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Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

 

Archive for March 2010

Number of comments in parentheses

28: A head that causes head-scratching

A headline in the Sunday (March 28, 2010) Parade stopped me this morning. At first, a reader might think that the magazine’s editors made the dreaded apostrophe-plural mistake. In fact, I think the editors are saying "Teenager is in love," referring to the very cute Justin Bieber’s penchant for songs about puppy love. 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.

23: Subject-verb agreement: The clause counts

A reader found fault with this sentence from a front-page story Sunday: 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.

21: What does "soup to nuts" mean?

An editor asked about "soup to nuts," which appeared in this story. It means from beginning to end or the whole shebang, of course, but then we wondered where the phrase comes from. 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.

13: Defending a perfectly good word

An online reader comment on a headline prompts this post in defense of a word. The headline was "Kinfolk defend victims, suspect." The story is from Johnston County. For those of you blog readers who aren’t familiar with the Triangle, I will point out two things: Johnston County is a mostly rural area southeast of Raleigh and I live in Johnston County. Here is the reader’s comment: "I’m so angry about this headline I just had to come back again. I’ve had about enough of this newspaper making fun of rural people over the years. Would you have written[.....]

7: Grammar Guide quiz No. 45: Word choice

Today’s quiz is about word choice. Choose the better word in these five sentences. You might find a couple of sentences tricky. I hope you find the quiz enjoyable and educational. After all, that’s the point. Click here or on the question mark icon to begin. 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.

3: National Grammar Day is coming! Take a quiz

March 4 is National Grammar Day. Two smart women with grammar obsessions are promoting the day — Martha Brockenbrough of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar and Mignon Fogarty of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips. Both of them are multimedia masters with Web sites and books, and Fogarty has audio products. 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.