Write Right - Jan Venolia 2001

Grammatical guidelines
The tools of writing

Chapter 2: Grammatical Guidelines

Agreement

Parallel Construction

Modifiers

Double Negatives

Grammar-Checkers

Chapter 3: Punctuation Pointers

Apostrophe

Colon

Comma

Dash

Ellipsis Points

Exclamation Point

Hyphen

Parentheses

Question Mark

Quotation Marks

Semicolon

Slash

Chapter 4: Copywriting Considerations

Abbreviations

Capitalization

Italics

Numbers

Spelling

I saw a man on a horse with a wooden leg.

See “Avoid Misplaced Modifiers,” this page.

2. Grammatical guidelines

It’s not just getting the right number of words, it’s getting them in the right order.

—John Cleese

For many people, grammar is about as much fun as a poke in the ear with a sharp stick. To them, grammarians are people who focus on nitpicky details just to make life miserable for students.

Actually, grammar helps put our language into a logical, orderly form. It makes subjects agree with verbs, places modifiers where they won’t confuse readers (or make them laugh at you), and makes references clear. Communication is smooth when we follow rules. This chapter covers the most important ones.

If you need to brush up on terminology, start with the preceding chapter. If you are comfortable with nouns, verbs, subjects, and predicates, and if you can identify first, second, and third person, just jump right in.

Agreement

Make subject and verb agree both in person and number.

Agreement is as pleasant in prose as it is in personal relations, and no more difficult to work for.—Jacques Barzun

Errors in agreement are among the most common mistakes writers make. The rule seems simple: A singular subject requires a singular verb; a plural subject requires a plural verb.

A subject in the first person also requires a verb in the first person: I am clever.

A subject in the third person requires a verb in the third person: She is clever.

But the rule is easier to state than to apply. It’s not always clear what the subject is and whether it is singular or plural. So let’s look at those two questions: how to identify the subject, and how to determine the number.

How to identify the subject: Three things can complicate your finding the subject.

✵ Intervening phrases

Phrases that come between subject and verb do not affect the number of the verb.

Identification of these compounds has remained difficult.

It is my son, not my daughters, who likes to bake bread.

The collision between expanding human demands and Earth’s natural limits has created unprecedented challenges.

One in five public water systems contains toxic substances.

Horse sense is what a horse has that keeps him from betting on people.—W. C. Fields

Mentally omit words that come between subject and verb to decide whether to use a singular or plural verb.

✵ Phrases and clauses as subjects

Use a singular verb if the subject is a phrase or clause.

The best way to keep your friends is not to give them away.—Wilson Mizner

The shelf life of the average trade book is somewhere between milk and yogurt.—Calvin Trillin

✵ Inverted order of subject and verb

When the subject follows the verb, you may have to think twice about whether the verb should be singular or plural.

First locate the subject and then you will know what the number of the verb should be (most of the time! ).

How to determine the number: Watch for five things that determine whether the subject takes a singular or plural verb.

✵ Compound subjects

Two or more subjects joined by a conjunction (and, or, nor …) and having the same verb are a compound subject. If the compound subject is joined by and, use a plural verb.

Writing a report and submitting it for review are difficult tasks for the new manager.

Motherhood and apple pie are endowed with special virtues in the U.S.

If the compound subject is joined by or, nor, either … or, or neither … nor, make the verb agree with the word just preceding the verb.

Either war is obsolete or men are.—Buckminster Fuller

If you end up with an awkward sentence, rewrite.

Awkward: Neither he nor I am willing to compromise.

Better: He is not willing to compromise; neither am I.

EXCEPTIONS: If a compound subject is regarded as a single unit or refers to the same person or thing, use a singular verb.

Bacon and eggs is a standard breakfast for some people.

My friend and former roommate is coming for a visit.

Compound subjects preceded by each or every are singular.

Every man, woman, and child is given full consideration.

Each chocolate truffle and pecan cluster is individually wrapped.

Company names, even when they combine several units or names, are usually considered as a single entity and thus take a singular verb.

Hy Skorz & Associates specializes in college testing.

Tanya Hyde & Company manufactures leather goods.

✵ Collective nouns

Nouns such as family, couple, group, majority, percent, and personnel take either singular or plural verbs. If the word refers to the group as a whole, or if the idea of oneness predominates, use a singular verb.

The faculty is meeting tonight at seven.

The jury has arrived at its verdict.

The elderly couple was the last to arrive.

A minority may be right; a majority is always wrong.

—Henrik Ibsen

If the word refers to individuals or items within a group, use a plural verb.

The faculty have expressed differing views.

A couple of latecomers were escorted to their seats.

The trouble with the publishing business is that too many people who have half a mind to write a book do so.

—William Targ

In some cases rewriting avoids the problem.

Replace: The jury was clearly moved by the graphic evidence.

with: The jurors were clearly moved by the graphic evidence.

Some words take either singular or plural verbs, depending on how they are used.

Human rights is a sensitive issue. (singular)

Human rights are often ignored. (plural)

Use singular verbs with nouns that are plural in form but singular in meaning, such as measles, checkers, and news.

Measles is a preventable disease.

The news is broadcast daily.

Words ending in-ics (statistics, politics, economics, athletics) are singular if they refer to a body of knowledge and plural if they refer to particular activities or individual facts.

Statistics is a difficult subject. (singular)

The statistics show a declining birth rate. (plural)

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.—Robert Louis Stevenson

The word number is singular when preceded by the and plural when preceded by a.

The number of students enrolling is decreasing.

A number of stock market indicators were favorable.

✵ Indefinite pronouns

The following pronouns are always singular: another, each, every, either, neither, and one, as are the compound pronouns made with any, every, some, and no (anybody, anything, anyone, nobody, nothing, no one …).

Neither of the tax returns was completed on time.

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.—Voltaire

An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less.—Nicholas Murray Butler

Each of you is welcome to stay.

Nothing is so useless as a general maxim.—Thomas Macaulay

When the word each follows a plural subject, it does not affect the verb, which remains plural.

The voters each have their own opinion.

The following pronouns are always plural: both, few, many, others, and several.

Many are called, but few are chosen.—Matthew 22:14

The following pronouns are either singular or plural, depending on how they are used: all, none, any, some, more, and most.

We’ve suffered some setbacks, but all is not lost. (singular)

The mistakes were costly, and all were avoidable. (plural)

None of the laundry was properly cleaned. (singular)

Three people were in the plane, but none were hurt. (plural)

The relative pronouns who, which, and that are singular if they have singular antecedents (the words they refer to) or plural if they have plural antecedents.

Sometimes rewriting solves the problem and trims wordiness as well.

Replace: Honesty is one of the most important virtues that is discussed in the book.

with: Honesty is one of the most important virtues discussed in the book.

✵ Expressions of time, money, and quantity

Use a singular verb with a total amount.

Three dollars is a reasonable price.

Use a plural verb when referring to individual units.

Two dollars were enclosed.

✵ Fractions

The number of the noun following a fraction determines the number of the verb.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.—E. B. White

Make pronoun and antecedent agree in number.

Agreement is important not only with subjects and verbs, but with pronouns and their antecedents. Both contribute to coherent writing.

The Labour and Conservative parties have nominated their candidates.

Each employee provides his or her (not their) own tools.

When following this rule means using masculine pronouns for both sexes, some writers choose to ignore the rule. However, you can usually avoid both grammatical error and sexism by rewriting.

Use the second person:

It’s enough to drive you out of your senses.

Use a plural noun as antecedent:

The employees provide their own tools.

Parallel construction

Parallel words, phrases, and clauses improve the flow of ideas and heighten its impact. Similarity of form helps readers recognize similarity of content or function.

We think according to nature; we speak according to rules; we act according to custom.—Francis Bacon

… government of the people, by the people, and for the people.—Abraham Lincoln

Canada has no cultural unity, no linguistic unity, no religious unity, no economic unity. All it has is unity.—Kenneth Boulding

Express parallel thoughts in grammatically parallel ways. For example, pair a preposition with another preposition, a negative clause with a negative clause, and so on.

In an undeveloped country, don’t drink the water; in a developed country, don’t breathe the air.—Changing Times

If one person says you’re a donkey, don’t mind. If two say so, be worried. If three say so, go buy a saddle.—Yiddish proverb

Sometimes an additional preposition is needed to maintain parallelism.

Wrong: The program is popular in minority communities as well as police officers.

Right: The program is popular in minority communities as well as among police officers.

Use parallel construction in lists, outlines, or headings. If a list begins with strong verbs (a good idea, by the way), make the entire list begin with such verbs. The example below (from a brochure describing a writing course!) switches from strong active verbs to a wordy string of nouns and adjectives.

1. Add impact to every line

2. Explode writing myths

3. The simple techniques used to stimulate readers’ interest

Change the third item to something like this:

3. Stimulate readers’ interest

Modifiers

Avoid misplaced modifiers.

Sylvester picked up a girl in a blue jacket named Bonnie.

That’s a misplaced modifier. It’s everyone’s favorite grammatical goof.

People with deficient metabolizing systems or children may be unjustly burdened by genetically engineered foods.

One day I decided to look up a style of music I’d been listening to in a big Merriam-Webster dictionary.

It’s a 30-minute documentary on the Bay Area’s housing and growth crisis produced by the Association of Bay Area Governments.

I found all those misplaced modifiers in books or magazines, where they had eluded the eye of copyeditors. If you want to avoid having blue jackets named Bonnie in your writing, keep related words together.

Here are some more misplaced modifiers.

Wrong: He told her that he wanted to marry her frequently.

Right: He frequently told her that he wanted to marry her.

Wrong: The clients were told their policy only covers procedures that are medically approved by their insurance agent.

Right: The clients were told by their insurance agent that their policy only covers medically approved procedures.

Wrong: The seminar is designed for adolescents who have been experimenting with drugs and their parents.

Right: The seminar is designed not only for adolescents who have been experimenting with drugs but for their parents as well.

As you can see in the above examples, word order is an indicator of meaning in the English language. Thus, it’s important to place modifiers where they convey the intended meaning.

The delightfully descriptive squinting modifier seems to refer to words on either side of it.

A plan for laying off workers gradually is getting attention.

What does gradually refer to—the plan or the attention? To avoid confusion, place such modifiers directly preceding the word or phrase they modify. The intended meaning determines which of the following sentences is correct.

A plan for gradually laying off workers is getting attention.

or

A plan for laying off workers is gradually getting attention.

Avoid dangling modifiers.

A modifier “dangles” when what it modifies is missing or is misplaced in the sentence.

As the author of grammar books, my reputation demands error-free writing.

My reputation is not the author—I am!

Jogging across the busy street, a truck almost hit me.

The truck appears to be doing the jogging here. You can repair the sentence in a number of ways.

Jogging across the busy street, I was almost hit by a truck.

As I jogged across the busy street, a truck almost hit me.

Subtle danglers may slip by unnoticed.

After standing in line for half the night, they announced that all the tickets had been sold.

Having been in the Army, your editorial reminded me of the joys of being a raw recruit.

But some danglers are real howlers for which there’s no excuse.

At the age of five, his father died.

Hidden in an antique seaman’s chest, Aunt Keziah found the crucial document.

Having been damaged in shipping, I returned the package.

When dipped in butter, you can experience the lobster’s rich flavor.

EXCEPTIONS: Certain modifying phrases are so useful that they are accepted as correct even though they dangle. All things considered, strictly speaking, judging by the record, curiously, admittedly, and assuming you’re right are examples of this well-established idiom.

The word hopefully (as in Hopefully, we will be on time) should be just as acceptable, but it is still frowned on by some language mavens and by the New York Times Style Guide. You can stick with the Times or join the crowd of hopefully users. You can even skirt the whole issue, as I do, by finding another way to express yourself. (See this page.)

Double negatives

In general, avoid double negatives.

Two negative words tend to cancel each other and create a positive meaning, which may not be what you have in mind.

Wrong: The program is not going nowhere.

Right: The program is going nowhere.

Not all double negatives are so obvious.

Wrong: I couldn’t scarcely believe what I heard.

Right: I could scarcely believe what I heard.

Be especially careful when words other than no or not express negation.

Wrong: The absence of compassion was noticeably lacking.

Right: The lack of compassion was evident.

Note that neither/nor does not constitute a double negative; it is more in the spirit of a list of two negative elements.

Neither this nor that …

Avoid complicated negative constructions that burden the reader.

Poor: I couldn’t see how it was not a disservice.

Better: I could see that it was a disservice.

You may, however, choose a double negative for its deliberate understatement (The program is not without merit), or for its humorous effect.

If people don’t want to come out to the park, nobody’s going to stop them.—Yogi Berra

Let’s forget it never happened.—Ray Kass

Grammar-checkers

Though spell-checkers are useful, grammar-checkers are more nuisance than help. Their limited rules fail to catch some mistakes while flagging other parts as errors when they are actually correct.

Altogether, you’re better off using Write Right! to check your grammar.