Grammar & Style

Let's say you're writing or editing. If you're not, why are you reading this? It's a summation of handy resources about styles and grammar goofs. I've mined some of these sites for individual post topics, as Constant Readers will notice.

If you just like learning about grammar (who doesn't?) cruise the Archives of the Grammarcheck newsletters at FreeLists / grammarcheck. It is sad they didn't continue, but the Grammar Girl probably has something similar, and an RSS feed no doubt. The Online Universities Blog offers Fun and Informative Blog Posts Every Grammar Geek Should Bookmark

The next three spots highlight good writing practices. Good editing includes being alert for such violations as those found in Forbidden Words, Misused Words and Missed Spellings. That last is an article on tips to avoid spelling and word errors. Read the whole page for more useful links and a new classic poem Owed to Spelchek by Jamy Schuler.

Moving on to style matters, the eternally sticky wicket among writers and editors. Which one to follow? It depends on what you are writing and who is publishing it. One of my fave starting points is Diana Hacker's site because she keeps me straight on which style applies to which discipline (MLA for literature, e.g.). She provides a descriptions of the major manuals or style guides with some links to them or sites about them.

A specific search at Yahoo! yielded such an interesting list of style guides, that I've saved it for reference. Just in case that link goes wonky, here's the whole URL:

http://dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Linguistics_and_Human_Languages/Languages/Specific_Languages/English/Grammar__Usage__and_Style/Style_Guides/

Find an even more comprehensive listing at A Research Guide for Students. Hey! We never stop learning, so we are all always students. Scroll down that page and visit some of the links to other helpful sites.

Finally for a little comic relief:  Everything You Know About English is Wrong blog (and book by the same name). See labels in the sidebar for entries about particular problems.  Enjoy!

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Bag of Writing Tips

Here's a nicely mixed bag of tips for successful writing.  These links comprise some of the fundamental resources I've hoarded throughout this blog's life.  Before I delete them from the "Drafts" I will gather them into posts. Make note of these resources and mine them for yourself:

Ed 2010 is the place to go for, as Ed says, "your magazine dream job." The WhisperJobs is it's great feature, and now a message board is functioning. Ed's blog seems to have died out a couple of years ago, possibly around the time Ed joined Twitter as @Ed2010news. Do we see a what's what here? BLOG Twitter.

Allen & Unwin is an Australian book publisher with a very useful service called The Writing Center. I especially like the Writers on Writing section.  They currently feature a Q & A with Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Committed and Eat, Pray, Love.

Chris Gobel's Writing Help Page displays his to ten list of "no-no" hints for writing in general.  Some of the links may be outdated, but the easily- understood guidance is evergreen.  This is part of his website, HUMDINGER LITERARY E-ZINE: All kinds of writing for all kinds of readers. This site is now an archive, nay, a treasure, to be plundered systematically for all it's worth.

Another deep, deep resource is the English Usage FAQ Home Page of http://www.yaelf.com/ -- also housing the FAQ page for the old alt.usage.english Usenet group (anybody here old enough to have belonged to Usenet groups?  Waaaay back, predating the World Wide Web.) It might be easier to use this huge website via its site map.

Just as the classics become references to have at hand, while experts and authorities take up more techy methods to communicate, A Writer's Edge Blog will remain right here, while I continue on Twitter. Also available via RSS.

GLHancock 4,801 tweets

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To Be or Not Passive

To be or not to be. That is the question, except to editors.  We eliminate "to be" verbs (is, are, was, were, to be, be, being, been) whenever we can.  The worst constructions littering the language are "there is" or "there were" and similar.

"But whyyyy?" some clients whine.  "What's so bad about sentences starting with "there is?"  Here's your answer:  because they are extraneous words and signs of wordiness in the writing in general. Example:

There is alot [sic] of snarkiness going around the Internet these days.
We see a lot of snarkiness on the Internet now. (Better)
Now snarkiness abounds on the Internet. (Even better)

State of being (to be) verbs also crop up unnecessarily as helper verbs. Variations include forms of "to do" "to have." My favorite example:

James had been being a bad boy, but Santa had been good to him anyway.

To my ears, that reads like nails drawn down a blackboard. Screeeee!

"Although James was naughty, Santa still rewarded him" is a slightly more succinct and sophisticated version.  In the context, you might be able to leave out the "still." Or turn the sentence around:  Santa rewarded him, although
James was naughty/a bad boy/bad.  Reversing the phrases is often the cure for passive sentence construction, too. Example:

Most of the damage was done to New Orleans by the flood waters. (Passive)
Flood water damaged New Orleans the most. (Active)
Flood water caused the most damage to New Orleans. (Active)

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Political Grammar

Politician misappropriates grammar, caught waffling by comedian.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Waffle House
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

It used to be "how to lie with statistics," now it's "how to lie with words."  I like that part about using an auxiliary verb with a slightly more passive mood.

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Advice and Advise

Educated, literate writers still confuse advice and advise. The former is a noun; the latter, a verb. When you advise, you dispense advice. How much more simple can it be? We don't even need to explore the meanings of the words.

The error is usually substituting advise for advice. To wit: "In writing your blogs, you should follow the advise Georganna gives." While I appreciate the referral or attribution, the word advise is incorrectly used.

I think I've figured out how this mistake occurs.  When we write, we "hear" the words in our minds.  In a rush to express ourselves, the mind hears the hiss in advice and thinks "s" and the flying fingers type that letter.  That's also why we seldom find the reverse error.  When our minds say advise, we hear the "z" sound, difficult to produce (in English) with any other letter than the "s." We know there is no advize.  That's just looks wrong! Well, maybe not to those who are learning English as a second language (ESLs). Trust me.

Don't confuse giving advice with advising.  See, to use the noun, you must add a verb.  I advise with good advice. 

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Do You Spraddle?

I saw 'spraddle' in a message and thought, now there's someone speaking from southern roots. The only time I've heard that word used is in the phrase, "jump up all spraddle-legged." My mother claimed her hillbilly boyfriend said it (to her disgust). I must admit, I know what's meant--startled, flustered, in a rush but not knowing what to do or which way to turn. Very colorful description of an impulsive action.  I did not think this was more than dialect.

Indeed, it is red lined by my browser's autodidactic spell-checker. The word does not appear in either of my hardbound dictionaries.  Google it, on the other hand, and you'll find hazy references to straddle, spread and sprawl in a few online resources--but not in the Google dictionary.

Warning:  the Merrian-Webster site forces a popup past all protection, one that tried to take control of my computer.  However, M-W states:  Etymology:  perhaps blend of straddle and sprawl. Date: 1632. intransitive verb 1 : sprawl 2 : to go or walk with a straddling gait. Another suggested a blend of straddle and spread, which makes sense.

Spraddle, and my hillbilly Daddy's phrase, could be useful in characterization for a short story or novel. I'm quite sure I would not use it in straight, nonfiction writing, however.  And that is where I noticed it, albeit on a private mailing list.

Your personal lexicon can be quite revealing, especially when you put it into print.  Out come all those words you think you know from hearing them, but without formally learning them, misspellings and misuses often occur.  In some cases, they betray the reality behind the image you try to project.

What do my words reveal? That I'm a language-lover, dictionary demon, a bit of an egg-head and a lot of geeky nerd? What does your lexicon reveal (if you know) or what are you hiding? Do you ever suspect that your language in use gives you away?  Do you care?  Sometimes I do.  Another writer regularly accuses me of being a stuck-up snob because I use "big words" and encourage other writers to learn and use them.  Well, I'm not going to jump up all spraddle-legged about it.

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Wordnik -- Using Words

Learn how English words are used at Wordnik. The multifunctional site is a crossing of social media with a library reference room--the kind where you are not allowed to remove any books or other material. Start keying in a word in the search window, and Wordnik drops down a menu with selections, variants, from which to choose (helpful for the spelling-challenged.)

If your word is among the four billions words of text it indexes, a result pops up, with another submenu from which you can choose to explore:  Definitions · Examples · Pronunciations · Etymologies · Related · Statistics (somewhat less useful unless you indulge in extreme Scrabble). The list of sources the service uses is impressive, including The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, The Century Dictionary, WordNet®, The GNU version of The Collaborative International Dictionary of English, derived from the 1913 Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Roget's II: The New Thesaurus and Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms.

Notice, I did not say that Wordnik tells you how words are supposed to be used, and this is a little disturbing to an editor and linguistic lover.  They say:

Here at Wordnik, we show you what people actually do with language, not what we'd like them to do. We think it's important to show real information about every word—even the ones that aren't considered standard.

They feel that you learn a word better by seeing it in context [even if it is used incorrectly?] and that some information is better than none. [same query]

Thus, if you want to use this fascinating and fun site as a quick look up for a serious piece of writing, please be sure to view the dictionary definitions and not just the "examples." I looked up since because I am editing a manuscript in which that word is used mostly incorrectly (IMHO). I found the beginning dictionary definitions congruent with my view, i.e., that the word is not a synonym for because; it has to do with the passage of time.

"Since we last went to the moon, the U.S. space program has lagged." I would hope to not imply that the program lags because we went to the moon. However, many of the examples displayed at Wordnik, use since in that way, as does the entry from Allen's, giving because as a synonym.

How annoying!

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Importance of Spelling

Do you receive incomprehensible email messages? Mine are usually spam from another land. I give the ESLs a 9.86 for their efforts. Let me see you try to write coherently in Chinese, let alone suck me into a scam!   Aside from grammar issues, the writing problems in these messages usually involve spelling. Misspellings not only include using the wrong letters, but often result from a missing letter. To wit:


see more deMotivational Posters


Consider the differences in meaning between "tweaking" and "tweeking" if you will. Tell me you are tweeking websites for SEO, and I'll click away from your blog post with a chuckle, Chucklehead.

Misspellings are, however, the heart of LOLspeak, seen in captions at icanhazcheezburger.com (home of the LOLcat dynasty and part of a vast empire of silly sites I liek).

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Most Used English Words

Usually the British have marvelous wit, dry, easily-underestimated humor which sneaks up on your consciousness. However, it seems to be missing from the online version of the Telegraph column titled "Quite Interesting," based on "QI," a popular BBC1 show.  A recent topic was one of my favorites:  English words.

QI: quite interesting facts about words proclaimed that, according to a 2006 survey carried out by the Oxford English Corpus, the top 10 most frequently used English words are: the, be, to, of, and, a, in, that, have and I.

I'm thinking this must be a case of habeas corpus, for those are also the most boring words in our lexicon.  Note that two are on my list of do-nothing verbs: be and have. A third, that, is the current bane of most editors. These are not only the most used, but possibly the most over-used English words. Make what you will of "I" being in the top ten. Is this not the "me generation?"

The 10 most popular nouns listed:  time, person, year, way, day, thing, man, world, life and hand.  Well, yes. What can you make of this?  Of course, thing is my personal bugaboo. If one exclamation point is allowed in a manuscript, I have zero tolerance for things.

The 10 most popular verbs are:  be, have, do, eat, sleep, drink, put, keep, run and walk. Eesh! With the exception of sleep, I can think of few more boring verbs.  Fill your writing with them and you will put readers to sleep!

The 10 most popular adjectives:  good, first, new, last, long, great, little, own, other and old. OMG!  How colorless, bland and deaf, but stinking, do you want your conversation and writing?

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Balls to the Wall

It's balls to the wall this week in my office.  Did everyone resolve to get cracking on publishing? Good, but I can juggle only so many balls before I hit the wall.

You may wonder about that phrase, balls to the wall, and suspect I'm slipping into gender confusion, but no.  According to Dave Wilton, an independent researcher in historical linguistics, etymology and slang origins, it indicates:

an all-out effort, [and] comes from the world of aviation. On an airplane, the handles controlling the throttle and the fuel mixture are often topped with ball-shaped grips, referred to by pilots as (what else?) balls.

Reminds me of "pedal to the metal."  At Word Origins he says the phrase began with Viet Nam War pilots, although other sites like Urban Dictionary and IdiomSite.com list other similar sources dealing with mechanics. Wilton is the author of Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends (Oxford University Press, 2008).

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Using Yourself and Me

Reflexive pronouns abound, but uses are scrambled. They come in a variety of flavors, depending on the person and number of the subject they refer to. That subject--I, you (singular and plural), he, she, it, we, they--must appear in the same sentence.  However, the reflexive pronouns are always objects, not subjects:  myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves and  themselves. She finished the painting and cleaned up herself. Right, although in the vernacular, we would probably say "cleaned herself up."

It is not uncommon these days to see a sentence like The new rules apply to all the members, especially myself.  Wrong!  There is no I in the sentence for myself to reflect.  The word required is the objective form, me. Most people get I, myself, correct.  The problem comes in when trying to express more than one an action in one sentence: The teacher gave the tests back to myself and the others.  Try putting the actions into two sentences, and your ear will tell you which form to use:  The teacher gave the tests back to me.  The teacher gave the tests back to the others.

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Communication is the Foundation

Guy in bar: my wife doesn't understand me. Cougar: come again?

---

Mr Mousebender: And I thought to myself, 'A little fermented curd will do the trick,' so, I curtailed my Walpoling activities, sallied forth, and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles.

Henry Wenslydale: Come again?

Mr Mousebender: I want to buy some cheese!

This little scene is the intro to L. Diane Wolfe's 12/18/09 blog post, Spunk On A Stick's Tips: And Now For Something Completely Different!. It often typifies the resultant condition when I verbalize. See? I meant, "When I talk, people don't understand me." Or else they laugh.

Mr. Mousebender and I have in common large vocabularies, and we're not afraid to use them. In my case, the big words spring readily from my tongue before consciousness is engaged. I know what I'm saying and the meaning is perfectly clear. A much better state would be for the reader/listener to find the message perfectly clear and understand it.

Enough barriers exist between sender and receiver. Vocabulary, or lack thereof, need not be one of them: sender ---> MESSAGE ---> receiver = communication. The message cannot be MeSsAwgee! or any other corruption. Listen up, because clear communication is the foundation for all writing. You thought I was going to say spelling or good grammar, didn't you?

What is "clear communication?" Word choices. The more important the message, the simpler the choice. That's why traffic signs read "Stop" and "Caution." These are basic words most all English speakers know. Does that mean I advocate Dick and Jane sentences? Sometimes. They certainly hold up well for news reports and other journalism aimed at audiences that include those with the least education.

Finally, we get to the message receiver, the reader. This is the person to have in mind when you write. For example, if you write a novel to please the critics, book reviewers, you might produce a literary masterpiece and a commercial flop. Write for the masses who still buy and enjoy quick reads, and your book won't appear in the NY Times reviews, but you may make a little money and a lot of people satisfied.

Who is your audience?

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What is Awhile?

Quite often online, you'll see someone write about "awhile," as if it were an adverb as well as a noun. "Wait awhile," they write. "It took awhile to get my visa. I'll be with you in awhile." All these uses are incorrect, of course. The word is "while."

"While" is a versatile word. It can function as a noun, an adjective, a preposition, or a transitive verb. The only adverbial use, according to Merriman-Webster Online Dictionary is in the phrase once in a while, indicating now and then or occasionally.

The most common use of "while," however, indicates a period of time. Why some writers prefix the word with an a befuddles me--except, that having once seen it online, they may think it is correct. You wouldn't write "anhour" or "aday" would you? Does "afortnight" affront you?

My favorite use of "while" occurred many years ago when I was teaching my daughter to talk. She had heard me say (too many time, probably), "a little while." When I asked her to come to the kitchen for a meal, she responded, "in a couple of whiles." Well, it is a noun, why can there be a couple of them?

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Pronounciation Dictionary

Everyone gets a kick out of "WhorePresents.com," the website for finding the agents of rich and famous people. If you're still scratching your head over this, the joke is in the capitalization of the domain name. In a name registry, a site name is in all caps: WHOREPRESENTS.COM is the domain for the site that calls itself "Who Represents." It is our dirty minds that see the word "whore" first.

What if you could avoid such a faux pas? Wouldn't it be handy to have a place to check before you cleverly chose a name that means "no go" in another language (Nova)? That was not exactly the genesis of Pronounce Names - Dictionary of Name Pronunciation, as they explain:

The idea of this website is to make your name easy to pronounce. The dictionary does not have your name, how do you get people to pronounce your name right?

How many times have you been in this situation when you have heard your name mangled, twisted, contorted into something you yourself can barely comprehend?

Yes, I see or, rather, I hear every time an Asian call me "GAY-OR-GANNA", but I forgive because they are phonetically correct.

At Pronounce Names, you can:

* Lookup pronunciation of a name.
* Submit pronuncation of a name so that others can pronounce it correctly.
* Request pronunciation of a name that you don't know and would like to find out.

And that's exactly what I did. They tell me to return in a few days to learn how to pronounce my own name. This should be good!

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Chat with Me

On Twitter today are two chats I usually participate in. Beginning at noon Pacific time (you right coasters--count forward) the Write Chat takes place under the hashtag #writechat . It lasts about three hours.

Then at six p.m. (PST) comes the ever-rowdy, more marketing-oriented #blogchat for an hour or more, depending on how long participants want to continue.

The best way I've found to participate is through Tweet Chat. Sign in with your Twitter info, then enter the hashtag of the chat you want into the space at the top of the page and click on "Go". Zip! You're in the chatroom, ready to begin.

Introduce yourself and say you're new to the chat. We'll be kind! To catch someone's attention, begin your message like this: @GLHancock. Plunge into a convo or initiate one of your own and maybe someone will respond. Messages are limited to about 120 characters because TweetChat automatically appends the hashtag of that chat room. Look around the boxes, and you'll see helpful icons like character count, ways to control the refresh speed, reply and retweet symbols, and even a way to eliminate annoying bots and spammers from view ("block").

If you want to try to participate in a chat via your Twitter interface or mobile device, search for the one you want by hashtag. You'll need to remember to put that hashtag in each post or your message won't go to the chat, just out in your regular Twitter stream. All your remarks in a chat go into your main stream, too. Take care, it's easy to forget that in the heat of debates. Also, you may need to keep refreshing the view to see new tweets. See you there?

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Vumpire Gear

Nit Wits #48: Vumpire Gear (Vampires + Baseball) Coloring Creativity by Chris Dunmire

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NYTimes Blog Gems

Notes from the newsroom on grammar, usage and style. Great editing posts to help writers from the NYTimes After Hours blog:

• Words We Love Too Much
• Words to Watch
• May, Might, Muddle
• When Spell-Check Can’t Help
• Red Pencils Ready?
• Subject, Meet Verb

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Regime vs. Regimen

Is it regimen or regime? Is it spelling or ignorance. You can't blame auditory confusion. These words are not homonyms. [ed. note: for a fun look at homonyms and homophones, see Alan Cooper's list.] One word has three syllables and the other, two. They both can start with a "reh" sound, but there any spoken similarity ends.

Perhaps the problem comes about because in a distant way both words can be associated with governance. However, regimen is most often used to refer to a schedule or fixed process, especially in health matters. A regime is a form of government, often one out of favor.

Writers who are French speakers and/or have a somewhat classical education may recall:

The ancient régime, or Ancien régime [F.] the former political and social system, as distinguished from the modern; especially, the political and social system existing in France before the Revolution of 1789.

Thanks to the Webster 1913 Dictionary edited by Patrick J. Cassidy, via Answers.com. And Google, of course. Everything comes from Google.

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Compliment vs. Complement

Only time for a quickie this morning. Here's another word pair so commonly confused that I'm beginning to lose (not loose) my grip. We won't go to the dictionary this time. Unless you're just learning English, you already know how to use compliment correctly. We all love to receive compliments, even if they are flattery.

The problem arises when the word require is complement. Can you see in its spelling, that the word may relate to complete? That one little letter, an e instead of an i makes all the difference. A full set is a complement. The missing item complements the others. Think of being "one bottle shy of a six pack."

The gracious dinner guest brings a fine French wine to complement the excellent food. Then (not than) the host or hostess compliments the guest on his or her good taste, as well as saying, "Merci."

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Then vs. Than

Do you confuse then and than? They look and sound alike, but for one letter. That suggests a lack of basic vocabulary knowledge of word meanings. Try to keep in mind that then involves a sequence in time, while than involves a comparison:

Jane threw the ball farther than Dick did.
Then Dick threw Jane down the well.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, than functions as a preposition or a conjunction, indicating a difference, while then works three jobs: adverb, noun and adjective, all of them involving a temporal aspect (time), including a use meaning "besides" or "in addition".

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Lose and Loose

This one makes me grind my teeth. See the NYT, Wednesday, June 17, "Black Swan Trader Bets on Inflation" jump to page C3, top left col, 6th graf down:

The strategy often either looses money or posts flat returns...

The writer didn't mean that the strategy loosens up money, either. This was a flat out proofreading failure, because the correct word is "loses". However, I see the words confused too often in writing from the youthful and ESLs.

What's the difference between "lose" and "loose", besides one "o"? Both are verbs, and "loose" is also an adjective, indicating free or freedom or unrestrained. Lose (pronounced looz) mainly means an inability to find or keep possession of and a lot of similar connotations. I think it is the long oh sound that confuses users. Both words oo in the middle. "Loose" ends with an ess sound, whereas "lose" ends with a zee sound.

You may lose your loose change through a hole in your pocket.

Does this help to remember the difference? See the man walking along, jingling coins in his pocket and the coins dribbling out from the cuff, scattering on the pavement? See me coming along picking them up? To lose coins, your bad luck. Loose coins, my treasure!

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Misused Words Make Mary

"I look forward to your incite on this," a client riotously wrote about manuscript changes. Does the erroneous word fit into one of the categories below? Perhaps an eggserroneous (anyone else a fan of the "Ernest..." movies)?

mondegreens not to be confused with collard greens See Lady Mondegreen.

malapropisms legacy of the lovely Mrs. Malaprop

spoonerisms -- named for Reverend Spooner, who would frequently transpose words or parts of words from one part of a sentence to another - with humerous [sic] results. A well known example, is the Reverend, after pronouncing a couple 'man and wife', saying "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride." (source not cited because of the embedded error)

eggcorns my favorite on toast points with Bearnaise sauce

Can anyone pinpoint the two type(s) of word choice errors in this post and any typos I may have inadvertently included? How about concocting a sentence using all four types of lip slips?

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Elusion, Allusion, Illusion

Interpret the title. I'm not suggesting that you evade capturing references to dreams. These three words, and their verbal variants of elude and allude and even illude, are often confused and used incorrectly. Allusion and illusion are especially prone to misplacement and elude and allude, similarly.

Elude, elusion -- to avoid capture; a deception or evasion
Allude, allusion -- to refer to; an indirect reference
Illude, illusion -- to deceive or trick; a false view

Confusion is understandable. Two of the three words have to do with deception and the third, illusion, sounds like allusion and elusion. May mistakes in written grammar begin with us hearing words before we see them used correctly in print.

In the "Mistaken Words" section of Daily Writing Tips, these words are described as variations of a base that means "play". I prefer to focus on the distraction/deception aspect as being easier to understand and, perhaps, to remember.

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Abbreviation, Acronym, Mnemonic

The first two are both mnemonics, aids to memory and made-up words that stand for a longer name or description. When referring to the National Broadcasting Corporation, written as NBC, we are using an abbreviation. Sonar, on the other hand, is an acronym composed of letters from the description -- so(und) na(vigation and) r(anging), a method for echolocation.

So what? Aside from settling bar bets and as an aid to understanding crossword puzzle clues, writers need to be aware of three items concerning the use of mnemonics:

1. don't confuse acronyms with proper names (LASER & Lazar)
2. use a lowercase s to form plurals (LASERs)
3. spell out the word the first time it is used, then enclose the mnemonic in parentheses like this: frequency modulation (FM)

The third usually applies to academic writing. These tips come from the Hypertext Guide to English Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage Rules at Virginia Tech/Norfolk State University.

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Anti-Tobacco Ad Mondegreen

Mondegreens, Answers.com tells us, is a "series of words that result from the mishearing or misinterpretation of a statement or song lyric. [After (Lady) Mondegreen, a misinterpretation of the line (hae laid) him on the green, from the song “The Bonny Earl of Murray”.] Children come up with some good ones when learning the Pledge of Allegiance or the Star Spangled Banner.

More on the mondegreen in a moment. Listening to advertising increasingly violates my intelligence. Yes, yes, the Mad Men are trying to cram the most into less time, now 10-second spots.

So, as I drowse through breaks in Days of Our Lives, I hear "Friskies wet indoor cat food". Two seconds later the phrase registers, stirs up all sorts of questions concerning wet cats and feeding cats outdoors. I don't hear any more of the advertising for the next 7.5 minutes because I'm trying to remember the humorous flap that made the rounds of Mensa newsletters many years ago. I think it was a campaign by 9 Lives brand cat food to collect can labels to trade for merchandise, as was once done with cigarette wrappers. But the 9 Lives people persisted in calling it the "9 Live Soft Moist Coupon Offer". Yeah, we said, but collecting those soft, moist coupons made such a mess.

Currently I listen to the latest TV spots aimed at preventing underage smoking. It's a hodge-podge of images and sounds that don't quite make sense, even when I try to think like an ad designer. The part that ties back to the beginning of this article comes as a singing voiceover at the beginning of the spot. A gentle mother's voice croons a familiar lullaby by Brahams, Lullaby and Goodnight. It has several verses, but most people know just the first:

Lullaby, and good night,
With pink roses bedight,
With lilies o'erspread,
Is my baby's sweet head.
Lay thee down now, and rest,
May thy slumber be blessed.
Lay thee down now, and rest,
May thy slumber be blessed.

However, the female voice sings the second line as "With pink roses bed light," The baby's bed or cradle is bedecked with lilies and roses, unlike my poor troll's baby buggy. Yes, it is insignificant, but how I spend the days of my life. Amused and sad.

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Swine Flu Passed or Past?

In current news, the tide of infection by the H1N1 virus may be abating. What does this have to do with words or writing? It provides an excellent example for clarifying the uses of past and passed. We are starting to hear reports that the worst of the flu may have past. Or is it passed? What about those who died as a result of the infection, have they passed or past?

Most of the confusion of these two words results from the fact that they are homonyms, words that sound alike. In reality, passed ends in a d and past, with a t. The pronunciation difference is subtle. More subtle, the older the hearer.

Rather than depend on your ears, think about the meaning of the word when you're faced with a choice. "Passed" is the past (sorry!) tense of the verb to pass. "Past" is a word that connotes location, usually in time. Unfortunately the verb to pass can have several meanings, and past can be used as many parts of speech.

Several people died after contracting the flu. Have they past or passed. One meaning of the verb to pass is to die. The victims have passed (on). What about the wave of illness sweeping across the world? Has it passed or past, at least in the proposed country of origin, Mexico? While it probably passed by many families without infecting them, the greatest danger is past.

One technique for deciding which word to use: assume you're working with one of the meanings of the verb to pass, and recast the sentence into the present tense, using the verb form pass or passes. For example: " Time [passed or past] him by." In the present, the right form must be "Time passes him by." I specifically chose to use "time" as the subject, because "past" can relate to time.

Whether past is used as a noun, adjective, adverb, or preposition, it always refers to something located behind, in back of, or previously. Passed can indicate movement, extension, ending, happening, getting through, and have many other meanings that often involve some kind of motion or overcoming (like passing a test).

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Metaphor or Metonymy?

We all know what a metaphor is, right? It's like a simile, but without the like. "Managing a book club is like herding cats," is a simile. "Managing a book club is herding cats," is a metaphor. More precisely, a metaphor makes an implicit representation or comparison. We won't explore that, lest my book club rise up and claw my eyes out.

Closely related to metaphor, however, is metonomy. In that literary device or figure of speech, the name of one object replaces the name of another. My fave is the example that implies writing can have more influence than fighting: "The pen is mightier than the sword."

An important kind of metonymy is synecdoche, in which the name of a part is substituted for that of a whole (e.g. hand for worker), or vice versa. Modern literary theory has often used ‘metonymy’ in a wider sense, to designate the process of association by which metonymies are produced and understood: this involves establishing relationships of contiguity between two things, whereas metaphor establishes relationships of similarity between them.

Clark, Robert and Todd, Janet eds. The Literary Encycopaedia and Dictionary. London: The Literary Dictionary.

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Is alot one word or two?

What are the differences among a lot, alot, and allot? If I want to express the sentiment that I am extremely fond of cats, which word or words may I use?

I notice the nonstandard alot used all over the Internet. Let me clue you in right here at the beginning. There is no such word. Look it up in your Funk & Wagnall's or any other dictionary, including Dictionary.com, which returns:

No results found for alot:

As Paul Brian of Washington State University surmises, "Perhaps this common spelling error began because there does exist in English a word spelled “allot” which is a verb meaning to apportion or grant."

The grammar section of EnglishPlus.com further explains that "A lot (two words) is an informal phrase meaning 'many.' It can take an adjective, for example, 'a sizable lot.'" Better writers use more descriptive words like greatly, often, or very much. For example:

I often visit the pet store to look at the cats, which I love very much.

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Text Analysis Tools

We don't always say exactly what we mean. This is a problem for a website owner who wants the site to be readable and search engine friendly. Enter text analysis. Topicalizer is a free service that automatically analyzes a document specified by a URL (a web page) or plain text.

It spits out a report regarding word, phrase, and text structure and provides a variety of useful informational tidbits including the following: word, sentence, and paragraph counts; collocations (a sequence of words or terms which appear together more often than would be expected by chance); syllable structure; lexical density; keywords; readability; and a short abstract on what the given text is about (supposedly). The abstract part works less well when analyzing a web page because the tool also reads the semantic portions of images and advertising from the code that makes up the page.

You might think it's only useful for buzzword bingo (search engine optimization), but the main page contains a window into which you can paste any text. If your writing is online, you can direct the analyzer to a particular web page. It returns quite a bit of information on readability, including the usual indexes.

Using such a tool to develop keywords for your website, however, is an ass backwards approach that won't really help at the front end. You want to know what keywords people use in search engines to look for the type of information your site could offer.

Hint: peek at the metatags for your strongest rivals to get a better idea of what to use. Another tactic is to play with search engines, plugging in various keywords and combinations and noting which ones bring up the kind of company you'd like your site to keep or your strongest competition. Then tinker with your site and Topicalize it again.

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Writing Accent vs Dialect

"How much dialect should I use in my dialogue?" That's a question often heard in writing groups. Another variation is, "Will people get tired of reading about a character with an accent?" Two different confusions muddle the waters here. One concerns whether you're asking about dialogue or narration. The other is the difference between accent and dialect.

Put most simply, an accent is only the way words are pronounced whereas a dialect concerns word choices. A dialect also involves grammar, idioms, sentence construction. If you wanted someone to turn off the overhead lights, would you say "Flip (flick, hit, etc.) that switch"? If you are from the deep southern U.S., you might say "Mash that switch." That's dialect. Written with an accent, it might read, "Mash dat switch."

Dialect and accent are ways of showing rather than telling readers about characters and settings. Accent must be shown by alternative spellings that demonstrate how the words sound. A little goes a long way (cliché!), I think, especially in dialogue. Establish how characters speak when first introduced, then let readers carry on the accent in their minds.

Using dialect and/or an accent in narration is tricky to pull off, and it's not a technique I'd recommend that beginners try. It is tied to point of view. For example, Robert Morgan's Gap Creek is written in first person, a story told by a southern woman, from her point of view and all in regional dialect. This is done so well that Morgan didn't need to display the heavy accent the characters would have had.

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Casual Words in Writing

Casual clothing became 'Casual Friday'.

Then we had 'Casual Dining'.

Now comes on Sci-Fi.com, 'Casual Games'.

Dictionary definitions of casual from Answers.com:

adj.

1. Occurring by chance. See synonyms at chance.
2. 1. Occurring at irregular or infrequent intervals; occasional: casual employment at a factory; a casual correspondence with a former teacher.
   2. Unpremeditated; offhand: a casual remark.
3. 1. Being without ceremony or formality; relaxed: a casual evening with friends.
   2. Suited for everyday wear or use; informal.
4. Not serious or thorough; superficial: a casual inspection.
5. Showing little interest or concern; nonchalant: a casual disregard for cold weather.
6. Lenient; permissive: a casual attitude toward drugs.
7. Not close or intimate; passing: a casual acquaintance with avant-garde music.

I had a problem swallowing casual dining, but casual games absolutely sticks in my craw. As opposed to what--major league baseball? The Olympics?

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Tell us a Story

This Friday, as every year on the spring equinox, we celebrate

World Storytelling Day. It began in Sweden around 1991-92 and really took off in Australia (home of the consummate storytellers, the Aborigines):

In 1997, storytellers in Perth, Western Australia coordinated a five-week long Celebration of Story, commemorating March 20 as the International Day of Oral Narrators. At the same time, in Mexico and other South American countries, March 20 was already celebrated as the National Day of Storytellers.

So we salute the probable origin of all entertaining writing.

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Adverbs Banned

What's wrong with adverbs? Nothing, when they are used in moderation and judiciously. Whoops! There's one: judiciously. In this case it means "with good judgment". It modifies the verb used, telling how. I could have written:

Nothing, when they are used moderately and with good judgment.

However, that isn't exactly what I meant. There is a difference between moderately and in moderation. I want you to avoid an excess of adverbs. How can I get away with it when the editor slashes up your manuscript if you use adverbs? Because in my judgment, this post does not contain an excess of adverbs, and the word was an appropriate example. It fit the sentence and I did not throw it in on a whim or because I could not express the thought in any other manner.

The problem with adverbs is one that writers often create for themselves. Too many adverbs result in flabby writing. Sloppy writing. Weak writing. Passive writing. Whatever you call it, depending on adverbs is using a crutch instead of finding descriptive verbs and an active voice. That's why editors cut them out and send your work back for rewriting. Or worse yet, they dump your submission in the circular file. Consider:

The man walked drunkenly.
-- or --
The drunk lurched.

I was threatened by the cat hissing angrily.
-- or --
The angry cat threatened me with a hiss.

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Ways With Words

Yesterday my car received its most expensive semi-annual wash EVAR! I handed the cashier my punch ticket for an eventually free wash, my $2-off coupon, and a ten dollar bill. "That's $10.99," she said. "The coupon is only good within two weeks." She pointed to some fine print that I couldn't read.

"Huh? Oh, but they've always given me the two dollars off before, and I've been coming here for years!" I pointed to the earliest date stamped on the card: March 2006.

"I know they did, but when we changed the prices, we stopped."

"You raised the price, so now you don't honor the coupons after two weeks? Is that right?" I asked. She nodded, as if this made sense. I guess it did to the management.

Incensed, I strutted my size four jeans two blocks down the street to try out a new Burger King mini-hamburger. (I know, I still haven't gotten over my weight loss victory! Bear with me.) I asked the cashier if I could buy just one and a drink. He mumbled. All kids mumble more as I age. Finally I caught, "Two or six."

I could have eaten just one, unlike Lay's potato chips. How do you think I lost 55 pounds? The fast food chain won't sell just one. When my two bites arrived, I understood why. The patties are linked together. I had to twist them apart to eat just one. And I did. And it was good. So was the other one.

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Bad Grammar Makes Me [Sic]

From the OneHorseShy.com stable.

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Wiki Wars

Occasionally I flaunt (not flout) my ignorance on Yahoo Answers, a loosely vetted sort of public Q&A forum. I stick to the category closest to what I know best and the most about. Maybe.

I also belong to Answers.com, which is associated in some mysterious (to me) fashion with WikiAnswers, and if you're confused, too, it might have to do with the almost identical banners at the tops of the two sites' home pages. Apparently there's not enough differences between them to merit separate blogs, because the No Stupid Answers blog answers for both. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Earlier this month in WikiAnswers: setting the record straight. the company defended it's integrity (or something similar) against Jimmy Wales'statement on Wikia’s site that he is the “founder of Wikianswers”. Wikia is a wiki about wikis. If you don't know what a wiki is by now, I'm too dizzy to explain.

I do wonder, though, about Wikipedia. I thought it was the oldest informational wiki around. I know, I know, I'm missing the point. I just liked the title "Wiki Wars".

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Plurals with Apostrophes

It's that insidious apostrophe again! Remember Lynne Truss' Apostrophe Posse from Eats, Shoots & Leaves? I should call them out to ride herd on the person writing copy for the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts. Yesterday I resumed my weekly creative escapes to Balboa Park to view a small exhibit of Edward Steichen: The Early Years in the atrium gallery.

Being a wordy person, I can't just look at the pictures; reading the words of the adjacent display notes is mandatory, nay, compulsive. Twice, in different displays and on the website, the following appears:

....Steichen’s beautifully toned landscapes, sensual nudes and still life’s, and psychological portraits...

I thought perhaps "still life" was a special term. Should it be "still lives", I pondered. The apostrophe just didn't look right to me.

Out of the numerous returns when I searched Google, I chose dependable American and British references to consult the Beeb (BBC) and OWL at Purdue agreed that pluralizing nouns with an apostrophe is a no-no.

Simply put, from Answers:

*Dictionary: still life

n., pl. still lifes.

1. Representation of inanimate objects, such as flowers or fruit, in painting or photography.
2. A painting, picture, or photograph of inanimate objects.

I even scoured references from the Art Dictionary and Photography Dictionary at Answers, but they neatly skirted the issue by using the term as an adjective preceding words like images and pictures.

* The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Cliché, Trite & Unworthy

If I never again hear the following phrases, I won't miss them:

on a daily basis

life as we know it

I suspect these are clichés in the making, hence the title of this post. What about you? What contemporary overused phrases are driving you up the wall?

I looked back over the few times I've previously posted on clichés. Remember the guy who asked for a source of them? He was on deadline and "needed" a cliché for a headline, he said. I was quite happy to see that Cliche Finder is still alive and kicking (oops!) I wonder if you could search there to confirm a phrase's status?

Oh well. Add your most unfave phrases in comments below this post.

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I Can Has Lafs?

Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? has been a favorite website of mine for a couple of years. I'm sure I've mentioned it, especially as an inexpensive antidepressant. The original was just "LOLcats", the LOL being text-speak for "laughing out loud" and cats--well, pretty self-explanatory. I'm not sure where the "I Can Has Cheezburger?" came from, featuring similar silly cat shots with captions, but apparently the two sites merged to the benefit and amusement of all.

Recently I explored ( or "splord" as LOLspeak would probably put it) the merged site and found an English language lover's delight, » Learn Lolspeak — teh furst language born of teh intertubes. It helps if you're a linguist with a good sense of humor, of course.

Ah, it's teh best of all worlds: cats, humor and English!

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Writing 'all right 'vs. 'alright'

Just as I watched the incorrect spelling 'definately' make the rounds of the Web in previous years, the mistake du jour that I see is 'alright', and it is not all right with me. I find it in posts and articles from people who purport to be writers.

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

The one-word spelling alright appeared some 75 years after all right itself had reappeared from a 400-year-long absence. Since the early 20th century some critics have insisted alright is wrong, but it has its defenders and its users. It is less frequent than all right but remains in common use especially in journalistic and business publications. It is quite common in fictional dialogue, and is used occasionally in other writing ...

From Answers.com, the Word Tutor considers the adjective form as Nonstandard usage, as does Word Net. If you like the Wikipedia as a source of information about words, it states, "Even though it often appears in print, the use of "alright" in any context other than slang is generally frowned upon and may be perceived as purposefully breaking convention." Nonstandard is also the verdict of the American Heritage® Dictionary as provided online by Bartleby.

Now see, this is the hazard of becoming an editor. You think and talk like this post all the time. No wonder I'm hearing, "You need to loosen up!"

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Writing Straight vs. Strait

I won't cite chapter and verse, but in researching publications about writer's block, I came upon a word that confuses many people, me and myself included. I didn't know the right form of strait to use to indicate financial hardship. The correct idiomatic use is: straitened circumstances. The heavy duty academic text I was reading used straightened. I knew that was incorrect, but I thought the right form of the word was "straited". That's what I've been saying, although I've never written it (that I can recall). I was so wrong! It isn't even a real word.

Actually, the transitive verb is to straiten, while strait is a noun or adjective. They have related secondary meanings having to do with stressful difficulties and limited funding. A strait, of course, has another meaning as a narrow channel of water -- still that notion of being tight.

Evan Jenkins of the Columbia Journalism Review explains it with an amusing anecdote that includes a definition of straighten, which I have omitted so you can keep these words strait straight.

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Writing Words: Publishing Terms

Did you know some books have lovely headbands which serve no practical purpose? And if you think PMS has to do with moody women, you haven't met the Pantone Matching System. Rachel Toor reveals these and many more esoteric publishing terms in A Publishing Primer at The Chronicle of Higher Education online. My favorite entry is the very last one with its little snarky jibes at some controversial authors:

Warranty: Your promise to the publisher that you are who you say you are (Margaret B. Jones!), that you have written the work (Kaavya Viswanathan!), that everything you say is true is true (James Frey!), and that you have the right to be named as author.

Via The Practicing Writer Vol. 5, No. 8: September 2008 newsletter from Dr. Erika Dreifus.

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Writing English Errors

People who love the English language are familiar with the commonly felt gag reflex when they see signs with violations of apostrophes. We are, as Lynn Truss ably noted in Eats, Shoots & Leaves, charter members of the apostrophe posse. We'd love to carry apostrophe zappers capable of eradicating those erroneous superscript commas on the run. Drive by apostrophicide, as it were.

I've long since given up rushing into a commercial establishment to notify management of the English errors of their ways on signs and billboards. One I spotted Wednesday on my daily perambulation was posted at the corner gas station. (Are gas stations ever located anywhere else but corners?) Several weeks ago, I'd noticed one of the six gas prices listed lacked the usual "9" at the end. If they put out a BOLO (cop talk for "Be on the lookout...) for the missing 9, it must have yielded no results. Now a aheet of paper posted on a light stanchion proclaims, "Reward for information about someone steeling from our price sign on July 3".

I just chuckled, smiled and strolled onward, thinking maybe nine hooked up with "Seven of Nine" from Star Trek.

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Writing Words for Communicating Information

Long title for "Here's what I mean." This list is for those who are new to A Writer's Edge and others who may have missed my few rants on these subjects. It is necessary for two people to agree on the general definitions of key words to facilitate the transfer of information (essentially, to talk.) I can't teach or tell you something if the picture in your mind doesn't roughly match the picture in mine. Because you can't give me immediate feedback to clarify the pictures (no talk in real time) we need a brief lexicon so you will know what I have in mind, even if you disagree:

WHEN I SAY..............WHAT I MEAN

professional......................paid for writing
amateur.........................not paid for writing
published.....................work has appeared to public
unpublished...................work not appeared to public
writer....one who writes as a large part of a job or as a profession; one who writes regularly with the hope of becoming a professional or published
nonfiction....................true story presenting facts
fiction...........................untrue story made up
written story.............a complete story in written words
complete....containing a beginning/introduction, middle and end/summation presenting a whole story in facts or fiction
success.......personally-defined goal, often a moving target

These are short-hand definitions, and I haven't yet wrestled with the more controversial ones (to me) like creative nonfiction. Maybe I'll add to the list. I think I threatened to do this a long time ago, but didn't carry through because I hadn't made up my mind on exactly what each term means to me.

If there are others that have puzzled you, leave a comment, and I'll try to address them all. The series editing, revising and rewriting leap up as tough ones. I wrestle with those every time a client sends an email asking, "How much would it cost to edit this?"

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Writing Irregular Plural Nouns

One of the basic editing tasks is to ensure that subjects and verbs match in number . There are three numbers—singular, dual, and plural—that are distinguished in both the noun and the verb, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Let's not worry about the archaic "dual" form here. The greatest problem for writers is the fact that many nouns, which are used for subjects, don't always become plural by the regular method of adding an s or es to the end of the singular form: dog, dogs/church, churches. In fact, most words that end in s, x, ch, or sh form plurals this way.

Irregular nouns don't need a laxative, but they do need special handling when forming their plurals and, subsequently, when writing an associated verb. If the plural of a noun is the same word, take care to use a plural verb when that is what you mean. For example, we may use fish or fishes as the plural form of fish. Thus all the following sentences are correct:

Fishes fill the dish.
Fish fill the dish.
A fish fills the dish. (singular)

Other unchanging nouns include:

barracks
deer
crossroads
offspring
dice (although die can be the singular)
gallows
headquarters
sheep
means
series
species

Find help with forming plurals of all forms of irregular nouns at the University of Victoria's 330 Grammar and Georgia State University's Joanna Crump's grammar pages.

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Words Don't Count, People Do

According to research performed by by some cognitive scientists, we don't need words in order to count, subtract and divide, to perform basic arithmetic, otherwise known as enumeration. How do we do it? One, two, three, four -- that's about as far as some cultures go with words for numbers. Oh, they may have a word for the concept of "many" or "more than three or four", but nothing specific like five or six.

Take English-speaking people and Warlpiri or Anindilyakwa, Australian aboriginal groups that fit the parameters described. Drs. Brian Butterworth and Robert Reeve tested children from these groups in various tasks with tokens. They tried out simple number memory, nonverbal addition and division with various amounts. Their results, while not terrifically conclusive, support the theory that, as Dr. Butterworth said, "...humans posess an innate system for enumeration that doesn't rely on words."

The project was reported in Tuesday's publishing of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concluding that words for numbers are "useful but not necessary". Read the AP story for details. Scary! What's next, discovering we don't need language to communicate at all?

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Writing Altar and Alter

How about a writing alter? I worship words. Nothing is sacred, a sacred word. If none of this is making sense, it's because I am mixing up alter and altar. Confusing these two words is once more a matter of them sounding the same, but having quite different meanings:

alter, a verb (action)
1. To change or make different; modify: altered my will.
2. To adjust (a garment) for a better fit.
3. To castrate or spay (an animal, such as a cat or a dog).

altar, a noun (object)
1. An elevated place or structure before which religious ceremonies may be enacted or upon which sacrifices may be offered.
2. A structure, typically a table, before which the divine offices are recited and upon which the Eucharist is celebrated in Christian churches.

Those definitions are from the American Heritage Dictionary via Answers.com. In Latin "alter" means "other" and thus we have the phrase "alter ego" -- another self. Don't sacrifice your credibility with an "altar ego".

Maybe you can remember the differences this way: Alter your wedding clothes before you stand at the altar.

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Writing Eight, 8, Ate

08/08/08 -- That's today, Fortunate Friday, the date of the opening of the Olympic games in Beijing. Right now, it is evening there as you can see at timeandate.com. What about the 8s and why fortunate Friday? That relates to the Chinese pronunciation of the name of the numeral and its culture of significance. In Chinese (Mandarin, I think), the word for eight is pronounced the same as the word for prosperity. The date would be, "ba, ba, ba", not for black sheep or to indicate contempt, but for lots of good luck money wise. Very appropriate, because all the athletes are there to "go for the gold".

In English, we don't determine the meaning or the significance of words based on their pronunciation. Eight, which means the numeral 8, is also pronounced the same as the word ate. But there is no connection between "eightness" and consuming food. Similarly, there's no connection that I know between "baa" and "bah". Chinese must be a very confusing language to master!

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Writing "Since" for "Because"

Many writers are confused about the use of "since" and "because" and think the former always means the latter. According to one of several GrammarCheck newsletters: When used as a conjunction, especially at the beginning of a sentence, since" can be used in place of "because." According to one of our academic sources, "since" has been used in this manner since the 14th century.

Although that website refers to "academic sources", I can find no credentials for the site's administrators or content providers. So, I'd go with the library's usage views. If you look up "since" in "The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved...." at Answers, for example, you'll find the word listed mostly (seven of eight meanings) as an indicator of time passed.

"Since" can be used as an adjective, a preposition, or a conjunction, and two of the three conjunction uses are time-related. In the example the dictionary provides for the use of "since" to mean "inasmuch as" or "because", the example places the conjunction at the beginning of a sentence: Since you're not interested, I won't tell you about it. No, seriously, that is the example sentence given!

In light of the facts that so much of the meaning of "since" has to do with time, try to avoid using it to indicate causality. When you're tempted to use it, take a pause and type "because".

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Writing "Try"

LAST DAY TO ENTER THE CONTEST

It's quite difficult for me to turn off the editor in my head (known informally as the condition "ed head"). When I read or hear the phrase "try and" instead of the correct "try to", a shudder shakes my spine. Bad grammar grates my nerves like nails scraped on a chalk board. Why should we not "try and"? Well, we can, but only if we really mean two different actions and punctuate the sentence correctly.

Consider what the writer or speaker really means when asking someone to "Try and get there on time". I think the phrase requests someone to be on time. If the conjunction "and" is connecting two verbs, "try" and "get", what else is to be "tried"?

In the case of "try to walk without crutches" connected to "be careful of the curb", the correct shortened construction would be "Try, and be careful". In this case, the conjunction connects two independent clauses and usually needs a comma. Incidentally, in all these examples, the subject of each clause is understood to be "you", even though it is not written or spoken.

When you're tempted to use "try to" or "try and", expand the sentence to its whole meaning to determine which word to use after the verb "try". Try it; you'll like it!

Reference from The American Heritage Dictionary:

USAGE NOTE The phrase try and is commonly used as a substitute for try to, as in Could you try and make less noise? A number of grammarians have labeled the construction incorrect. To be sure, the usage is associated with informal style and strikes an inappropriately conversational note in formal writing. Sixty-five percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use in writing of the sentence Why don't you try and see if you can work the problem out between yourselves?

via Answers.com

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Beach Reads for Writing

One hot read this summer for English language lovers is
Semantic Antics: How and Why Words Change Meaning, by Sol Steinmetz. In it you'll learn how many of our terms evolved from completely different original meanings. The section on how the word "nude" came to mean "naked" is especially provocative. ("Nude" was formerly a legal term indicating something was unenforceable or void.)

Angry at the rising prices at the pump? I joked that I emptied my bank account into my gas tank. Some blame the Chinese, some blame the government, and some point at OPEC, the oil cartel, a syndicate controlling oil prices. The word "cartel", however, started out meaning a card or paper on which an agreement was written. That's not difficult to hear in the pronunciation. Steinmetz credits the Germans for transforming it into symbolizing a nefarious organization with the signing of a "Kartell" in 1887 supporting the political leader, von Bismarck.

My fave is "silly", the tag I use on the Saturday posts herein. Amazon notes that:

Before the year 1200, the word silly meant "blessed," and was derived from Old English saelig, meaning "happy." This word went through several incarnations before adopting today's meaning: "stupid or foolish."

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Writing may can you With Might

For some people, confusion reigns supreme over the use of 'may' and 'might' and about the uses of 'can' and 'could'. Perhaps I should include 'will' and 'would', 'shall' and 'should', but you'll get the picture from the first two pairs.

The problem with 'may' and 'might' comes about because both can (oops!) be used in the present tense, but the word 'might' is also the past tense of 'may'. Using 'might' in the present, as in "I might go to town today" indicates a conditional situation less formal or probable than "I may go to town."

But you can also say, "I hoped I might go to town", all in the past tense, where 'may' is not the right word. This is similar to 'can' and its past tense 'could'. You would not write, "I hoped I can go, but I knew I can't." Just doesn't sound right, yes? You would (oops! again) use 'could' and 'couldn't' in that sentence.

Try out variations of a very basic sentence, substituting the other pairs of verbs, when you find yourself confused over whether you should (oops! thrice) use 'may' or 'might'. I might end this now before I confuse us further. And then again, I might not. But I shall. And I should.

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Editing for Length

A nonfiction book writer at a brunch yesterday complained the university publisher insists on reducing the book's size. Physical size? No. Word count? No, page count. "Well, that means cutting out words," I said, "and it's best done in large swaths."

The soon-to-be author looked at me bleakly. "I'm editing it myself, and we agreed to eliminate one whole background section on .... Now it's down to finding words to take out."

"How much reduction are you required to make?" I asked, worried for this writer. Almost one third of the material has to go. "You're never going to make it by taking out a word here and there. Whole paragraphs, maybe chapters must go." (This presumes a well-organized manuscript.)

"Let's keep in touch," the author said with enthusiasm. "I may need your help this summer. The book must be finished this season." An experienced writer recognized the fact that we fall in love with our words, so deeply that we cannot gain enough perspective to see which ones can go and which must stay. It's akin to snow blindness--a flurry of words, each one exquisitely unique and valuable.

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Writing With Semicolons

More often than not, when I edit manuscripts, I notice that people no longer use semicolons. Those who do seem to be confused about their use. According to the Chicago Manual of Style, a semicolon most often joins two independent clauses. For example:

The dog chased cars; he never caught one.

The two clauses are independent, meaning each could stand alone and make sense. The semicolon creates a pause, much as a comma does. Because the two clauses are joined in one sentence; however, the semicolon's function is more like that of a full stop, a.k.a. in the U.S. as a period. This use holds true even if a transitional adverb is used to introduce the second clause:

The dog chased cars; indeed, he caught one, but didn't know what to do with it.

Another semicolon use that I seldom see is to take the place of a serial comma when punctuation appears within items in the series:

The dog, in an effort to appear mighty, chased cars; ran after cats, sometimes several at the same time; and caught no cars, a few cats, birds, and insects. This use is often found in long, complex sentences. Breaking down the example: the dog chased, ran, and caught. This is a series of actions. Within those three active verb elements are modifying phrases containing commas; hence, the need for a serial semicolon.

All right (notice it's not 'alright') all you other nitpicking editors, find the mistakes in this post and tell the world in a comment.

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Keywords for Writing Websites

Did you ever wonder how many search engines scan the Internet? The search engine optimization (SEO) company Trellian claims to gather data on 36 billion searches performed on 200 search engines worldwide. Scroll down the referenced web page to see a list. Impressive, huh? Only three really matter, though, when it comes to fiddling with keywords.

If you have a website to promote yourself and/or market your writing (and every writer and book needs one), you should be concerned about keywords. They are are the text that search engine users type into the little rectangle next to the Search button. Part of the secret to raising your site's rank in search engine returns is knowing what keywords are most pertinent to your site's content.

Most new visitors to websites arrive via keyword searches. Once your site is up and running, don't take much of a break from optimizing. Frequently test your old and new keywords with the three top search engines. In July 2007, these were Google, Yahoo and MSN, according to Search Engine Watch, comprising 87% of all searches performed.

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Build English Vocabulary

MSN's Encarta is bundled with my MS Word 2003 as the de facto dictionary. The Encarta website contains many useful articles and some funny quizzes. Don't try the President Bush's English Quiz, though. The links I tried went to an empty page. Oh, wait! Maybe that's the joke.

All kidding aside, I think "Ten Tips to Build English Vocabulary" is quite useful. Strategies to help memorize new words include:

• choose words you're interested in
• associate a color with each word
• use the words in your imagination
• write pieces using new words
• relate a picture to a word

It sounds a lot like advice for learning people's names--the relationships and use. Repetition is a powerful learning device. When I was learning a larger vocabulary, I bored people silly using the new polysyllabic terminology (big words) in conversations until they were cemented in my mind. The words, not people.

Speaking of MS Word, a client sent me documents in the newer .docx format. I dutifully downloaded and installed the Microsoft converters for my software version. Then I opened the client files. It worked--not so good. The process is like gestating elephants, long and difficult, at least for the computer. The results warn of format and permissions changes. I could not extract photos, at least not easily, and separate them from the documents. It's either time for me to upgrade or remember to start asking for files to be converted to my preferred format. Let's see, who's the parent here? No, scratch that. Who is in charge? What would you do or expect?

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