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Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

 

Archive for June 2008

Number of comments in parentheses

28: Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Today’s quiz is about word usage. You will read sentences and choose the best word for the blank. Usually, I draw from actual examples to make the quizzes, but this one uses made-up examples. Good luck with the quiz. Click here to begin. Previous quizzes are available in the blog archive. 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.

28: Word usage: trustee and trusty

A current story in The News & Observer makes a passing reference to a "prison trustee." I thought the term was "trusty." So I checked online first and found this reference in the Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Then I checked the Associated Press Stylebook. Indeed, a trustee is a "person to whom another’s property or the management of another’s property is given," the stylebook says. A trusty is "a prison inmate granted special privileges as a trustworthy person." I wonder if correction department lingo has changed over the years or if it’s just a matter of mixing[.....]

28: Everyone needs a copy editor

Gene Weingarten’s Under the Beltway column in the Washington Post has a funny take on copy editing. We copy editors appreciate Weingarten’s humor. 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: Old catchphrases

"Remember the Maine!" "Dewey captured Manila." For some reason, these two old sayings are in my head today. They both arose from the Spanish-American War in 1898, yet they were commonly quoted in my childhood more than a half century later. I don’t hear them any more, though. Both are related to the rise of newspapers near the beginning of the 20th century. Yellow journalism (cheap newspapers printed sometimes on yellow paper) promoted the war as a way to increase circulation. America’s rising literacy meant that news of the Spanish-American War was more widely read than reports of previous[.....]

21: Grammar Guide: Looking for something?

We have updated the News & Observer blogs. That means the grammar guide has a new URL. If you have a bookmark (thanks!), you’ll need to update it to http://blogs.newsobserver.com/grammar/home. (You need that "home" at the end.) If you are looking for something that was on the blog before June 17, you can find it here. This blog has a different comments system. If you are not a registered user of The News & Observer online, your comment will go into a queue for approval. I will check for comments regularly, and, unless you use foul language or violate[.....]

20: Grammar Guide has moved

We have updated the News & Observer blogs. That means the grammar guide has a new URL. If you have a bookmark (thanks!), you’ll need to update it. This is the new URL http://blogs.newsobserver.com/grammar/home If you are looking for something that was on the blog before June 17, you can find it here. The new blog has a different comments system. If you are not a registered user of The News & Observer online, your comment will go into a queue for approval. I will check for comments regularly, and, unless you use foul language or violate standards in[.....]

16: Copy editors

The New York Times’ Editorial Observer by Lawrence Downes has an eloquent Elegy for Copy Editors. The piece begins with a lament that the Newseum in Washington has no exhibits about copy editors. In the changing word of online journalism, Downes worries, the time for thoughtful copy editing is vanishing. He lays out succinctly what copy editors do. Here is a quote: The copy editor’s job, to the extent possible under deadline, is to slow down, think things through, do the math and ask the irritating question. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a[.....]

16: It's very simple – part 2

In response to a post Sunday, a reader sends this photo of the navigation display in a new Lexus hybrid. This should be the possessive "its," of course. The spelling "it’s" is the contraction for "it is." Nick, the reader who sends this photo, also sent it to the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. Maybe Lexus will get the message for future models. 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,[.....]

15: It’s very simple — part 2

In response to a post Sunday, a reader sends this photo of the navigation display in a new Lexus hybrid. This should be the possessive “its,” of course. The spelling “it’s” is the contraction for “it is.” Nick, the reader who sends this photo, also sent it to the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. Maybe Lexus will get the message for future models. 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,[.....]

14: Adverbs at work: slow and slowly

A reader asks: Can you cover the proper use of fast and slow as adverbs? People often say, “drive slow.” Should it be “drive slowly”? Both “slow” and “fast” can be either adjectives (a slow drip, a fast computer) or adverbs (The nervous student turned the knob slow. The car goes fast.) As adverbs, “slow” and “fast” describe how an action was taken. [More:] “Slow,” however, can become “slowly.” (“Fastly” isn’t accepted as a standard form.) In formal writing, most would choose “slowly.” We must drive slowly to save the small amount of gasoline we have. Bryan A. Garner[.....]

14: It’s very simple

I had a reason to visit the National Park Service site this morning, specifically the Canaveral National Seashore (mentioned in today’s Travel section). The site has interesting facts at the bottom of various pages. The site could use editing, though. The possessive form its is needed in these sentences. 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: Impracticable

A disclaimer notice that The News & Observer posts on the new story comment system sent me to the dictionary Wednesday. (I added the red circle to show what word stopped me.) Here is what the notice says, in part: However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting. [More:] I wondered why the notice needed “impracticable” instead of “impractical.” The dictionary defines “impracticable” as “not capable of being carried out in practice.” On the other hand, “impractical” means “not workable or useful.” Bryan A. Garner and R.W. Burchfield[.....]

10: How to make nouns possessive

A reader asked for a post about using apostrophes to make possessives. Here are the basic rules: * Add ‘s to all singular common nouns and to plural common nouns that don’t end in s: the boy’s toys, a day’s time, the boss’s husband, the children’s clothes. * Add ‘ (apostrophe only) to plural common nouns that end in s: the boys’ toys, the churches’ disagreement The Associated Press Stylebook notes this exception: Add ‘s to singular nouns that end in s EXCEPT when the next word begins with s: the boss’ specialty, the witness’ story. Not all style[.....]

9: Puzzling typos

As a copy editor, I understand and sympathize about typos and other errors. I’ve made some doozies over the years, and I’ve let others slip past me. I once edited temblor, a synonym for earthquake, to trembler. (What was I thinking?!?) But a typo on the television screen this morning baffles me. I don’t want to go all Eats-Shoots-And-Leaves on everyone, but a person would have to go out of his or her way to insert an apostrophe here. For the folks outside the Triangle, the building is Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, named for a member of the Reynolds[.....]

7: “Bests” and a grammar quiz

Some readers were sure we’d made a typo in this headline: They thought we surely meant to write “beats” instead of “bests.” One reader wondered if “best” could be a verb. Indeed, a check of the dictionary finds that “best” can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb. Although “bests” might not be the best choice for a verb to mean that someone defeated another in a contest, I think the headline writer made the best of the situation here (“beats” would have had unsavory overtones when the subject of the verb is male and the[.....]