Tag Archive - usage

Each Writer Should Correct Their Own Grammar

May 31, 2013 in Say What? with 10 Comments

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Dreading to deal with the ubiquitous “their,” let’s just get it over with. It’s become so common for us to say things like “Do you know someone who lives alone and worries for their life?” or “Everyone in the audience blew their nose.” How about “No one knew what their assignment was.” And so on.

We have gotten into the habit of using “their” as a catch-all word in sentences that really call for a singular pronoun. And often, the best way around these glaring pitfalls is to rewrite.

It is clunky to always say “his” or “her”: “Each person in the room scratched his or her head.” But although it’s easier to defer to “Each person scratched their head,” why not rewrite into a stronger sentence? Or if it the information is not necessary, just take it out. Do you really need to tell the reader that everyone scratched their head? Just what are you trying to say? Continue Reading…

Learning about Proper Adjectives in a New York Minute

January 11, 2013 in Say What? with 2 Comments

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A “proper adjective” does not refer to a correct adjective in a sentence (because there often isn’t just one correct adjective). It  is one that, being or deriving from a proper name, always begins with a capital letter. Here are some examples of a proper adjective:

  • a New York minute
  • a Cuban cigar
  • a Canadian dollar

The proper name used attributively (meaning the adjective is describing the noun, essentially)  is still capitalized, but it does not cause the noun it modifies to be capitalized. A place-name containing a comma—such as Toronto, Ontario, or New Delhi, India—should generally not be used as an adjective because a second comma may be deemed obligatory. For example if you say “We ate dinner in a Chicago, Illinois, restaurant,” the comma after Illinois is somewhat awkward. Better to reword to something like “We ate dinner in a restaurant in Chicago, Illinois.” Or ‘We ate dinner in a Chicago restaurant.”

Do Signs Read?

December 21, 2012 in Say What? with 2 Comments

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Do you find it a little kooky as I do that we have expressions like “the sign said . . .” or “the notice read . . .”? I mean, signs can’t talk, and notices haven’t gone to school. But what’s implied by these expressions is something along the lines of “the person who wrote the sign said . . . ” Regardless, since signs aren’t people or talking animals, they don’t need speaker tags. If you remember the rule, whenever you use a speaker tag, you put a comma before the speech: George said, “Keep out.”

With something like a sign you don’t need the comma. Just say: The sign said “Keep Out.”

If you are referring to a type of sign or notice, just give it initial caps.

Examples:

  • Pay attention to the No Smoking sign
  • I ignored the Keep Out sign

The same principle applies to forms:

  • Fill out that Consent to Search form

In your spare time, if you’re bored, you could try to teach your signs to read. Good luck.

 

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