrious.

From Latin assiduus, from assidere (to attend to, to sit down to), from ad- (toward) + sedere (to sit). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sed- (to sit) that is also the source of sit, chair, saddle, assess, sediment, soot, cathedral, and tetrahedron.

"The reason for his presence there [a Donald Duck statue in a temple garden] remains a mystery despite the author's most assiduous inquiries."Jeff Kingston; Chiang Mai: Thailand's beguiling Rose of the North; The Japan Times (Tokyo); Jun 28, 2009.

Don't confuse "your" and "you're"

2009-08-12T07:18:00.001-07:00

From Grammar Gremlins, Knoxville News Sentinel 8/9/09
by Don K. Ferguson

The misuse of "your" for "you're" is far too common.
I have seen this error several times recently, mainly in e-mail messages.
It is common enough that several handbooks make note of it. One says the two words are confused surprisingly often.

"Your" is the possessive of the pronoun "you."
"You're" is a contraction of "you are."

Here are examples from the Gregg Reference Manual that show both uses:
1. Your thinking is sound, but we lack the funds to underwrite your proposal.
2. You're thinking of applying for a transfer, I understand.

Should it be "more important" or "more importantly"?

2009-08-05T11:56:00.001-07:00

From Garner's Usage Tip of the Day:

more important(ly)

As an introductory phrase, "more important," has historically been considered an elliptical form of "What is more important," and hence the "-ly" form is sometimes thought to be the less desirable. Yet three points militate against this position.

First, if we may begin a sentence "Importantly, the production appeared first off Broadway . . . ," we ought to be able to begin it, "More importantly, . . . ."

Second, the ellipsis does not work with analogous phrases, such as "more notable" and "more interesting." Both of those phrases require an "-ly" adverb -- e.g.: "More interestingly, he earns lots of money." David Beckham, "Why Are They Famous?" Independent, 31 Aug. 1997.

And third, if the position is changed from the beginning of the sentence in any significant way, the usual ellipsis becomes unidiomatic and "-ly" is quite acceptable -- e.g.: "Shrage believes that the strategy should not be to reverse the intermarriage rate, as some activists argue, but to make sure that intermarried couples embrace Judaism and, more importantly, commit to raising their children as Jews." Diego Ribadeneira, "Jewish Community Flourishing, New Report Says," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6 Sept. 1997.

The criticism of "more importantly" and "most importantly" has always been rather muted and obscure, and today it has dwindled to something less than muted and obscure. So writers needn't fear any criticism for using the "-ly" forms; if they encounter any, it's easily dismissed as picayunish pedantry.

Limericks for the day

2009-07-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

from wordsmith.org

limerick (LIM-uhr-ik) noun
A humorous, often risque, verse of five lines with the rhyme scheme aabba.

[After Limerick, a borough in Ireland. The origin of the name of the verse is said to be from the refrain "Will you come up to Limerick?" sung after each set of extemporized verses popular at gatherings.]

Several modest topical examples . . .

A pious father of four
Met Maria in Ecuador.
They danced in the air
With the utmost of flair.
And now he’s a teary-eyed bore.

A most sanctimonious gov
Met his soul mate and fell quite in love.
Then his savvy spouse
threw him out of the house,
And the Gov prayed to heaven above.

Maria Belén Chapur,
An exquisite Buenos Arian amour,
Met a Furman grad
Who was awfully glad
For a grand South American tour.

From our old friend Jim Lattin:

Along the Appalachian Trail
They looked for Sanford, to no avail.
The news media said
He had gone instead
To chase Argentinian tail!

SLANT -- and how to be the Professor's Pet

2009-06-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago there was a New York Times Magazine story (and a reference to it in David Brooks' column) about successful inner-city charter schools whose pupils are required to SLANT -- Sit up, Listen, Ask questions, Nod, and Track the teacher with their eyes.

This behavior, say educators, is intuitively understood by middle-class kids but must be specifically itemized for those from less advantaged backgrounds.

At one point in the Times' story, the teacher asked the kids to affect the "normal school look." They immediately slouched in their seats and started talking, goofing off and staring into space. The kids, wrote Paul Tough, "seem to be experiencing the pleasure of being let in on a joke."

On a similar theme, the Key Club magazine, Keynotes, ran a feature "Professor's Pet -- High school rules won't cut it. Here are eight tips for making the grade in college." Here again, these tips aren't the Secrets of Dendur, but they can be valuable for kids getting ready for the new expectations of college.

To be the Prof's Pet --

Show up!
Make sure the professor knows you
Be at the head of the class
Prepare
Participate
Take advantage of office hours **(my favorite, discovered a couple of years late)
Keep you attitude in check
Be polite

Semaphore -- signaling with flags

2009-06-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Last night's Final Jeopardy question was, “Fittingly, the cover of this Beatles album shows the Fab Four engaging in a semaphore message.”

semaphore noun [from the Greek sema (sign, signal) + phore (carrying)]

1. an apparatus for visual signalling (as by the position of one or more movable arms)

2. a system of visual signaling by two flags held one in each hand

Jeopardy host Alex Trebek noted that the Moptops' semaphore letters actually spelled N-V-U-J because H-E-L-P didn't look particularly aesthetically pleasing.

Sanguine -- bloody cheerful

2009-06-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

sanguine

PRONUNCIATION: (SANG-gwin)

adjective:
1. Cheerfully optimistic or confident.
2. Having a healthy reddish color.
3. Blood-red.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old French sanguin, from Latin sanguineus (bloody), from sanguis (blood).

USAGE: "As usual, Phillips is sanguine: Michael is totally focused now, and the insurance wasn't a problem, it was just expensive."Robert Sandall; Will Michael Jackson Survive His Concert Marathon? The Sunday Times (London, UK); May 31, 2009.

Eleemosynary -- charitable

2009-06-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

from wordsmith.org

eleemosynary

PRONUNCIATION: (el-uh-MOS-uh-ner-ee, el-ee-, -MOZ-)

MEANING: adjective: Relating to charity.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin eleemosynarius, from eleemosyna (alms), from Greek eleemosyne (pity, charity), from eleemon (pitiful), from eleos (pity).

USAGE: "The Guzmans started their non-profit organization, Path of Hope Foundation, 18 years ago. Their single goal: to care for the poor who live near their corner. The Thanksgiving dinner is one of their eleemosynary events."
-- Lynn Seeden; Free Thanksgiving Dinner Feeds 1,400; Orange County Register (Santa Ana, California); Dec 4, 2003.

Martinet -- one so strict as to earn a fragging

2009-06-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

from wordsmith.org

martinet

PRONUNCIATION:

(mar-ti-NET, MAR-ti-net)

MEANING:

noun: A strict disciplinarian.

ETYMOLOGY: After Jean Martinet, an army officer during the reign of Louis XIV in France. He was a tough drill master known for his strict adherence to rules and discipline. He was killed by friendly fire during the siege of Duisburg in 1672 (see photo).

USAGE:

"Many people believe the agency acts like a martinet. They say the agency is hard-headed and hard-hearted. They say it is dictatorial and unyielding."APA Motives Commendable; Press-Republican (Plattsburgh, New York); May 11, 2009.

Atone -- finding the harmony of being "at one"

2009-05-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

from wordsmith.org

atone

PRONUNCIATION: (uh-TOHN, rhymes with phone)

MEANING: verb tr., intr.: To make amends for.

ETYMOLOGY: From the contraction of the phrase "at one" meaning "to be in harmony".

USAGE: "While society must be protected from those who might pose it a threat, it is vital we let people get on with their lives once they have atoned."Éamonn Mac Aodha; Minor Offenders Need More Help to Escape Spectre of Past Crime; The Irish Times (Dublin); Apr 28, 2009

Would it kill you to write "such as"?

2009-05-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

From today's New York Times:
"In the months leading up to Judge Sonia Sotomayor's selection this week, the White House methodically labored to apply lessons from years of nomination battles to control the process and avoid the pitfalls of the past, like appearing to respond to pressure from the party’s base or allowing candidates to be chewed up by friendly fire."

Plainly, we are losing the battle against "like" used as a conjunction (that is, with verbs, adverbs, phrases and clauses) in formal writing.

"Although widely used as a conjunction in spoken English," says Harbrace's Glossary of Usage, "as, as if, and as though are preferred for written English."

The Elements of Style weighs in on the issue as follows:

Like. Not to be used for as. Like governs nouns and pronouns; before phrases and clauses the equivalent word is as.

We spent the evening like in the old days. [should be as]

Chloe smells good, like a pretty girl should. [should be as]

The use of like for as has its defenders; they argue that any usage that achieves currency become valid automatically. This, they say, is the way language is formed. It is and it isn't.

An expression sometimes merely enjoys a vogue, much as an article of apparel does. Like has long been widely misused by the illiterate; lately it has been taken up by the knowing and the well-informed, who find it catchy, or liberating, and who use it as though they were slumming.

If every word or device that achieved currency were immediately authenticated, simply on the ground of popularity, the language would be as chaotic as a ball game with no foul lines.

For the student, perhaps the most useful thing to know about like is that most carefully edited publications regard its use before phrases and clauses as simple error.

Charlotte Cheever Cushwa Clark (1917-2009)

2009-05-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Charlotte Cheever Cushwa Clark, 91, of Harwich Port, Mass., an accomplished artist in watercolor, oil, pastel and lithograph prints; mother of six, grandmother of 14, and great-grandmother of five; died of heart failure, in East Harwich, Mass., May 21.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, the Rev. Bayard S. Clark, who died in 1994.

She is survived by her brother, William T. Cushwa of Agawam, Mass., and her six children and their spouses, Mr. & Mrs. Tom F. and Katharine C. Lord of Houston, Texas; W. Tucker Clark of Westport, Conn.; Mr. & Mrs. B. Stockton Clark Jr. of Hamden, Conn.; Mr. & Mrs. Franklin Taylor Clark of Washington, D.C.; G. Rockwood Clark and Mary Larkin of Harwich, Mass.; and Mr. & Mrs. N. Brooks Clark of Knoxville, Tenn.

She had 14 grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Charlotte Cheever Cushwa was born Sept. 5, 1917, in Exeter, N.H. Her father, Frank W. Cushwa, was the Odlin Professor of English at the Phillips Exeter Academy and the author of An Introduction to Conrad (1933) and, with Robert N. Cunningham, Ways of Thinking and Writing (1936).

Her mother, Elizabeth Tucker Cushwa, was a daughter of Dr. William Jewett Tucker, president of Dartmouth College from 1893 to 1909.

Her great grandfather the Rev. Henry T. Cheever of Worcester, Mass., was mentioned and quoted in Moby-Dick as author of the 1849 book The Whale and His Captors. Cheever had journeyed to the South Seas as a missionary in 1840 and written several books about his experiences.

Charlotte graduated from Smith College in 1940, where she majored in painting. She was married to Bayard S. Clark of Philadelphia on June 21, 1941, in Cambridge, Mass.

Their first child, Katharine Conger Clark, was born in Philadelphia Dec. 15, 1942.

Bayard graduated from the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1945. His first assignment was to St. Louis, Mo. Over the next two decades, while rearing a growing family, Charlotte was a rector’s wife in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Houston, Tex., Nashville, Tenn., and then Washington, D.C., where Rev. Clark served as a canon at the National Cathedral from 1960 to ’65.

She and Bayard first heard Martin Luther King speak in 1957 at Scarritt College in Nashville, shortly after the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which Bayard had attended the first convention, in Montgomery, Ala. In 1960, Bayard introduced Dr. King to a meeting of the Nashville Ministerial Association. He was present at the Lincoln Memorial for the “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 and marched in Selma in 1965. Charlotte heard the last Sunday sermon of Dr. King’s life, at the Washington National Cathedral on March 31, 1968.

Between 1962 and 1970, Charlotte earned her MFA in Painting and the History of Art from American University. In the years thereafter she was a member of and took part in shows with numerous art groups, including the Watercolor Society, the Art Barn, the Art League of Washington, and the Washington Printmakers. She also taught art at John Eaton School and the YWCA, and Art History at the National School of Ballet of Washington.

In 1991, Charlotte and Bayard Clark became year-round residents of Harwich Port, Mass., where Charlotte had spent summers since 1928.

In the 15 years since Bayard’s death, Charlotte had enjoyed keeping up with the births, graduations, and weddings among her extended family and remarkable circle of friends.

She was a member of the Garden Club of Harwich, the Guild of Harwich Artists, the Printmakers of Cape Cod, and a the Chatham Newcomers Club.

She was a loyal member of Christ Church Episcopal, Harwich Port, where she attended services just weeks before her death and where her funeral was held on Sunday, May 24.

Avoid the awkward use of "it" near another "it" with a different meaning

2009-05-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

Old editions of Harbrace had a note under Rule 28D that read as follows: Avoid the confusion arising from the repetition in the same sentence of a pronoun referring to different antecedents.

CONFUSING Although it is very hot by the lake, it looks inviting. [The first it is an idiomatic pronoun; the second it refers to lake.]

CLEAR Although it is very hot by the lake, the water looks inviting.

Newer editions state it [this note] a little more specifically: Avoid the awkward placement of it near another it with a different meaning.

AWKWARD It would be unwise to buy the new model now, but it is a superior machine. [The first it is an expletive. The second it refers to model.]

REVISED Buying the new model now would be unwise, but it is a superior machine.

The Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences

2009-05-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to The Guide to Grammar and Writing (sponsored by the CCC Foundation of Hartford, Conn.) on diagramming sentences. If you click here , there are examples of diagrammed sentences that go on for pages, including an amusing explication of diagramming by Dave Barry.

While -- a comma makes it mean "whereas"

2009-05-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

from Ruge Rules

The Rule: "While" can be used to mean "during the time that," and it can be used to mean "whereas."
In the former case, while is not preceded by a comma.
In the latter case, while must be preceded by a comma.

So: I can't study while my little brother is beating on his drum.
And: The Blue Ridge mountains are beautiful, while the Rockies are grand.

Purists and copyeditors tend to frown on the use of "while" to mean "whereas," because the meaning depends upon the comma and points of punctuation have a perverse way of not being where they should be. If you choose to use "while" to mean "whereas," it's important to be assiduous in your punctuation.

Exorable -- capable of being persuaded

2009-05-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

from wordsmith.org

exorable

EK-suhr-uh-buhl

adjective: Capable of being persuaded or moved.

From Latin exorare (to prevail upon), from ex- (out) + orare (to pray, beg).

"Without reform, the result is an exorable middle-class tax increase."Jonathan Rauch; A Bad Tax With Good Timing; National Journal (Washington, DC); Mar 18, 2006.

15 Practical Rules of E-Mail Etiquette

2009-05-07T12:25:00.001-07:00

It’s 11 a.m. on an ordinary day at the office. You notice that little yellow envelope in the bottom corner of your screen that means you’ve got e-mail. You click to see what’s come in.

It seems someone in your firm has a problem. With you. He is not happy, and he has e-mailed you and “cc”ed your boss, your co-workers, several other managers---just about everybody but the president of the company. There’s one of those threatening “if/then” sentences near the end, something along the lines of, “…if you are not willing or able to fix this situation, then…”

You’ve been flamed. (“Flaming” is e-mail lingo for venting strong emotion online or sending highly inflammatory messages.) So it’s 11:02 a.m. on that same morning, but now you’re fuming with rage. You’re tempted to bang out a response, hit “reply to all,” and share some ungentle sentiments of your own. But you pause. You resolve to wait until after lunch to frame a considered response, a polite response, one that recognizes not only the unique qualities of e-mail but also its pitfalls.

The fact is that most of us are still figuring out the rules of practical etiquette that enable us to use this medium to best advantage. E-mail can be as personal and revealing as a letter or as impersonal as junk mail. It has limitations in conveying emotions—but it can also convey emotions too well. Especially fiery ones! It’s instantaneous and easy—often too easy. What we need is e-mail etiquette. So here goes:

1. Use that subject line. Take a moment to summarize what your message is truly about, as a newspaper headline does. This helps get your message read. (Key words in the title line also help if you have to search for a message later on.) To avoid “Re: Re: Re:-itis” in multiple replies, summarize your response, as in “12:15 better than noon,” rather than “RE: lunch plans.”

2. Pause for a salutation. We are always grateful to be greeted with politeness and humanity. “I like the classic ‘Dear so-and-so,’ just as in a letter,” says Karen Ramsay, a computer network engineer. Short of “Dear,” it’s more and more common to start with your recipient’s name and a dash or comma. This also signals that it is a personal communication and not spam or a broadcast to the group.

3. Include pleasantries. In the elevator, we say, “Good morning.” At a co-worker’s office door we ask a greeting question. These are the lubricants of daily interaction. Some e-mails are more formal than others, but the vast majority move between two people who might just as easily be saying hello in the hall. In your e-mail, consider the same pleasantry you might employ in a conversation: Before you launch into your three points of action from the previous meeting, consider saying, “It was good to talk with the group today.” Or if it’s an individual, “It was good to hear about your trip to Cancun.” Or, if it’s an acquaintance you haven’t e-mailed in a while, “Hope you are well.” Why? It makes life more pleasant and your reader more apt to enjoy the message.

4. NO SHOUTING! All-caps in e-mails have the same effect as shouting in conversation. It’s considered rude. Even an all-cap word here and there is iffy, since it takes the reader aback.

5. Proof and spell-check. A poorly written message replete with run-on sentences, omitted punctuation, misused or misspelled words is difficult to read, easy to misunderstand---and reflects poorly on the sender. (And no one will ever tell you if you’ve made an embarrassing gaffe.)

6. Use “cc” sparingly. Copy co-workers or bosses only when there’s a reason to do so. Similarly, don’t use “Reply All” as your default. Resort to “Reply All” only when everyone truly needs to see your response.

7. Beware the negative. E-mail is great for conveying information, instructions, and objective facts. But, for some reason, slams slam harder in an e-mail. It is rarely a good idea to send anything negative online. If the news is that bad, it should be delivered face to face, or at least by phone, so your facial expression or the sound of your voice can soothe and explain tough news. “Even if it’s mild criticism,” says Ramsay, “take some extra words to make your tone much gentler than in regular conversation.” Another side to this issue is that everyone is very courageous in e-mail, precisely because they don’t have to face the person. A good rule is, “Never say anything in an e-mail you wouldn’t say to the person’s face.”

8. Remember, it’s public. E-mails are forwarded from person to person, often multiple times, with forwarders often forgetting a nugget of “touchy” or classified information that appeared several messages below. Says Karen Ramsay, “I tell my staff, before you send an e-mail, ask yourself if you’d be willing to post it on your office door.” And e-mails can legitimately be perused by employers and are often subpoenaed in legal cases, sometimes going back years.

9. Be careful about humor. Always a two-edged sword, humor can be extremely touchy in e-mail. Sarcasm is easily misunderstood and may come across as insulting. If you must make a light comment, it’s often a good idea to use a smiley-face or emoticon ---to make sure a recipient knows you’re kidding.

10. Never respond in anger. First, if someone has insulted you, it may well be a miscommunication, a lame attempt to be funny, or it might be a response to a hasty e-mail of yours. Pick up the phone and ask, “What was that about?” A double caution is, “Never ‘Reply to All’ in anger. This is a good way to make an enemy for life.

11. Avoid multiple questions. If you ask a series of questions, most responders will answer only the last question asked. If you are posing a series of questions, number them. This is also a good idea for multiple pieces of information. It simply helps the reader order the information. If you are responding to a series of questions, number them in your reply and use a different color to set your replies off from the questions.

12. The shorter the better. Something about a long e-mail can make a reader say, “Oh, no.” Shorter ones are better read and more quickly responded to. If you find yourself responding to an emotional situation with a three-page, single-spaced rehashing of events, consider the possibility that e-mail is not the best medium for working out the situation.

13. Kick the forwarding habit. Everyone gets too much mail already. If you can’t resist broadcasting jokes, inspirational stories and political diatribes, consider saving them for friends and family—and realize that we’ve all seen most of them already.

14. Sign-off: Consider the same pleasantry and sign off as you would use in a letter. “Please let me know if I can be of any assistance. Best regards, Brooks.”

15. Say “please” and “thank you.” Your grandmother was right: “They’re the three most valuable words in the English language: they don’t cost you a thing, and they pay dividends your whole life long.” In e-mail, as in life, a little courtesy goes a long way.

palliative and hortative

2009-05-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

From this week's Time: "Obama is cool where George W. Bush seemed hot . . . palliative rather than hortative."

palliative noun
[from the Latin palliare, to cloak or conceal (a pallium is a cloak)]
to moderate the intensity of

hortative adj.
[from the Latin hortari, to urge. Recall the fellow in Ben-Hur who beat time for the oarsmen with his wooden mallets and the immortal line, "Hortator, ramming speed."]
giving exhortation (language intended to incite and encourage)

Why we need to hyphenate two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun

2009-05-04T08:30:00.001-07:00

Mr. Ruge always loved the example of the headline below, in which the hyphen broke off from the printing plate and brought a lawsuit upon the newspaper:

Mr. Jones Has Cast-Off Clothing and Invites Inspection.

Here is a discussion of the issue from Garner's Usage Tip of the Day:

Miscues (7).

Unhyphenated Phrasal Adjectives

Forgetting to put hyphens in phrasal adjectives frequently leads to miscues. For example, does the phrase "popular music critic" refer to a critic in popular music or to a sociable music critic? If it's a critic of popular music, the phrase should be "popular-music critic."

[[Similar example: He went to a small business convention. Was it a small convention? Or was it a convention for small businesses?] ]

The general rule [Harbrace 18f(1), in the subject field above ] is that when a phrase functions as an adjective preceding the noun it modifies -- an increasingly frequent phenomenon in modern English -- the phrase should ordinarily be hyphenated. Hence "the child is six years old" becomes "the six-year-old child."

Most professional writers know this; most nonprofessionals don't.

Some guides might suggest that you should make a case-by-case decision, based on whether a misreading is likely. You're better off with a flat rule (with a few exceptions noted below) because almost all sentences with unhyphenated phrasal adjectives will be misread by someone. The following examples demonstrate the hesitation caused by a missing hyphen:

o "One last pop on this whole question of incivility of discourse, the much argued over issue of whose speech has been more inflammatory and socially destructive than whose." Meg Greenfield, "It's Time for Some Civility," Newsweek, 5 June 1995. (After "much argued," the reader expects a noun; then "over" appears, unsettling the reader for a moment; then, in two milliseconds, the reader adjusts to see that "much-argued-over" is a phrasal adjective modifying "issue.")

o "This English as a second language text presents the different speaking styles for international students." Mary Newton Bruder, The Grammar Lady 243 (2000). (A possible revision: "This English-as-a-second-language text presents the different speaking styles for international students.")

Readability is especially enhanced when the hyphens are properly used in two phrasal adjectives that modify a single noun -- e.g.: "county-approved billboard-siting restriction"; "13-year-old court-ordered busing plan"; "24-hour-a-day doctor-supervised care." Some writers -- those who haven't cultivated an empathy for their readers -- would omit all those hyphens.

Enlightened writers and editors supply those necessary hyphens -- e.g.: "They lived in a first-floor apartment in a six-story rent-controlled, union-subsidized housing development in Flushing, Queens." Ken Auletta, "Beauty and the Beast," New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2002.

Happy 50th Birthday Elements of Style!

2009-04-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

This is a high holy day for grammarians: the 50th birthday of that slender book, The Elements of Style. Let us vow to forever enclose parenthetical expressions between commas, use the active voice, and walk in the ways of Strunk & White's gospel.

From today's New York Times:

'The Elements of Style' Turns 50

By SAM ROBERTS The classic writing guide by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White has just been republished in a 50th-anniversary edition.

A good article about cover letters

2009-04-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

The New York Times
JOB MARKET February 15, 2009
Career Couch: A Cover Letter Is Not Expendable
By PHYLLIS KORKKI
Cover letters are still necessary, and in a competitive market they can give you a serious edge.

Sometimes a period can help a lengthy sentence gain clarity

2009-04-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we all write (or have to edit) sentences --- like those legendary, paragraph-long ones in The New Yorker, with interminable interjections inside dashes, that take a few too many twists and turns, that pile "which clauses" upon "who clauses" and end up making readers forget where they began, or what the point was in the first place, if there was one --- that simply go on too long.

Often, you can put a period before a "who clause" and start a new sentence with "he" or "she." Likewise with "in which" and "where" clauses can easily be turned into their own sentences. Sometimes, on inspection, you realize a comma followed by an "and" reads better as a period and a new sentence, with no need for the "and" at all.

Sometimes you realize those long appositive clauses and interjections inside dashes can be taken out and made into nice, clear sentences of their own. Often an adverbial clause floating around the middle of a sentence makes a lot more sense at the beginning.

These "sentence-shortening" skills are essential to writing for the ear (radio, TV and speeches), for children 's publications, and for Ernest Hemingway parodies. (The fish was big. He caught it. It took a long time. His hands hurt.)

Harbrace makes especially good reading on the subjects of sentence Subordination and Coordination (Chapter 24), Emphasis (Chapter 29) and Variety (Chapter 30).

Omit superfluous words, SEC style

2009-04-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

(from "A Plain English Handbook," put out by the Security and Exchange Commission to coach financiers on making their stock offerings and other disclosure documents more comprehensible; click here to print your own copy.)

Words are superfluous when they can be replaced with fewer words that means the same thing. Sometimes you can use a simpler word for these phrases:

superfluous . . . simpler
in order to . . . . . to
in the event that . . . . . if
subsequent to . . . . . after
prior to . . . . . before
despite the fact that . . . . . although
because of the fact that . . . . . because or since
in light of . . . . . because or since
owing to the fact that. . . . . because or since

before
The following summary is intended only to highlight certain information contained elsewhere in this Prospectus.

after
This summary highlights some information from this Prospectus.

Mischievous -- so spelling and pronounced

2009-04-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

from Garner's Usage Tip of the Day

mischievous.

"Mischievous" /MiS-chuh-vuhs/ is so spelled.

"Mischievious" is a common misspelling and mispronunciation /mis-CHEE-vee-uhs/ -- e.g.:

o "I could not imagine them driving, getting mouthy, moody or mischievious [read 'mischievous'], let alone going to drinking parties at the homes of friends whose parents were out of town." Eleanor Mallet, "The Tranquility of School Age," Plain Dealer (Cleveland), 25 Feb. 1995.

o "Mayan Indians considered this place hell's fun house, inhabited by mischievious [read 'mischievous'] gods who had to be soothed with heaping food bowls and the occasional human sacrifice." Judith Wynn, "Lodge Guests Settle In Among Tropical Wildlife," Boston Herald, 26 Dec. 2002.

Place prepositional phrases near the words they modify

2009-04-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

Harbrace 25a (2) : Place a modifying prepositional phrase to indicate clearly what the phrase modifies

From the News Sentinel:
"...Vineyard Productions previously made a film called 'The Witness' for the Pequot Indian Nation in East Tennessee, so the area was already was on the company's radar when locations were being scouted...."

In the sentence above, the prepositional phrase "in East Tennessee" modifies "film," and not the Pequot Indian Nation, which is, of course, based in Massachusetts and Connecticut. This is a misplaced modifying prepositional phrase.

Examples in Harbrace:
MISPLACED Arne says that he means to leave the country in the first stanza.
BETTER Arne says in the first stanza that he means to leave the country.

MISPLACED Heated arguments had often occurred over technicalities in the middle of a game.
BETTER Heated arguments over technicalities had often occurred in the middle of a game.

Minuscule -- so spelled. Who knew?

2009-04-10T07:50:00.001-07:00

from Garner's Usage Tip of the Day

minuscule

So spelled, not "miniscule." The word derives from the word "minus"; it has nothing to do with the prefix "mini-." But the word is commonly misspelled — e.g.:

o "Mouth hanging open, Harry saw that the little square for June thirteenth seemed to have turned into a miniscule [read 'minuscule'] television screen." J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 242 (Am. ed. 1999).

o "Even as some people questioned the practical effect of saving such a miniscule [read 'minuscule'] portion of the state budget, they were mostly willing to forgo cynicism." Kathleen Burge, "Forgoing of Salaries Gets Mixed Reviews," Boston Globe, 2 Jan. 2003, at B5.

o "The deck is a triangle with its center angle flattened, 16 feet long and 5 or 6 feet deep. 'Tiny but useful,' said Schuyler, squeezing between the miniscule [read 'minuscule'] table and one of two chairs." Peter Hotton, "A Skinny Masterpiece Built on a Gorgeous Lot," Chicago Trib., 12 Jan. 2003, at N5.

The counterpart — a rarity — is "majuscule." Today that term is used only in printing, to denote a capital letter.

A comma usually follows introductory words, phrases, and clauses.

2009-04-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

Harbrace 12b: A comma usually follows introductory words, phrases, and clauses.

Adverb clause, independent clause.
Introductory phrase, subject + predicate
Introductory word, subject + predicate

(1) Adverb clauses before independent clauses
When you write, you make a sound in the reader's head.
-- Russell Baker

[Rule of thumb: always use a comma with an introductory group of words that has a verb form in it.]

(2) Introductory phrases before independent clauses
Prepositional phrases:
From the deck, I could not see my father, but I could see my mother facing the ship, her eyes searching to pick me out.
-- Jamaica Kincaid

BUT:
Omit the comma after introductory prepositional phrases when no misreading would result.

[Rule of thumb: use a comma after an introductory phrase of four words or more.]

(3) Introductory transitional expressions, conjunctive adverbs, interjections, and an introductory yes or no.
Furthermore, benefits include maternity leave of eight weeks . . .
Well, move the ball or move the body. -- Allen Jackson
Yes, I bought my tickets yesterday.

With a wink to the scribe: amanuensis

2009-03-31T08:26:00.000-07:00

amanuensis -- from the Latin (servus) a manu, a slave with secretarial duties: meaning one employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript.

This word often shows up as a euphemism of sorts for a ghost writer -- My Turn at Bat by Ted Williams, as told to John Underwood; Iacocca by Lee Iacocca with Ralph Novak; or Learning to Sing by Clay Aiken and Allison Glock.

The word appears in texts about the Bible in the Middle Ages. For example, God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible refers to the men who in 1605 refined, corrected and improved previous translations of the Bible as "Amanuenses of the words of God." (Note the plural.)

By using this word, a skilled writer is usually implying with a wink that there was a lot more than just dictation and pure secretarial work being done ---as there usually is, even in pure secretarial work!

Dag Nab It! Mind Yer Informal and Regional English!

2009-03-18T07:06:00.001-07:00

Click here for a discussion of informal and regional English.

Sanguine -- bloody good spirited, eh?

2009-03-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

from wordsmith.org

sanguine (SANG-gwin)

adjective:
1. Cheerfully optimistic or confident.
2. Having a healthy reddish color.
3. Blood-red.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old French sanguin, from Latin sanguineus (bloody), from sanguis (blood).

USAGE: "Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us be quite sober."Abraham Lincoln; Letter to James C. Conkling; Aug 26, 1863.

Mnemonic devices (for spelling)

2009-03-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

A mnemonic device is one that assists the memory, from the Greek mnemon--mindful. (Mnemosyne was the Greek goddess of memory and the mother of the Muses by Zeus.)

We all know "I before e, except after c, or when sounded as "a", as in neighbor or weigh." Fewer people know the mnemonic sentence that can help us remember the major exceptions: "Neither leisure foreigner seized the weird heights."

FedEx executive Shane O'Connor writes, "I remember one class in which [Ferdinand E.] Ruge was teaching us a way to remember how to correctly spell “exhilarate,” since it is often misspelled “exhilerate.” He stood in front of the class in his gray pinstriped three-piece suit and swung his pocket watch fob around as he sang, "La la la la la la la. Exhi-LA-rate exhi-LA-rate."

Try these---

There is a rat in separate. 0A

I have an independent dentist. (We also have an independent superintendent, who comes from Boston.)

The principal is my pal. "Principal" can also refer to a matter or thing of primary importance, or the capital sum placed at interest, due as a debt, or used as a fund, as in the principal of a loan.

A principle is a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine or assumption. As in, you are always true to your principles.

For the dance, your attendance is requested, just as it will be for you descendants.

A vast area was devastated.

Finally, something definite.

Like the letters you'll write on it, stationery has an "e" in it. (As opposed to stationary, or unmoving, objects.)

We're all all grateful for congratulations.

The U.S. Capitol building has a dome on it -- as do the "o"s in both words. Confusingly, Washington., D.C., is the capital of the United States.
Why? The former word comes from the Capitoleum , the temple of Jupiter at Rome that sat atop the Capitoline hill. The latter comes from the Latin capitalis, meaning chief, or principal, (derived from the Latin word caput, meaning "head"). All you have to remember is the building has a domed "o." All other meanings are with an "a."

How can you learn for sure to spell tough words, like occurrence, or accommodate? Or parallel? One good start is to pay a visit to Harbrace Chapter 18: Spelling and Hyphenation. The first seven pages are invaluable for anyone.

How should we pronounce "long-lived"?

2009-03-14T05:57:00.001-07:00

from Garner's Usage Tip of the Day

long-lived, adj.

The traditional American English preference, both in this phrase and in "short-lived," has been to pronounce the second syllable /lIvd/, not /livd/. (The sense is "having a long life," and the past-participial form has been made from "life" [/lIf/], not the ordinary verb "live" [/liv/].)

But the predominant practice today -- and the British English preference -- is /livd/. The American tendency to make it a short "-i-" is perhaps explainable on the analogy of the ordinary word "lived"; the British tendency may be influenced additionally by the phrase "long live the Queen."

Pied -- the piper wore multicolored attire

2009-03-13T15:49:00.000-07:00

from www.wordsmith.org

pied (rhymes with pride)

adjective: Having patches of two or more colors; multicolored.

ETYMOLOGY: From pie (magpie), referring to a magpie's black and white plumage, from Latin pica (jay or magpie). The Pied Piper of legend owes his moniker to his multicolored attire.

USAGE: "The pair of women came first, one strangely dressed, in pied clothes of three or four eras."Michael Chabon; The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; William Morrow; 1988.

Make Sure Those Pesky Introductory Phrases and Clauses Agree With the Subjects They Modify

2009-03-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

From today's NFL: In Brief wire reports -- "Seven months after forgiving teammate Steve Smith for his nose-breaking sucker punch, the Carolina Panthers released starting cornerback Ken Lucas to clear about $2.3 million in salary-cap room." [Hyphen added by me.]
We imagine the wire service means that seven months after forgiving Steve Smith, Ken Lucas was released by the Panthers.

Wrong: While riding a bus, the tornado ripped through our town.

The Rule: make sure introductory phrases or clauses agree with the subjects of the sentences they modify.

There are two ways to fix the sentence above:
1) While I was riding a bus, the tornado ripped through our town.
2) While riding a bus, I saw the tornado rip through our town.

This is covered in Harbrace 25b: Revise Dangling Modifiers

Although any misplaced word, phrase, or clause can be said to dangle, the term dangling modifier applies primarily to incoherent verbal phrases and elliptical clauses (that is, clauses with implied subjects and verbs) that do not refer clearly and logically to other words in the sentence. To correct a dangling modifier, rearrange the words in the sentence to make the modifier clearly refer to the right word, or add words to make the meaning clear and logical.

When verbal phrases or elliptical clauses come at the beginning of a sentence, the normal English word order requires that they immediately precede and clearly refer to the subject of the sentence.

Turn to Section 25 of Harbrace for excellent illustrations of the many kinds of dangling modifiers.

Below is an example of a related problem, a subject with an imprecise or unclear antecedent.

SAT Question of the Day™

Part of the following sentence is underlined; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.

Although less important to the early development of jazz than New Orleans and Chicago, New York City's contributions were important toward transforming jazz out of a quaint, little-known folk music into an international genre of great significance.

a) New York City's contributions were important toward transforming jazz out of
b) New York City's contributions were important as they transformed jazz from
c) the contributions made by New York City were important in transforming jazz out of
d) New York City made important contributions toward transforming jazz from
e) New York City made important contributions, they transformed jazz out of

Which paper are they talking about?

2009-03-11T12:22:00.001-07:00

Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

Observing the newspaper’s tradition of ------- attention to accuracy, the reporter ------- every statement made by her informant.

A. scrupulous . . . verified
B. lax . . . challenged
C. sporadic . . . corroborated
D. systematic . . . bungled
E. inordinate . . . exaggerated