Archive for the ‘grammar’ Category

Indiana Jones and The Glorious Grammar Gaffe

Monday, May 5th, 2008

The long awaited return of Indiana Jones is almost upon us, but clearly the layoff affected Indiana’s command of grammar.

In an interview published on CNN.com today, George Lucas began “He’s a real guy. He’s just like us….He makes lots of mistakes.” Almost on cue, Harrison Ford said “It was the three of us, Steven, George and I, coming to agreement on the central notion of it all.”

Central notion maybe, but grammatically Harrison, it should have been Steve, George and me!

Not to be outdone, and proving that he also makes mistakes, Lucas then said, “Again, that’s the way it works with Steven and Harrison and I.”

The success of all three gentlemen only goes to prove my theory (see last week’s article) that grammar matters mainly to grammarians, and that as long as you can get your message across, most people don’t care about the odd misplaced “I”.

In my view, we enter grammar’s “Temple of Doom” when mistakes are made in important written documents or emails. People have lost jobs, lost contracts, or have even been passed over for promotions because of their poor grammar.

What should you or Indiana do if you have to write something important?

That easy. Just visit “The Temple of WhiteSmoke” for the grammar checker that turns erroneous “I”s into “me”s.

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Is Grammar Too Confusing?

Monday, April 28th, 2008

Today’s Seattle Times had an terrific article on common grammar mistakes, and while James J. Kilpatrick had sound advice, I couldn’t help think that it’s all a bit too confusing.

On the one hand, there were excellent tips on using “that” and “which” (avoid “which” like the plague), and when to use “that” or “who” (”who” is for humans, “that” for everything else). But then things got a bit tricky.

For example, in the phrase “whether or not”, the “or not” is actually redundant, since “whether” implies an option. But, for some reason, it’s OK to be “benignly redundant” and include the “or not”.

Confused? Me too!

On the one had I enjoy the that grammar enables us to communicate better. That is if we have time to understand all the rules. But on the other hand, I tend to stick with a principle I came across a few years ago, namely write to be understood – and if it’s grammatically incorrect, that’s OK. As long as the message gets over.

One caveat is that if the communication is an important one – a business letter, a college essay, or a business proposal – then use a grammar checker like WhiteSmoke to clean up the errors. It’s well worth the investment to avoid a critical mistake when something important is on the line.

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How to Write Better Emails and Letters by Mastering the Apostrophe

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

One of the most common grammar errors is misusing the apostrophe. Here’s how to write better emails, letters, etc., by mastering this tricky grammar term.  An apostrophe can either indicate the possessive form of a word (e.g. John’s) or the absence of letters, such as in a contraction (e.g. don’t).

Uses:
1. Adding an apostrophe to a noun indicates that something belongs to it. To determine whether or not an apostrophe should be added, conduct a simple test that turns the phrase around to be “of the…” subject.

  • The boy’s cat or “The cat of the boy.” (correct)
  • The lady’s purse, or “The purse of the lady.” correct)
  • The boat’s sail or “The sail of the boat.” (incorrect)

In the third example, the boat did not have to take on the possessive form because the noun after “of the” was one of three exceptions for the “of the…” test: a building, an object, or furniture piece. Rather, it can simply be written as “the car door” to signify the door belongs to the car.

The apostrophe is placed in different parts of a word. For singular words, add an “’s” to the end, even if the final letter is an “s.”

  • The king’s crown was silver.
  • Jarvis’s writing is terrific.

For plural words that end in “s,” simply add an apostrophe.

  • The cows’ tails swung from side to side.

When plural words do not end in “s,” add an “s”.

  • The children’s rooms were untidy.

Note that for compound words and the last noun of a joint possession, an “s” is added.

  • sister-in-law’s
  • Jack and Jill’s

For contractions, replace missing letters with an apostrophe; but remember that it’s where the letters no longer are, which is not always where the words are joined. An example would be “is not” and “isn’t.”

  • You are = You’re
  • We are= We’re
  • Do not = Don’t
  • Should not = Shouldn’t

Misuse:
Make sure not to misplace the apostrophe because it can change the meaning of a word, such as “it’s” and “its.” Or, if it is missing from a word like “there’s,” it’s a spelling error: “theres.” This is especially confusing if the context suggests the true meaning might be “theirs.”

So pay careful attention to the apostrophe. Getting its usage right is critical to writing better emails, documents, and sales letters.

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