Grammar and usage - Resources

The only business writing book you’ll ever need - Laura Brown, Rich Karlgaard 2019

Grammar and usage
Resources

Sentences, Fragments, and Run-ons

The sentence is the basic building block of writing. Fragments and runons masquerade as sentences, but they’re incorrect and often confusing. For clarity and correctness, you’re wise to use proper sentences in formal and informal writing.

SENTENCES

A sentence contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought.

The subject of a sentence is a noun or pronoun that names a person, place, or thing: “the committee,” “Justin,” “she,” “they,” “Scotland,” “the backyard,” “Wall Street,” “the laptop,” “a cat,” “a regulation.”

It can also be a series of words that function as a noun, because they name a thing: “running the application.”

A verb is a word that expresses action or a state of being: “provide,” “argue,” “is,” “are,” “were.”

To be considered a sentence, a group of words must have both a subject and a verb:

The committee provides guidelines for the implementation of each stage.

They argue a lot, but they never get anywhere.

The laptop is broken.

FRAGMENTS

A fragment is an incomplete sentence. It’s usually missing its subject or its verb. It hints at a complete thought but does not express it. For example:

Ran the backup overnight.

Not a full-blown detailed blueprint.

RUN-ONS

A run-on sentence is two or more sentences stuck together without a conjunction (like “and” or “but”) or appropriate punctuation (like a semicolon).

Everyone came in for the meeting, there was no place to sit.

There’s not much content under the first bullet maybe we should add a line or two.

Here are two easy ways to fix these run-ons:

Everyone came in for the meeting, but there was no place to sit.

There’s not much content under the first bullet, so maybe we should add a line or two.

Or:

There’s not much content under the first bullet; maybe we should add a line or two.

Pronoun Pitfalls

Pronouns are words that stand in for nouns. They can take different forms depending on what part they play in a sentence. Personal pronouns used as subjects take the nominative case: “I,” “you,” “he,” “she,” “we,” and “they.” Personal pronouns used as direct or indirect objects, or as objects of a preposition, take the objective case: “me,” “you,” “him,” “her,” “us,” and “them.” Most of the time, writers use pronouns correctly. However, there are a few common errors you should beware.

Not:

Please send the finished reviews to George and I.

But:

Please send the finished reviews to George and me.

If alarm bells are going off in your head right now, it’s probably because you can hear your mother’s voice exclaiming, “George and I!” She was saying that because you said, “George and me are going to ride bikes,” or maybe “Me and George are going to ride bikes.” She was trying to get you to use the nominative case of the pronoun as the subject of the sentence, and she was right. In this case, however, you need the objective case. “George” and “me” are objects of the preposition “to,” so you need the objective case, even if it sounds weird.

How do you know? In this case, simply drop “George and” and see how it sounds:

Please send the finished reviews to I.

You can tell that’s wrong. It’s wrong because you need “me,” in the objective case, as the object of the preposition “to.” So it needs to be “George and me.” By the same token, you can now probably see that this sentence is incorrect:

The work was divided between he and I.

Instead, you need pronouns in the objective case as objects of the preposition “between”:

The work was divided between him and me.

Another common pronoun problem is the incorrect use of reflexive pronouns. The reflexive form of the pronoun contains the word “self.” Think of the form reflecting back on itself: “myself,” “yourself,” “himself,” “herself,” “ourselves,” and “themselves.” Reflexive pronouns are used only to refer to another word in the sentence or to emphasize another word in the sentence.

I hurt myself.

She did all the coding herself.

Reflexive pronouns like “myself” never stand alone. So common constructions like this are incorrect:

All the results will be reviewed by Loren and myself.

For people like myself, keeping up with technology can be difficult.

In both of these cases, “myself” is not referring to another word in the sentence; hence the usage is incorrect. People use “myself” in this way in an attempt to sound more formal and more polite, but it’s simply wrong. Those sentences should read:

All the results will be reviewed by Loren and me.

For people like me, keeping up with technology can be difficult.

Those versions might not sound fancy, but they’re grammatically correct.

A third common pronoun controversy has to do with using “they” as a singular pronoun. Of course, “they” is plural form. But in order to avoid sexist writing, people have increasingly been using forms of “they” as a gender-neutral singular pronoun.

Everyone should bring their own lunch.

We should let the assistant know when they will be needed.

There’s still some disagreement about whether this usage is acceptable in modern English, although more and more people (including me) consider it just fine. For a fuller discussion of this issue, see “­Gender-Neutral Language” here.

Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

“Modifiers” are parts of speech that change, or modify, the meaning of other words. Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns (the silent machine; the rude neighbor; she was busy). Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (the machine ran silently; the report was especially dense; she spoke very quickly).

Modifiers don’t have to be single words. They can also be phrases:

The heater under the desk was set on low. (The phrase “under the desk” works as an adjective modifying “heater.”)

The operation ran for a year without full staffing. (The phrase “for a year” functions as an adverb modifying “ran.”)

As a general rule, modifiers should be placed as close as possible to the words they modify, to avoid confusion. A misplaced modifier is positioned in such a way that it’s not clear what word it’s supposed to modify. You might not notice a misplaced modifier at first, but once you do, the result is often nonsensical.

Not:

The caterer served tostadas to the guests on mini tortillas. (The guests were not on the tortillas, the tostadas were.)

But:

The caterer served tostadas on mini tortillas to the guests.

Or:

The caterer served the guests tostadas on mini tortillas.

Not:

They brought an Italian chair for the new CEO with an extra-wide seat. (Presumably it’s the chair, not its occupant, that has the big seat.)

But:

They brought an Italian chair with an extra-wide seat for the CEO.

Not:

Working through the weekend, the presentation was finished by Monday. (It sounds like the presentation itself was working, not the people.)

But:

Working through the weekend, the team finished the presentation by Monday.

The most common misplaced modifier in the English language is probably “only.”

Not:

I only ate two doughnuts. (This sentence suggests that you only ate them—you didn’t play tennis with them or take them to a movie or pile them on your desk.)

But:

I ate only two doughnuts. (Remarkable self-restraint.)

Lots of readers won’t notice the difference, but if you want to write correctly, it’s worth being careful where you place “only” in a sentence.

A dangling modifier is a word that modifies another word that’s not present in the sentence. You might guess at the meaning of the sentence, but dangling modifiers can result in confusion.

Not:

As one of my valued customers, I’m pleased to announce special loyalty prices for the month of September. (As written, the sentence suggests that the writer is one of her own customers.)

But:

As one of my valued customers, you are eligible for special loyalty prices in the month of September.

Not:

Hoping to impress the client, the baseball tickets were left with his assistant. (As written, the sentence suggests that the tickets were hoping to impress the client. The person who was hoping is missing from the sentence altogether.)

But:

Hoping to impress the client, she left the baseball tickets with his assistant.

Not:

Although majoring in business, Greg’s interests also included world history and Asian languages. (As written, the sentence suggests that Greg’s “interests” are majoring in business, not Greg himself.)

But:

Although Greg was majoring in business, his interests also included world history and Asian languages.

“That” and “Which”

When to use “that” and when to use “which”—it’s a mystery to a lot of business writers, but the answer is pretty easy to remember. “That” and “which” often introduce clauses. Clauses can be restrictive or nonrestrictive. A restrictive clause is essential to the meaning of the sentence:

The room that has the video screen is already booked.

In this example, “that has the video screen” defines the room you’re talking about. Dropping that clause would cause the sentence to lose its meaning; it would no longer be clear which room is booked.

A nonrestrictive clause is not essential to the meaning of a sentence. If it’s deleted, the sentence still makes sense and retains its meaning.

Room 511, which has a video screen, seats twenty-five people.

In this example, you can drop the clause and the sentence will still retain its meaning. The clause is nonrestrictive.

As you might infer from the examples above, “that” is used with restrictive clauses, and “which” is used with nonrestrictive clauses.

Not:

I left my phone in the rental car which I picked up in Memphis.

But:

I left my phone in the rental car that I picked up in Memphis.

This clause is restrictive. It’s essential to the meaning of the sentence, so you need to introduce it with “that.” It wasn’t the car you picked up in Atlanta or the one you picked up in Cleveland; it was the one you picked up in Memphis.

On the other hand:

The rental car, which I picked up in Memphis, got two flat tires on the way over the bridge.

The point of this sentence is that the car got two flat tires on the bridge. The fact that you picked it up in Memphis doesn’t matter. It’s a nonrestrictive clause, so it’s introduced with “which.”

It’s worth noting that this rule exists only in American English, not in British English.

Split Infinitives

The infinitive form of a verb is the form that includes “to”: “to run,” “to understand,” “to process,” and so on. It’s called an “infinitive” because it exists outside of time—that is, it’s not in the present, past, or future tense. It’s the base form of the verb.

A split infinitive is one where someone has inserted a word between the “to” and the main part of the verb. The world’s most famous split infinitive comes from the original series of Star Trek, where Captain Kirk describes the mission of the Enterprise: “To boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Many of us were taught that it’s incorrect to split an infinitive. The reason for this is complicated and probably not interesting unless you’re a big fan of grammatical history. All you need to know is that there are people out there, perhaps in your office, who feel that split infinitives are bad grammar and that you should avoid them. In response, you can do one of two things: (1) ignore these colleagues and risk being dinged for bad writing, or (2) try to avoid splitting infinitives.

If you choose the second course, consider moving the modifier to another place in the sentence. Often this solution works very well:

To boldly go where no man has gone before → Boldly to go where no man has gone before

To better understand the problem → To understand the problem better

To unilaterally reject the deal → To reject the deal unilaterally

We need to first explore the cheaper option → First we need to explore the cheaper option

Ending a Sentence with a Preposition

Many people will tell you that it’s incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition. Others will tell you it’s not a rule at all. If you’re writing with the sticklers in mind, you’ll want to avoid this practice.

There are several ways to rewrite a sentence that ends with a preposition.

For the next quarter, we need to decide which initiative to focus on.

Use “on which”:

For the next quarter, we need to decide on which initiative to focus.

This solution can be awkward, as you can see, but sometimes it works well.

Reorder the sentence in another way:

We need to decide which initiative to focus on for the next quarter.

Find another word to replace the prepositional form:

For the next quarter, we need to decide which initiative to prioritize.

This rewrite sounds stronger than the initial version. Forms that contain a verb and a preposition can often be replaced with a single, stronger verb.

Talk about → discuss

Mull over → consider

Try out → test

“Unique”

“Unique” means “one of a kind.” Don’t use it to mean “special” or “distinctive.” And don’t use qualifiers like “very” with “unique.” How could something be “very one of a kind”?

“Would Have,” “Could Have”

The way most Americans speak, these terms sound a lot like “would of” and “could of.” Be careful to write them correctly.

Not: We would of gone if we had been there.

But: We would have gone if we had been there.