Transcript Slide 1

Grammar refresher
for copy editors
Knight Summer Institute
Pam Nelson
July 10, 2006
What we’ll cover
• Best practices.
• Grammar myths.
• Tricky issues.
– Subject-verb agreement.
– Pronouns
• Who and whom
• Antecedents.
– Hodgepodge of grammar and usage points
• Sources for grammar knowledge
First rule of grammar
for copy editors
Do not distract
the reader.
Best practices
• Be sure you know what you think you
know.
– Keep your knowledge fresh.
– Consult your best references.
• Stand your ground when it’s important.
• Bend when you find a good reason.
Grammar myths
We don’t even need to talk about these:
• Splitting infinitives.
• Putting adverbs between parts of a verb.
• Ending a sentence with a preposition.
• Using incomplete sentences.
• Starting a sentence with “and,” “but” or any
other coordinating conjunction.
Coordinating
conjunctions
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So
FANBOYS
Tricky rules
of agreement
Subject-verb
Rules of agreement
• If the subject consists of two or more
singular words connected by or, either …
or, neither … nor or not only … but also,
use a singular verb.
– Either Shana or Joanne is going with John to
the fair.
– Not only a movie review but also a record
review needs to be copy-edited for A&E.
Rules of agreement
• If the subject consists of two or more plural
words connected by or, either … or,
neither … nor or not only … but also, use
a plural verb.
– Neither the boys nor the girls have any idea
what to do at the cotillion.
– Not only the book reviews but also the record
reviews are missing for Sunday’s paper.
Rules of agreement
• If the subject is made up of singular and
plural words joined by or, either … or,
neither … nor or not only … but also, the
verb should agree with the nearer subject.
– Either Joey or his sisters have taken care of
their mother day to day.
– The Johnsons or their older son drives to the
airport to pick up the out-of-town wedding
guests.
Rules of agreement
• If one subject is singular and the other is
plural, the sentence sounds better if you
put the plural subject nearer the verb.
– Either the Johnsons’ older son or his parents
drive to the airport to pick up the out-of-town
wedding guests.
Two words but one concept
• If two words joined by and represent one
concept or one action, use a singular verb.
– Jerry Smith’s pride and joy is his shiny 1965
Mustang convertible.
– The size and scope of the flooding after
Katrina continues to overwhelm Americans.
– The care and maintenance of an antique auto
takes many hours of the hobbyist’s time.
Intervening words
• Look for the true subject of the verb. Don’t
be led astray by phrases and clauses that
appear between the subject and the verb.
– The budget for bonuses has been depleted.
– The dinosaur skeleton, in addition to other fossils,
has been moved to a new room.
– The study, along with many others, has led the
government to restrict the drug’s use.
Intervening phrases
Common ones that don’t affect
the number of the subject
•
•
•
•
•
•
Along with
Together with
And not
As well as
In addition to
Accompanied by
•
•
•
•
•
•
Plus
Besides
Including
Except
Rather than
Not even
These phrases should be set off with commas.
One of …
• Use a singular verb after the phrases one
of or one of the.
– One of my children has the flu.
– One of the reviews for this week is missing.
One of …
• Use a plural verb after phrases one of
those who or one of the things that.
– She is one of the senators who want the bill to
pass this session. (Of the senators who want
the bill to pass, she is one.)
– I bought one of the copiers that were
advertised in the flier in Sunday’s paper.
(Several copiers were advertised in Sunday’s
paper. I bought one.)
The one and only
• Use a singular verb after a phrase that
includes the only.
– Adam is the only one of my children who does
not have the flu.
– Sara Howe acts as if she is the only copy
editor who knows what she is doing.
Indefinite pronouns
• Each, every, either, neither, one, another
and much are always singular.
– Each has been given the resources he needs
to complete the task.
– Neither boy wants to play on the team this
year.
– Much of what we discussed today was not
helpful in trying to make the decision.
Indefinite pronouns
• Other words that are always singular and
require singular verbs.
– Anybody, anything, anyone, everybody,
everything, everyone, somebody, something,
someone, nobody, nothing, no one.
• Anyone who wants the Mustangs to win is going to
be disappointed.
• Somebody moves my chair every night.
NONE but the brave
• None can be singular.
– The children are old enough, but none goes to
school. (not one)
– None of the equipment was stolen in the
break-in.
• Or it can be plural.
– None of the experts agree about oil prices.
(no two)
THE number or A number
• If the number is the subject, use a singular
verb, regardless of the noun in the
prepositional phrase.
– The number of voters rises when parties
conduct get-out-the-vote drives.
• If a number is the subject, use a plural
verb.
– A number of voters find getting to the polls
difficult.
Special cases
• Money, time, organizations, food distances
and diseases often require singular verbs.
– In the 1960s, $3,000 was enough to live on
for months.
– Three months in prison is a long time. (as a
unit)
– The United Auto Workers has decided to
strike.
– Measles spreads quickly in a dormitory.
Phrases and clauses
• When the subject of a sentence is a
phrase or a clause, use a singular verb
almost always.
– That the incumbent will be re-elected is far
from certain.
– Editing entertainment calendars is tedious
work.
– Whoever wins the election is likely to face a
tough adjustment period in the job.
Find the subject
• In some sentences, the subject appears
after the verb. Make sure that the agrees
with the true subject.
– What page are the record reviews on?
– Enclosed are two copies of the disputed
memo.
– There are three steps each person must
follow.
Here, there and …
• If a sentence begins with here or there, the
subject is after the verb.
– Here is the problem with teaching grammar.
– Here is the problem with teaching grammar.
– There are 20 students in the class.
– There are 20 students in the class.
– Here is $20 to pay for a haircut.
– Here is $20 to pay for a haircut.
Plural-looking words
• Words that are plural in form but (perhaps)
singular in meaning.
– Politics is a difficult business for families.
– The fugitive’s whereabouts is unknown.
– The news from the front is not good.
– We took a course in statistics.
Plural-looking words
• But some can be plural.
– The politics of city government are often
dominated by special interests. (many
aspects)
– The mechanics of English are hard to teach.
– The species found at the arboretum include
many non-native plants.
– The statistics the city manager cited in her
report were staggering.
More plural-looking words
• Some words are plural even if they refer to
a single thing.
– These scissors need sharpening.
• BUT: This pair of scissors needs sharpening.
– The odds of success are not very good.
Latin is alive!
• Nouns with plural Latin endings take plural
verbs.
– The news media are responsible for
spreading the false report. (singular is
medium)
– The alumni are not going to support tearing
down the old stadium. (singular is alumnus or
alumna)
– The data have been carefully collected.
(singular is datum)
The rise of the collective
• Collective nouns that denote a unit take
singular verbs.
– The jury continues to deliberate.
– The commission approves rules that will
govern the debate.
• But if the members of the collective body
act individually …
– A herd of cows meander through the canyon
on their way to their favorite grazing ground.
Fractional thinking
• Fractions and percentages are singular or
plural depending on the noun or pronoun
following them.
– One-third of the book is a flashback.
– One-third of the customers are Spanishspeaking immigrants.
– Half of the cake is gone.
– Half of the voters fail to show up on Election
Day.
We’re with the band
• Publications may choose follow the form of
a band’s name to determine whether to
use a singular or a plural verb.
– Outkast performs Friday at the RBC Center.
– The Black-Eyed Peas are moving up the
chart.
• But if we are using the word band, we
consider it singular.
– The band plays its hit at the end of every
concert.
Be a pronoun pro
Cool things about pronouns
How they are like alligators
• Pronouns retain the inflections that were
common in Old English. That is, they change
form to indicate their grammatical function.
• So, like alligators, pronouns are evolutionary
throwbacks.
Cool things about pronouns
• Pronouns have gender.
– They are masculine (he, him,
himself), feminine (she, her, hers,
herself) or neuter (it).
• They can be classified by person.
– First (I, we); second (you); third (he,
she, they).
Cool things about pronouns
• They have number.
– They are singular (I, he, she) or plural (we,
they).
• They also have case.
– They are nominative (also referred to as
subjective), objective or possessive.
Pronoun problems
• Case
– This is the who-whom-whose deal.
• Who is nominative (used as the subject).
• Whom is objective (used as the object).
• Whose is possessive (used as, uh, the
possessive).
• Antecedent
– This is a number failure.
• We use a plural pronoun to refer to a singular
noun.
– Or a clarity failure.
• It’s just unclear what the pronoun refers to.
Pronoun problems
• Punctuation
– The dreadful apostrophe mistake!
•
•
•
•
Its is the possessive form of it.
It’s is the contraction for it is.
Whose is the possessive form of who.
Who’s is the contraction for who is.
• -Self abuse
– This is the irritating misuse of the reflexive
form: myself, himself, themselves, etc.
Who or whom?
• Who/whoever is the subject of a clause.
– Who is responsible for making English so
complicated?
– Please tell whoever needs to know that I have
updated the file.
Who or whom?
• Whom/whomever is the object of a verb or
a preposition or the subject of an infinitive.
– To whom do you wish to speak?
– We are interested to see whom the voters
choose Nov. 2.
– We didn’t know whom to call when we found
the dead cat lying in the middle of our cul-desac.
Complication
• If the pronoun is the subject of the infinitive
“to be,” the choice is trickier.
– Who does the rock star want to be when he
takes the stage? (The rock star wants to be
who.)
– Who was the intruder thought to be? (The
intruder was thought to be who.)
Think of the pronoun as a subject
complement and use the nominative.
The -m trick
• If you can substitute the pronoun “him” or
“them” in the construction, use “whom.”
• Or you can turn the sentence structure
around to find the right case.
– You wish to speak to HIM – use whom.
– The voters choose HIM – use whom.
– We could not persuade THEM – use whom.
And another thing …
• People are who, not that, most of the time.
– The pollsters try to find voters who are
undecided.
• But if the person is part of a class of
people, you can use that.
– She is the kind of reporter that always pencilchecks copy carefully.
Figuring it out
•
•
•
•
Isolate the phrase or clause.
Rearrange the words.
Substitute “he/him” or “they/them.”
Figure out how the phrase or clause
is functioning in the sentence.
Up the antecedent
• Make sure that the pronoun agrees in
number, person and gender with the noun
or pronoun that it refers to.
– The sophomore class elects its officers today.
– The couple left their troubles behind and flew
to Maui.
– The teacher asked everyone to get out his or
her pencil for the test.
Up the antecedent
• Make sure that the pronoun’s antecedent
is clear.
– When Gloria set the pitcher on the glasstopped table, it broke. (what broke?)
– The pitcher broke when Gloria set it on the
glass-topped table.
Up the antecedent
• Make sure that the pronoun HAS an
antecedent.
– After braiding Ann’s hair, Sue decorated them
with ribbons. (What is the antecedent of
them?)
– After braiding Ann’s hair, Sue decorated
the braids with ribbons.
Up the antecedent
• Watch out for a pronoun that appears to
have a possessive noun for an
antecedent.
– Lottie Mae’s mother died when she was 30.
(Who was 30?)
– When Lottie Mae was 30, her mother died.
OR
– Lottie Mae’s mother died at 30.
Indefinite problems
• Sometimes, the number of indefinite
pronouns confuses us:
These are singular: anybody, anyone,
anything, each, either, everybody, everyone,
everything, neither, nobody, no one,
somebody, someone, something.
These are plural: all (mostly), both, few, most,
several, some.
Gerund weirdness
• Use the possessive form of a pronoun
before a gerund (a verbal that ends in –ing
and acts as a noun.)
– The mayor couldn’t understand why his taking
a vacation with a city contractor was a
problem.
– The chance of your being hit by a rock is very
slim, but wear a hard hat anyway.
Hodgepodge
Issues that only copy editors care about
At our discretion
(matters of style)
• Since when we mean because.
• Between, instead of among, for more than
two.
• While when we mean although.
• There at the beginning of a sentence.
Due to/Because of
• “Due to” is used in this construction:
– The flood was due to a break in the dam.
(“Due to” is adjectival; use it as a subject
complement.)
• “Because of” is used in this construction.
– The town was flooded because of a break in
the dam. (“Because of” is adverbial and tells
“why.”)
• See Malcolm Gibson’s explanation at
www.ku.edu/~edit/because.html.
Hopefully
Writers have used “hopefully” as a sentence
adverb for years, but the word fell into
disfavor in the 1960s.
Purists insist that the word means “in a
hopeful manner,” not “ it is to be hoped.”
Best advice: Avoid this word and change it
when you see it, just to head off the
purists’ wrath.
Irony/ironic/ironically
• Writers sometimes use ironic or ironically
to describe something that is merely an
odd juxtaposition or a coincidence.
– Ironically, the sisters’ funeral was in the same
chapel where they were baptized five years
before. (Is it truly an outcome that might be
different from what is expected?)
There, you go
• Sentences that begin with “there” can
often be changed, but you don’t have to
change every one.
– “There is a tide in the affairs of men that taken
at the flood …”
Each other/one another
• The Associated Press Stylebook doesn’t
allow much leeway on this. It is not a
matter of grammar as much as a matter of
style.
– Use “each other” for two people or things;
“one another” for three or more. But use either
for indefinite number.
May/Might
• May and might express different degrees
of likelihood.
– I may go to the party suggests that I probably
will go.
– I might go to the party suggests that I am less
likely.
– I might have to go to the party if I am unable
to come up with a good excuse suggests a
hypothetical.
May or Can?
• The rule we learned in third grade still
applies.
– May implies permission.
– Can implies ability.
• The junior may take the 500 level course.
• The junior can pass the 500 level course.
Like/As
• Like is a preposition. Use it before a noun
or pronoun.
– We should hire another copy editor like
Caroline.
• Use as or as if before a clause.
– As I told you earlier, we should hire another
copy editor.
– The editor looked at me as if I had two heads.
Hyphens
• Compound verbs can be hyphenated or
solid.
– Air-condition, home-school.
– Downshift, downsize, hitchhike.
The only advice is to check the Associated
Press Style or a dictionary and hyphenate if
the word is not listed.
Hyphens
• Verb-preposition combinations are not
hyphenated.
– Break up, cross over, drive in, make up, mix
up, push up.
• But the corresponding nouns often are not
hyphenated.
– Breakup, crossover, drive-in, makeup, mixup,
pushup.
Hyphens
• Compound modifiers used in front of a
noun are hyphenated.
– Well-known people seek privacy at the
isolated lodge.
– Sherry applied for a full-time job.
Hyphens
• Compound modifiers used after the noun
are hyphenated if they are a subject
complement with the verb to be.
– People who are well-known seek privacy at
the isolated lodge.
Other land mines in copy
• Homonym confusion: principal-principle,
peak-peek, hoard-horde, etc.
• Wrong word choice: enormity to mean
“big.”
• Misplaced modifiers: Walking through the
windy city, my hat flew off and into the
gutter.
What grammar book
addiction looks like
Sources
• The Gregg Reference • Garner’s Modern
Manual by William A.
American Usage by
Sabin, McGrawBryan A. Garner.
Hill/Irwin, Tenth
Oxford University
edition, 2004.
Press, 2003.
Sources
• Paul Brians’ Common Errors in
English,
www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/
• Common Errors in English
Usage by Paul Brians, William,
James & Co., 2003
Sources
• Words on Words by
John Bremner,
Columbia University
Press, 1980.
• The Careful Writer by
Theodore M.
Bernstein, Atheneum,
1983 (also Free
Press, 1995)
Sources
• Working With Words,
A Handbook for
Media Writers and
Editors by Brian S.
Brooks, James L.
Pinson and Jean
Gaddy Wilson, Fifth
edition, Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2003.
Sources
• Writer’s Digest
Grammar Desk
Reference by Gary
Lutz and Diane
Stevenson, F&W
Publications, 2005.
• Rules for Writers by
Diana Hacker,
Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2004.
Sources
• Capital Community College’s Guide to
Grammar and Writing,
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar
/index.htm
• Jack Lynch’s Guide to Grammar and
Writing
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writi
ng/
Sources
• The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University,
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/
• Grammar Handbook at the Writers' Workshop,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/writer_resourc
es/grammar_handbook/grammar_handbook.htm
• The Tongue Untied, A guide to grammar, punctuation
and style for journalists, http://grammar.uoregon.edu.
Sources
• Malcolm Gibson’s Wonderful World of
Editing, www.ku.edu/~edit/
• Daily Grammar, www.dailygrammar.com/
• WebGrammar’s list of common mistakes,
www.webgrammar.com/commonmistakes.
html
• Dr. Grammar, www.drgrammar.org/
Sources
• Columbia Guide to Standard American
English, www.bartleby.com/68/
• American Heritage Book of English Usage,
www.bartleby.com/64/
• The King’s English by H.W. Fowler,
www.bartleby.com/116/
• Towson University Online Writing Support,
wwwnew.towson.edu/ows/