Tag Archive - usage tips

Handy Hyphenation Chart

July 27, 2012 in Say What? with 7 Comments

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Hyphenation is a real problem for writers. There are so many rules, and sometimes no consistency to them. The best advice I can give you is to get a CD of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition, and download it onto your computer. I use it all the time, every day, as it is the accepted authority in book publishing. (Note: The CD is included in the paperback book in the back, so this way you will have the book as a reference too.)

The Chicago Manual of Style takes precedence over M-W, though, so I encourage you to download this CMOS Hyphenation Chart from CMOS 16th Edition, print it out, and refer to it whenever you are unsure whether a word should be hyphenated or not. Often CMOS will refer you to check M-W for their take on a particular word, so you need both tools. With both of these resources at your fingertips, you will be able to go through your book and clean it up. Remember—your spell-checker will steer you wrong a lot! It will often tag some words as not being in the dictionary when they are correct, and it will sometimes let a misspelling slip through, so use your spell-checker judiciously!

Pop! Goes the Weasel (Word)

July 20, 2012 in Say What? with 27 Comments

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Due to great demand, I thought I would give you a partial list of my “weasel words.” These are words I overuse and are often unnecessary and clutter up my books. I will go through, usually when done with my first draft and do a “find” for these words and destroy them! (Although, sometimes I do need one or two and after much deliberation will vet it and allow it to remain.) You should come up with your own list, but I bet some of your words are the same as mine. One way to learn what your weasel words are is to ask your critique partner or writing group to point them out to you. Invariably, we cannot see our own. I have often muttered to myself “I can’t believe I used that word again!”

Okay, here’s my list. Feel free to comment and share some of yours.

  • • just
    • have to
    • could
    • would
    • began to
    • started to
    • it
    • it was
    • there was
    • were
    • very
    • rather
    • some
    • thought
    • wondered
    • mused
    • had
    • -ly [to find adverbs]
    • -ing [to find progressive construction]

Are You Overly Passive?

July 13, 2012 in Say What? with 2 Comments

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Writers have heard a lot about avoiding passive voice or passive construction. Some are overly neurotic about this topic, making hard-and-fast rules that say you should never ever use the word was anywhere in your writing. But I disagree. There are times when passive voice or the word was is the best choice. If your character is in the process of doing one thing when something else happens, you need to use the passive progressive structure: “I was stirring the noodles when my contact fell into the water.” That works perfectly. If you try to rewrite that to avoid the passive construction and come up with “I stirred the noodles as my contact fell in the water” it’s a bit off. Sure, writers often overuse the progressive tense (“was ___ing” or “is ___ing”). But there are times when it is just right. When the receiver of the action is more important than the doer, the passive voice is preferable and sometimes more effective.

In the passive voice, the subject and direct object are reversed, and this reversal can occur in any verb tense, for example:

  • Tom watches football while the grass is cut by Sue. (Present tense)
  • Tom watched football while the grass was cut by Sue. (Simple past tense)
  • Tom is watching football while the grass is being cut by Sue. (Present progressive tense)
  • Tom was watching football while the grass was being cut by Sue. (Past progressive tense)
  • Tom has watched football while the grass has been cut by Sue. (Present perfect tense)
  • Tom had watched football while the grass had been cut by Sue. (Past perfect tense)
  • Tom will watch football while the grass will be cut by Sue. (Future tense)
  • Tom will be watching football while the grass will be being cut by Sue. (Future progressive tense)

By using a more active voice, you will have a stronger, less wordy sentence. Why not just say “Tom watched football while Sue cut the grass”?

So don’t be so strict with passive voice, yet think about using it only when it conveys the exact meaning you’re after. I recently pulled out a handful of NY Times best sellers from my shelf and skimmed through the first few pages. I was pretty amazed at how many sentences were structured with weak passive voice. So although it’s very common to use it, overuse does weaken your writing overall. Using Word’s “Find” feature for was, were, is, ing, and are can help you catch some of these and consider changing them.

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