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Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

 

Archive for February 2008

Number of comments in parentheses

20: The semicolon in the spotlight

If you think that we who care about grammar, usage and punctuation matters are always in the minority, take a look at this. About 6:50 this morning, the top e-mailed story on the New York Times was a short one Sunday, about the proper use of a semicolon on a placard in the subway. Look at the list. A story about punctuation was beating coverage of the presidential campaign! And it was No. 6 on the list of stories most often blogged. Cool! This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy[.....]

19: Weird words: Worrywart

A colleague wondered about the word worrywart one day last week. A worrywart is someone who frets, usually about insignificant matters. I haven’t found much about the origin of the word except that it appears to have been coined or to have entered wide usage in the 1930s and that it is a combination of worry and wart. This site says it comes from a comic strip, but I have a notion that the word came before the comic. A Wikipedia entry cites Worry Wart from the “Easy Company” comic. A wart is a small flaw, so you can[.....]

17: Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Today’s quiz has the usual mix of word choice problems. Choose the correct (or better) of two words in parentheses in each sentence. When you finish the five sentences, you can move on to see which ones you answered correctly and read short explanations. Click here or on the question mark icon to begin. Have fun. If you run across a sentence in print that would make a good example for a future quiz, I’d love to hear from you. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted[.....]

16: Weird word usage

This sentence in a CNN.com report sent me to the dictionary: Chelsea Clinton will spend three days there to strum up last-minute votes before the state’s Tuesday caucuses, said a source from her mother’s campaign. Did I miss something? Can someone “strum up,” instead of “drum up,” support? The dictionaries I checked don’t give that meaning for “strum.” I guess the writer was reaching for a more melodic metaphor. Read this definition of “drum” from the OED: ‘To go about, as a drummer does, to gather recruits, to secure partisans, customers, etc.; with for’ (Webster 1864). The Webster’s New[.....]

10: A new Triangle Grammar Guide quiz is up

Today’s quiz has five sentences that illustrate two of the most common problems in grammar and usage: subject-verb agreement and homonym confusion. It’s easy to overlook these in the rush to write on deadline; that’s why everyone needs an editor. The problems can be missed in editing, too, and that’s why anyone who is editing a piece of writing (a professional editor, a teacher or a parent checking homework) has to be focused and aware. Quizzes like the ones on this blog are good for teaching, but the problems illustrated here can be harder to detect in the real[.....]

9: What is a battle royal?

The reference from page 1A last week might have puzzled some readers. Is it “battle royale” or “battle royal”? A “battle royal” is an all-out fight to the finish. The most famous reference to a “battle royal” is in Ralph Ellison’s powerful novel “Invisible Man,” one of the 100 best novels. “Battle royale” is in literature, too. It’s the title of a novel by Japanese writer Koushun Takami about young people in a police state who must fight to the finish. I think battle royal is what we needed here. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News[.....]

7: Calling all diagramming experts

A reader asks: I have a sentence that I am trying to figure out how to diagram. Yes, we still diagram sentences. Here is the sentence: English King John signed the Magna Carta, limiting the king’s power. I have thought a couple of different things.Maybe this is an “elliptical” sentence where the adverb “thereby” is omitted. But “limiting the king’s power” is a participial phrase. So what does it modify? King John? Or does it modify the whole sentence, and would it then be diagrammed by itself apart from the main sentence? I am stumped.Can you help or should[.....]

3: Hold the homophone

Today started with considerable embarrassment on our desk. Readers pointed out that in the Life, etc., display story today we fell victim to a homophone mistake. I was the copy editor on the story, and frankly, I was near mortification. The homophones were “dying” and “dyeing.” Because the story was all about textile colors and finishing, the word we needed was “dyeing.” Five times we needed “dyeing.” Oy! That’s not something a spelling checker would flag. Oh, no, human beings with their minds focused are the only way to spot such problems. Thanks to a helpful online producer, the[.....]