Hear! Hear! The misuse of the apostrophe is one of my pet peeves, so I'm glad someone else is finally mentioning it.
End Apostrophe Abuse
By David Bowman
We feel sorry for the little apostrophe. It is so abused, so often made to do what it shouldn't and so often forgotten when needed. The apostrophe is a proud punctuation mark with specific purposes and does not deserve to be misused. Again and again we see the same two abuses of this punctuation mark, not just in the pieces we edit but all around us in the "real" world. We'll discuss two of those abuses here, and we'll hope to restore some of the respect the apostrophe deserves.
Abuse #1: Plurals
To say it plainly: don't use apostrophes to make plurals. Sentences like Get your hamburger's here are simply wrong. The little apostrophe was not meant to make one hamburger into multiple hamburgers. Here are a few other other samples of the apostrophe being pressed into the wrong service:
These paper's need correcting.
Some writer's make a lot of error's.
Apostrophe's are not complicated.
Why do people do this to the apostrophe? The construction 's is meant to show ownership (or a contraction, as in the second abuse discussed below), not a plural. Perhaps people abuse the apostrophe in this way because they don't know the difference between ownership and plurals. Perhaps they see this abuse occurring so often that they don't even realize it is wrong (much like using data as a singular noun although it is really a plural.)
Villainous sentences like People living in the 1990's bought a lot of CD's certainly don't promote virtuous use of the noble apostrophe.
Abuse #2: Contractions
To say it plainly: put the apostrophe in place of missing letters. The little apostrophe is very powerful. It can stand in for all the letters of the alphabet without breaking a sweat. Do you want to leave out part of a word? The apostrophe is on hand to take its place. The apostrophe is mighty in this way and should not be forgotten. Here are a few correct examples of the apostrophe doing what it should:
We don't forget the apostrophe in contractions.
Here's the correct use of an apostrophe.
You're abusing the apostrophe again.
This is also the rule that explains why you don't put an apostrophe in its when using its as a possessive, as in: The apostrophe can take its place. In this sample sentence, its isn't a contraction for it is so you don't use the apostrophe.
The rules for using apostrophes are very simple, so our editors are often surprised that many writers (not writer's) make this mistake. The two cases where apostrophes are most often forgotten, in our experience, are in the words you're and they're. Sometimes the apostrophe is there, but it's in the wrong place.
End Apostrophe Abuse Now
Poor apostrophe. It can do so much for you when you use it correctly. In fact, knowing how to use apostrophes correctly is a sign of being a professional writer. Let's end apostrophe abuse and restore its dignity as a powerful and important member of your punctuation arsenal.
David Bowman is the Owner and Chief Editor of Precise Edit (http://PreciseEdit.com), a comprehensive editing, proofreading, and document analysis service for authors, students, and businesses. Precise Edit also offers a variety of other services, such as translation, transcription, and website development.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Bowman
http://EzineArticles.com/?End-Apostrophe-Abuse&id=812599
Showing posts with label Grammar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grammar. Show all posts
Monday, November 05, 2007
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Active vs. Passive Voice in Creative Writing
Couldn't have put it better myself!
Writing Tip: Active vs. Passive Verbs
by: Lisa Silverman
"Jenny was being served her apple martini by the bartender just as the front window was shattered by a speeding Humvee, and Jenny was thrown from her stool."
OR
"The bartender was serving Jenny her apple martini just as a speeding Humvee shattered the front window and threw Jenny from her stool."
Which sentence jumps off the page? Notice that I didn’t alter a single word, aside from changing each verb from passive to active voice.
If you haven’t heard those terms before, here’s a simple definition: Passive voice makes the subject into the (passive) object of the verb. Active voice means the subject is the (active) person or thing performing the action of the verb. In the second clause, the window isn’t doing the shattering--the Humvee is. The window is the object of the shattering. So shouldn’t the Humvee be the subject? Ancient grammar swamis say yes.
But, you say, the sentences don’t seem that different to me. Wrong. Try this: count the words. Okay, fine, I’ll do it for you. The first example contains 28 words, the second 23. Multiply that difference (five, math whiz) by the number of sentences in a manuscript. My example was extreme, so let’s be conservative and say you save one word every fifth sentence by going through your manuscript and changing as many verbs as you can from passive to active.
Take a manuscript of 300 pages, with an average of 300 words per page, and sentences of about 10 words… that’s 9,000 sentences. Damn. No wonder finishing a manuscript is hard. Result: you’ve just cut 1,800 words, or six pages, from your manuscript.
Why would you want to cut six pages from your magnum opus? Maybe you don’t. Maybe you want to fill those six pages--or twelve, if you’re one of those ambitious people who writes 600-page manuscripts--with useful information about plot, character, or theme, instead of useless words such as was, were, by, and that annoying suffix "-ing." But it’s okay to simply cut. Honest. Quality is more important than quantity.
Even if you don’t see the difference in my one example, use active verbs consistently and your writing will pop as it never did before. The reason is self-explanatory: it’s more active, and useless words aren’t bogging it down. Repeat after me: useless words are bad words.
The Exception That Proves the Rule:
F. Scott Fitzgerald used the passive voice. I’m sure of it. But when he did, I’ll bet he had a good reason. My example might be taken from a novel in which Jenny is the protagonist. Her true love, perhaps, is driving the Humvee. (The Humvee is not “being driven by” her true love.) So Jenny, not the bartender, should be the focus of the sentence. With this rule, as with all others that are meant to be (occasionally) broken, always be aware of why you’re breaking it.
You’ve got to know the rules before you can know how to break them. And no one knows all the rules. Not even me.
About The Author
Lisa Silverman is a freelance book editor and works in the copyediting department at one of New York's most prestigious literary publishing houses. She has also worked as a ghostwriter and a literary agent representing both book authors and screenwriters. She founded http://www.BeYourOwnEditor.com in order to provide writers with free advice on both writing and the publishing business.
Writing Tip: Active vs. Passive Verbs
by: Lisa Silverman
"Jenny was being served her apple martini by the bartender just as the front window was shattered by a speeding Humvee, and Jenny was thrown from her stool."
OR
"The bartender was serving Jenny her apple martini just as a speeding Humvee shattered the front window and threw Jenny from her stool."
Which sentence jumps off the page? Notice that I didn’t alter a single word, aside from changing each verb from passive to active voice.
If you haven’t heard those terms before, here’s a simple definition: Passive voice makes the subject into the (passive) object of the verb. Active voice means the subject is the (active) person or thing performing the action of the verb. In the second clause, the window isn’t doing the shattering--the Humvee is. The window is the object of the shattering. So shouldn’t the Humvee be the subject? Ancient grammar swamis say yes.
But, you say, the sentences don’t seem that different to me. Wrong. Try this: count the words. Okay, fine, I’ll do it for you. The first example contains 28 words, the second 23. Multiply that difference (five, math whiz) by the number of sentences in a manuscript. My example was extreme, so let’s be conservative and say you save one word every fifth sentence by going through your manuscript and changing as many verbs as you can from passive to active.
Take a manuscript of 300 pages, with an average of 300 words per page, and sentences of about 10 words… that’s 9,000 sentences. Damn. No wonder finishing a manuscript is hard. Result: you’ve just cut 1,800 words, or six pages, from your manuscript.
Why would you want to cut six pages from your magnum opus? Maybe you don’t. Maybe you want to fill those six pages--or twelve, if you’re one of those ambitious people who writes 600-page manuscripts--with useful information about plot, character, or theme, instead of useless words such as was, were, by, and that annoying suffix "-ing." But it’s okay to simply cut. Honest. Quality is more important than quantity.
Even if you don’t see the difference in my one example, use active verbs consistently and your writing will pop as it never did before. The reason is self-explanatory: it’s more active, and useless words aren’t bogging it down. Repeat after me: useless words are bad words.
The Exception That Proves the Rule:
F. Scott Fitzgerald used the passive voice. I’m sure of it. But when he did, I’ll bet he had a good reason. My example might be taken from a novel in which Jenny is the protagonist. Her true love, perhaps, is driving the Humvee. (The Humvee is not “being driven by” her true love.) So Jenny, not the bartender, should be the focus of the sentence. With this rule, as with all others that are meant to be (occasionally) broken, always be aware of why you’re breaking it.
You’ve got to know the rules before you can know how to break them. And no one knows all the rules. Not even me.
About The Author
Lisa Silverman is a freelance book editor and works in the copyediting department at one of New York's most prestigious literary publishing houses. She has also worked as a ghostwriter and a literary agent representing both book authors and screenwriters. She founded http://www.BeYourOwnEditor.com in order to provide writers with free advice on both writing and the publishing business.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Grammar & Creative Writing? Use the Elements of Style
I own this book myself, and highly recommend it. Since Bob Lory went to the trouble to write this article, though, I'll let him tell you about it.
The "Elements" Of Good Writing
by: Bob Lory
If you want to write "good," you're supposed to know certain rules of grammar-where to place commas, the agreement of nouns and verbs, the proper cases of pronouns. This is the "gut" stuff of English Composition 101 that, if you do enough of it wrong, labels you as illiterate.
Check out the writing section of any good new or used book store, and you'll see guides ranging from 300 pages upward that promise to make you a master technician of everything from the parenthesis to the gerund. All you have to do is memorize these 300-plus pages.
Which of course you won't. You won't even read most of them. Fortunately, if you've made it this far in life without having someone drag you to such a tome, you most likely don't need it. But there is one guide I strongly suggest you read, and the edition I'm looking at right now is only 85 pages.
That's The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. If you don't own a copy, get your hands on one within the next seven days and focus your mind for your first reading.
Whoa...did I just say "first?"
Digression time:
Strunk was White's English professor at Cornell University. The year was 1919 and part of the material Strunk's students had to master was the contents of what was known as his "little book," as he called it. White, who more than forty years later, was asked to update the original (he also added a chapter), recalls that in his classroom Strunk--
omitted so many needless words...that he often seemed in the position of having shortchanged himself--a man left with nothing more to say yet with time to fill, a radio prophet who had outdistanced the clock. Will Strunk got out of this predicament by a simple trick: he uttered every sentence three times. When he delivered his oration on brevity to the class, he leaned forward over his desk, grasped his coat lapels in his hand and, in a husky, conspiratorial voice, said, "Rule Seventeen: Omit needless words! Omit needless words! Omit needless words!"
If three times was good enough for Professor Strunk, it's good enough for us. My recommendation: Read the entire book as soon as you can (that's this week, remember?). Do your second read after three or four weeks elapse. Save the third for a year from now. You'll probably never have to consult it again.
The best edition is the third, first published in 1979 but still widely available.
About The Author
Copyright 2006 by Bob Lory. Bob Lory has more than 30 years of global PR, employee communication and ad writing experience and training professionals in these fields. His blog--http://write-to-communicate.blogspot.com--shares the stuff that works.
Articlse Source: http://www.articlecity.com
The "Elements" Of Good Writing
by: Bob Lory
If you want to write "good," you're supposed to know certain rules of grammar-where to place commas, the agreement of nouns and verbs, the proper cases of pronouns. This is the "gut" stuff of English Composition 101 that, if you do enough of it wrong, labels you as illiterate.
Check out the writing section of any good new or used book store, and you'll see guides ranging from 300 pages upward that promise to make you a master technician of everything from the parenthesis to the gerund. All you have to do is memorize these 300-plus pages.
Which of course you won't. You won't even read most of them. Fortunately, if you've made it this far in life without having someone drag you to such a tome, you most likely don't need it. But there is one guide I strongly suggest you read, and the edition I'm looking at right now is only 85 pages.
That's The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. If you don't own a copy, get your hands on one within the next seven days and focus your mind for your first reading.
Whoa...did I just say "first?"
Digression time:
Strunk was White's English professor at Cornell University. The year was 1919 and part of the material Strunk's students had to master was the contents of what was known as his "little book," as he called it. White, who more than forty years later, was asked to update the original (he also added a chapter), recalls that in his classroom Strunk--
omitted so many needless words...that he often seemed in the position of having shortchanged himself--a man left with nothing more to say yet with time to fill, a radio prophet who had outdistanced the clock. Will Strunk got out of this predicament by a simple trick: he uttered every sentence three times. When he delivered his oration on brevity to the class, he leaned forward over his desk, grasped his coat lapels in his hand and, in a husky, conspiratorial voice, said, "Rule Seventeen: Omit needless words! Omit needless words! Omit needless words!"
If three times was good enough for Professor Strunk, it's good enough for us. My recommendation: Read the entire book as soon as you can (that's this week, remember?). Do your second read after three or four weeks elapse. Save the third for a year from now. You'll probably never have to consult it again.
The best edition is the third, first published in 1979 but still widely available.
About The Author
Copyright 2006 by Bob Lory. Bob Lory has more than 30 years of global PR, employee communication and ad writing experience and training professionals in these fields. His blog--http://write-to-communicate.blogspot.com--shares the stuff that works.
Articlse Source: http://www.articlecity.com
Monday, July 31, 2006
Creative Writing: Mind Your Grammar
One of my oldest pet peeves is the dangling participle. Such a pet peeve, in fact, that I made fun of them in a series of cartoons I drew in grade school...yes, I'm a grammar geek.
The problem is, many writers today don't even know what a participle is, let alone what happens when it's left dangling. Well, I've dug into Pamela Beers' writing again, and found she has an excellent explanation of the problem--and the cure.
Pardon Me, Your Participle Is Dangling
By Pamela Beers
I had a dream about dangling participles last night; probably because I had a bowl of chocolate-chip, fudge brownie, chocolate ice cream followed by a second bowl of hand picked sweet cherries, before I went to bed. Instead of sugarplums dancing in my head, there were dangling participles hovering over the bedpost. It sounds kind of kinky doesn't it?
What is a participle? It is a word ending in "ing" and sometimes "ed". It looks like a verb but acts as an adjective. A participle is used to describe other words in a sentence.
Dangling participles are writing faux pas. They are often humorous without intending to be, but can be both confusing and annoying when trying to convey a message. In order to avoid dangling participles in your writing, be specific. Avoid generalizations. Two examples of generalizations are "there is", and "it".
Make sure you include a noun or verb in the sentence for the participle to clearly modify. A modifier is a word or group of words that describe other words in a sentence.
Whew! Let's see now, dangling participles, verbs, adjectives, modifiers, there's a lot to think about. Let's have fun with dangling participles and their sometimes humorous, but confusing messages.
1.Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided. (Is the dangling participle writing carefully?)
Correct: Avoid dangling participles while you are writing.
2. Flitting from flower to flower, the baseball player watched the bee. (I don't think the baseball player is flitting from flower to flower, but you never know.)
Correct: The baseball player watched the bee flitting from flower to flower.
3. After being cracked open, the cook boiled the egg. (Oh, oh violence in the kitchen! I hope the cook wasn't cracked open before the egg was boiled.)
Correct: The cook boiled the egg after it was cracked open.
4. Leaping off the cliff, I saw the mountain goat land safely 20 feet below me. (Look out below; the goat and I are on our way down!)
Correct: Leaping off the cliff, the mountain goat landed safely 20 feet below me.
So, folks, a dangling participle is not some kinky physical problem. It is a grammar problem. When writing, make your communication clear.
ALWAYS remember never to eat chocolate-chip, fudge brownie, chocolate ice cream followed by sweet cherries, before going to bed. I sometimes have a problem with dangling participles, but today I have a stomachache.
Copyright © 2006 by Pamela Beers. All rights reserved.
Pamela Beers is a freelance writier, and educator. Visit her website at http://www.pamelabers.com for writing and marketing tips.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pamela_Beers
The problem is, many writers today don't even know what a participle is, let alone what happens when it's left dangling. Well, I've dug into Pamela Beers' writing again, and found she has an excellent explanation of the problem--and the cure.
Pardon Me, Your Participle Is Dangling
By Pamela Beers
I had a dream about dangling participles last night; probably because I had a bowl of chocolate-chip, fudge brownie, chocolate ice cream followed by a second bowl of hand picked sweet cherries, before I went to bed. Instead of sugarplums dancing in my head, there were dangling participles hovering over the bedpost. It sounds kind of kinky doesn't it?
What is a participle? It is a word ending in "ing" and sometimes "ed". It looks like a verb but acts as an adjective. A participle is used to describe other words in a sentence.
Dangling participles are writing faux pas. They are often humorous without intending to be, but can be both confusing and annoying when trying to convey a message. In order to avoid dangling participles in your writing, be specific. Avoid generalizations. Two examples of generalizations are "there is", and "it".
Make sure you include a noun or verb in the sentence for the participle to clearly modify. A modifier is a word or group of words that describe other words in a sentence.
Whew! Let's see now, dangling participles, verbs, adjectives, modifiers, there's a lot to think about. Let's have fun with dangling participles and their sometimes humorous, but confusing messages.
1.Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided. (Is the dangling participle writing carefully?)
Correct: Avoid dangling participles while you are writing.
2. Flitting from flower to flower, the baseball player watched the bee. (I don't think the baseball player is flitting from flower to flower, but you never know.)
Correct: The baseball player watched the bee flitting from flower to flower.
3. After being cracked open, the cook boiled the egg. (Oh, oh violence in the kitchen! I hope the cook wasn't cracked open before the egg was boiled.)
Correct: The cook boiled the egg after it was cracked open.
4. Leaping off the cliff, I saw the mountain goat land safely 20 feet below me. (Look out below; the goat and I are on our way down!)
Correct: Leaping off the cliff, the mountain goat landed safely 20 feet below me.
So, folks, a dangling participle is not some kinky physical problem. It is a grammar problem. When writing, make your communication clear.
ALWAYS remember never to eat chocolate-chip, fudge brownie, chocolate ice cream followed by sweet cherries, before going to bed. I sometimes have a problem with dangling participles, but today I have a stomachache.
Copyright © 2006 by Pamela Beers. All rights reserved.
Pamela Beers is a freelance writier, and educator. Visit her website at http://www.pamelabers.com for writing and marketing tips.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pamela_Beers
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