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Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

 

Archive for July 2006

Number of comments in parentheses

31: Broken record (apostrophe edition)

This is on the Web site of Raleigh’s Banks D. Kerr YMCA: The Heat of Summer is On It’s Way! Let us get it straight: its as a possessive has no apostrophe! It’s means “it is.” This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity; and is copyright © 2011 The News & Observer Publishing Company, which reserves the right to remove this post.

29: Where the links lead us

This is not an original thought: The wonder of the Internet is how our reading jumps from one place to another in a way that suits our particular way of thinking. I find this a wonderful thing.I started out this morning (Sunday, July 30) on The New York Times reading about a movie called “Half Nelson,” and, within an hour or so, I ended up in a Wikipedia page about English declension, a linguistic concept that explains why we use “who” and “whom” and perhaps why our great-great-grandchildren, if they speak English at all, might not bother with “whom.”[.....]

28: Why we blog

Pam Robinson, a longtime news editor, writes a Web log called Words at Work. Robinson is also a co-founder of the American Copy Editors Society, ACES, in 1997. I have belonged to ACES almost since the beginning. Robinson recently asked other editor bloggers about their Web logs. She has posted the answers. They are interesting mostly to other journalists, perhaps, but we grammar and usage geeks might find something to read there, too. I answered Robinson’s questions, too. I hope to have a list of editing blogs as a sidebar on this site soon. In the meantime, here are[.....]

26: One in three knows what to do

A discussion among copy editors turned to a construction that writers use to make percentages easier to understand, “one in [a certain number],” and whether the verb should be singular or plural. I chose singular, but others chose the plural verb because such constructions aren’t actually referring to “one,” but to many. For example, “one in four Americans” refers to 25 percent of our population, or 74 million people. That’s definitely plural! However, the subject of the verb, it seems to me, is still “one.” Just a couple of days later, I edited a story with this sentence: One[.....]

26: Get your ice-cold cliches right here

Over on the WakePol blog, N&O staff writer Ryan Teague Beckwith has a few words to say about the tired old phrases politicians use. The Political Cliche Site has some funny ones, too. Newswriting.com has its groaners. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity; and is copyright © 2011 The News & Observer Publishing Company, which reserves the right to remove this post.

24: The word formerly known as …

I haven’t seen this mistake lately: Tres Chicas features Caitlin Cary formally of Whiskeytown. It’s from the new Web site celebrating the opening of Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street. Actually, typing “formally” for “formerly” is rather a common mistake and no spell-checker will find it. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity; and is copyright © 2011 The News & Observer Publishing Company, which reserves the right to remove this post.

24: Must be my day …

On my way to check something else, I ran into this: COUNTRY COOKING AT IT’S BEST! I’d like to cut these folks some slack. After all, it’s an Ole Time Cafe. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity; and is copyright © 2011 The News & Observer Publishing Company, which reserves the right to remove this post.

24: Modify what you mean to modify

Writers sometimes let their modifiers dangle because they’ve put them in the wrong place. I have wanted for some time to write about misplaced modifiers. I hesitated because, frankly, I must resort to grammar terms that can make one’s eyes glaze over. But here goes. [More:] When we write about modifiers, we can mean single words, phrases or clauses. These words or groups of words describe or give more information about a person, a thing or a concept. An adjective is a modifier. Prepositional phrases act as modifiers. One of the most common modifiers is a participial phrase. A[.....]

23: Shocking use

A reader complains that writers are misusing “electrocution.” (Not in The N&O specifically, just in general use.) He points to a sentence on a Web page about a dog training mat: It has four adjustable levels of electrocution, as well as a beep-only mode if you just can’t bear to punish the poor pooch. “Electrocution” means to kill with a charge of electricity. An electrocution can be either deliberate, as in an execution, or accidental. Either way, the being who is electrocuted ends up dead. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of[.....]

11: Wish I’d written this

John McIntyre of the Baltimore Sun has a Web log about language and writing. His post for July 12 is a wonderful explanation of the philosophy of this blog, too. You can read it here. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity; and is copyright © 2011 The News & Observer Publishing Company, which reserves the right to remove this post.

11: Being couth

The word choice in this lead from Sunday’s paper drew a call from one reader to our public editor: The American Kennel Club is trying to make coonhounds couth. The reader wondered if “couth” is a word. He couldn’t find it in his dictionaries. He had heard “uncouth,” but not “couth.” This is sort of a wink-wink word. The word is a back-form from “uncouth,” the dictionaries say. The Random House Webster’s College Dictionary notes that the word is facetious and means “refinement.” Back in the late 19th century, some funny person decided to make a joke and create[.....]

9: Picture it

I have trouble with “peak” and “peek.” I don’t know why. I type those two words wrong all the time. A few months ago, I made a visual representation to help me distinguish the two words. You can see it below. Oddly enough, this rather crude graphic has been the key to my remembering how to spell these words. I invite you to add comments with your favorite devices for distinguishing words that are often confused. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity;[.....]

6: Sneaky “snuck”

I have decided that it bears repeating: “Snuck” is still considered nonstandard usage. The past tense of “sneak” is “sneaked.” I’ve seen “snuck” a few times lately. Here are a couple of examples: Two teenage girls who snuck out of their houses this week and went missing were found safe in Alabama. Outside of congressionally snuck-in budget earmarks, the feds are trying to cut back on pointless domestic spending like beach renourishment. If we North Carolinians want to continue to feed sand into the ocean, we’re going to have to pay for it ourselves. As far as I am[.....]