Category Archives: Writing Skills

Commas with And

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And is an easy word – one of the first words that you and I learned how to read when we were in the first grade. So why does and cause so many comma problems? Even some of the professional writers I know can’t remember how to use commas with and.

Much of the confusion originates with English textbooks, which make a big show of teaching the difference between compound and complex sentences. The terms are so similar that many people never really grasp the difference…and stumble through life wondering how to use commas with and.

Help is on the way!

If you join two sentences with and, use a comma. If you have one sentence with and in the middle, omit the comma.

Clouds covered the sky, and far-off thunder warned of a coming storm. TWO SENTENCES: Use a comma

Mark spotted a parking space and carefully maneuvered the car into it. ONE SENTENCE: No comma

Mark spotted a parking space, and he carefully maneuvered the car into it. TWO SENTENCES: Use a comma

Not hard, is it?

The rule (Comma Rule 2 in Commas Made Simple) has an elegant logic, when you think about it. Take a look at this example:

Linda boiled the potatoes and Dan

Linda’s not a very nice person!

But if you put a comma after “potatoes,” you know that Dan is the beginning of a new sentence:

Linda boiled the potatoes, and Dan tossed the salad. CORRECT

Here are a few additional things to know about and:

  • And is a useful word, but don’t overdo it. Vary your sentences by working in other words: because, when, who, and so on.
  • NEVER put a comma after and.
  • In a series, you can omit the comma after the item before and. Note that book publishers generally require this comma; newspapers and magazines never use it; teachers’ preferences vary.
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The “Although” Problem

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Fewer and fewer people seem to know how to use “although” correctly. I see writing like this all the time:

We’re making good progress on the new addition to our house. Although, the flooring is taking longer than we expected. WRONG

Although always introduces an extra idea. It’s not a substitute for however. If you write an although idea, make sure there’s a sentence to go with it:

Although the flooring is taking longer than we expected, we’re making good progress on the new addition to our house. CORRECT

Here are two other correct ways to do it:

We’re making good progress on the new addition to our house. However, the flooring is taking longer than we expected. CORRECT

We’re making good progress on the new addition to our house although the flooring is taking longer than we expected. CORRECT

And here are a few more examples. I’ve made these shorter and simpler, but they work the same way:

Although I enjoyed the movie, I don’t want to see it again. CORRECT

Barry still has plenty of energy although he worked the late shift last night. CORRECT

Notice:

  • It’s NEVER correct to put a comma after although.
  • An although idea is incomplete and always needs to be attached to a complete sentence.

Simple enough, right?

One more reminder: Don’t use although as a synonym for however. Take a look at this sentence:

The job offer is tempting. Although, I don’t want to leave New York. WRONG

Here are two ways to fix it:

The job offer is tempting although I don’t want to leave New York. CORRECT

The job offer is tempting. However, I don’t want to leave New York. CORRECT

Although many people make mistakes with although, you won’t have any problems from now on!

To learn more, click here and read about Comma Rule 1.

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Plain Language, Please

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Last Wednesday Congress passed H.R. 946, a bill requiring federal agencies to use plain language in their forms, letters, and other documents. The bill passed overwhelmingly, despite a few naysayers who argued that the annual cost ($5 million) was too high for our high government deficits.

Good for Congress. Yes, five million dollars is a high price to pay for simple English. But it seems likely that great amounts of time and (more important) money will be saved in the long run when officials and citizens can understand government documents.

What flabbergasts me is that it’s going to cost $5 million to get officials to do what they should have been doing all along – writing plainly.

This morning I found a marvelous government website that offers many resources to help officials (and, incidentally, you and me) write more clearly: www.plainlanguage.gov.

Way to go, Congress!

(For more tips about clear, up-to-date business style, click here.)

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Hyphens

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I almost turned down my first editing job because I was worried about making mistakes with hyphens. They are slippery little devils that cause a great deal of confusion.

Luckily, there are some easy-to-use tools that are a tremendous help with hyphens. Let’s take a look at them.

1.  Your first step should be understanding why hyphens are necessary in the first place. Their job is to combine words that go together, as in this example:

Joe and Barbara are first-time home buyers. CORRECT

Joe and Barbara aren’t first home buyers, nor are they time home buyers. In this sentence, first and time have to go together. That’s why the hyphen is there.

2.  Don’t use a hyphen if the two words don’t go together:

We need a short, catchy name for our project. CORRECT

The name will be short, and it will be catchy. The two words don’t go together. Use a comma, not a hyphen.

3.  Don’t use a hyphen if there’s no noun after the two-word phrase:

Joe and Barbara are buying a home for the first time. CORRECT (no hyphen)

We’re painting that wall dark red. CORRECT (no hyphen)

A dark-red wall will add drama to the room. CORRECT  (the hyphen is needed because dark red is followed by a noun, “wall”)

4.  Don’t use a hyphen with -ly words (adverbs):

The happily smiling children skipped across the playground. CORRECT (no hyphen)

5.  You need to know that hyphens tend to disappear over time. Week-end became weekend a long time ago. Back-yard is now backyard. Luckily your word-processing software will automatically flag and fix these for you. Pay attention to those red underlines on your screen!

6.  If you’re really serious about getting it right (for example, you’re a paid editor, like me), do some research on the Internet. The truth is that hyphen usage varies. For example, some companies put a hyphen into e-mail; others don’t. There are lots of ambiguities.

At one of my previous jobs, people kept getting into huge arguments about whether world class should have a hyphen. I solved the problem by Googling “world class” to see what other businesses, agencies, and educational institutions are doing. Many of them chose not to use the hyphen, and we decided to follow their example. It’s a good way to settle disputes about hyphens and other writing issues.

Here’s another smart move you should consider: Ask if your workplace has a style sheet (a list of rules for thorny issues like hyphens). If it doesn’t, suggest that your workplace create one.

Having the rules in one place (is “healthcare” one word or two? do we use “catalog” or “catalogue” here?) can save everyone a lot of headaches. You can find many style sheets online that can help your company get started.

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National Punctuation Day

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Be still, my heart: A whole day to celebrate commas, semicolons, and apostrophes!

In honor of National Punctuation Day, here are some helpful tips to use when you’re writing and editing your work:

1.  Pay attention to introductions (extra ideas at the beginning of sentences). They require commas:

When I saw the letter from Jane in my mailbox, my heart started pounding.

Once you know the difference between an introduction (which needs a comma) and a sentence (which needs a period), you won’t have to worry about run-ons and comma splices:

When I saw the letter from Jane in my mailbox, my heart started pounding. CORRECT

I saw the letter from Jane in my mailbox. My heart started pounding. CORRECT

2.  Break the bad habit of throwing an apostrophe into a word whenever you see an “s.” Apostrophes aren’t hard to learn – honest! Click here for some helpful resources.

3.  Adopt simple ways to think and talk about punctuation. Here are some handy rules that many people find helpful:

  • A semicolon is like a period, but it’s not followed by a capital letter.
  • Extra ideas (introductions) end with commas.
  • Sentences end in periods.

3.  Use your ears to help you punctuate. Listen for “Superman” sentences (voice drops) with two commas.

4.  Read, read, read. Ask yourself why the writer chose those punctuation marks. Observe and remember.

I’m always running into people who are astounded that periods and commas go inside punctuation marks. If you read magazines, newspapers, and books, you’ve probably seen these punctuation marks thousands of times. Take note, and use what you’ve learned next time! The same goes for commas, apostrophes, semicolons, and colons.

5.  Find a writing buddy and share your work. Talk about the punctuation choices you’ve made, and ask for feedback. Talking is a great way to learn, and you’ll be helping each other.

 

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If and When

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I always look forward to opening my mailbox and finding the latest copy of The New Yorker magazine there. The articles and reviews are fun to read, and an additional bonus is the meticulous care that the writers and editors bring to their work.

For example, I always look for the dieresis in coöperate. Hardly anyone else still uses it (I confess that I dropped the dieresis decades ago), but I always get this warm feeling: Someone cares! (For the record, I’m one of very few people who still use an apostrophe in Hallowe’en.)

So it was a shock to come across this sentence in the September 20 issue (“The Face of Facebook”):

If and when Facebook decides to go public, Zuckerberg will become one of the richest men on the planet, and one of the youngest billionaires.

“If” includes “when.” The sentence should read, “If Facebook decides to go public….”

Maybe we should all take heart: Even the meticulous New Yorker is capable of a lapse now and then. It’s ok to be human (especially if you’re still using those beautiful umlauts!).

[P.S. I chose a risky construction for this sentence: I‘m one of very few people who still use an apostrophe in Hallowe’en.

Many people would make it “still uses.” My reasoning is that I’ve put together two sentences that read like this:

I’m one of very few people. Those people still use an apostrophe in Hallowe’en.

You can read more about this debate by clicking here and reading Rule 6.]

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Can You Spot These Writing Mistakes?

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The Galloping Grammarian is at it again!

Here are two sentences with writing mistakes I came across recently.  The errors should have been corrected before they were published. Can you identify the problems?

The first is from a news story about Ines Sainz, the sports reporter who claims she was treated badly during a locker room interview:

Yes, she wears low-cut shirts, tight jeans and has photos on her employer’s website showing her in a bikini.

The second is from a literature blog:

A central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, McKay’s Home to Harlem (1928) was the first novel by a black author to make the best-seller lists.

Here are the answers:

The first sentence isn’t parallel. You can easily see the problem when the sentence is written like a three-part poem:

Yes, she wears

low-cut shirts

tight jeans and

has photos on her employer’s website showing her in a bikini.

Remember that parallelism errors are about lists, and the mistake almost always shows up in the third item. Here’s one way to correct the sentence:

Yes, she wears low-cut shirts and tight jeans, and she has photos on her employer’s website showing her in a bikini.  CORRECT

The second sentence is a dangling modifier. McKay’s Home to Harlem is a book, not a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. That “central figure” was McKay himself.

Here’s one way to correct it:

McKay, a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, wrote Home to Harlem in 1928. It was the first novel by a black author to make the best-seller lists. CORRECT

It’s often a good idea to write two shorter sentences, as I did here, rather than a long one. Cramming a lot of information into one long sentence often leads to errors.

Are you still confused about the dangling modifier? Let’s look at another one:

After filling the tank and changing the oil, Jill’s car was ready for the trip.  DANGLING MODIFIER

Jill’s car didn’t fill its gas tank and change the oil! Jill had to take care of those tasks herself. (Wouldn’t it be nice if cars did their own maintenance? Sorry – it doesn’t work what way.)

Here’s the corrected sentence:

After Jill filled the tank and changed the oil, her car was ready for the trip. CORRECT


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Have Fun with Apostrophes

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Mondays ain’t so bad.

Every Monday our local newspaper prints a syndicated column, “Below the Beltway,” by Gene Weingarten. He is provocative and funny – a delight to read.

Today’s column lists once highly valued things that have depreciated so much that they’re almost worthless. Examples include Mel Gibson’s film career, BP stock, and…(#8 on the list) apostrophes.

More precisely, he says, “the skill of using apostrophe’s.” He goes on to note, “Nobody get’s it right anymore, and nobody gives a darn, and thats just the way it is.”

Okay, gang: He made three deliberate apostrophe errors. Can you find them? Answers below.

I salute you, Gene. There are two of us left who still care about apostrophes!

[ANSWERS: Delete the apostrophe from apostrophes and gets. Insert an apostrophe into that’s.]

This website offers many resources to help you learn apostrophes: A PowerPoint about placing apostrophes, a handout, and a practice exercise with answers and explanations.

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Comma Rule 1: Commas with Introductory Ideas

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I haven’t been able to confirm the story I’m about to tell. But it’s so useful when you’re learning commas that I’m going to tell it anyway.

Years ago a wealthy man is supposed to have won a lawsuit against Western Union because of a missing comma. Here’s what happened:

He was away on business when his wife telegraphed him for permission to buy an expensive piece of jewelry.

When she got his telegram – “No price too high” – she went ahead and bought the jewelry. He got home from the trip, found out she’d indeed made the purchase, and sued.

Here’s the message he’d intended to send: “No, price too high.” Big difference!

It’s a great story to illustrate the importance of punctuation, and a great excuse to remind you about Comma Rule 1: Use a comma when a sentence begins with an extra idea.

(Or: Use a comma when a sentence begins with an introduction. Take your pick: The two rules amount to the same thing.)

Here are some examples for you to mull over (suggestion: Read the sentences aloud). All these sentences are correct:

I picked up the dry cleaning this afternoon. CORRECT

Jane, I picked up the dry cleaning this afternoon. CORRECT  (“Jane” is extra)

Jane picked up the dry cleaning this afternoon. CORRECT

No dogs are permitted in the lobby. CORRECT

No, dogs are permitted in the lobby. CORRECT  (“No” is extra. Can you hear that this is probably the answer to a question about the rule about dogs?)

To learn more about Comma Rule 1, click here. And did you notice that the previous sentence is a perfect example of a Comma Rule 1 sentence?

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Double-Check It, Please

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In my July 28 post I mentioned Tinker Bell, the fairy in Sir James M. Barrie’s wonderful Peter Pan. I typed it as one word, with an “e” at the end. Because I’m an editor and trained to be accurate, a couple of minutes later I started to wonder about that final “e.” After a quick Google search I discovered two things: That “e” had to go, and the fairy’s name is two words, not one.

Good editors are doubters, and good editing is very different from good reading. A good reader takes in the message and information in big chunks. Editors creep along slowly and stop to ask many questions along the way. Is that really how he spells his name? Is New York City really the capital of New York (no, it’s Albany). Should capital be spelled with an “o”? (Only when it’s a government building or a business that spells its name that way, such as Capitol Records).

I edit college documents for the institution where I worked as a professor for almost 30 years. Knowing the faculty and staff can be a huge advantage. I often notice factual errors (she goes by her middle name, he lives in another city) that an outsider might miss.

Because checking and double-checking are so important to me, I’m endlessly astonished at the “So what?” attitude of so many writers. Last week I was flabbergasted when I read the title of this new movie in our newspaper: The Kids Are Alright. The movie was listed that way in two places – the review and, a few pages later, in the local schedule of showings.

The name of the movie (I checked it!) is The Kids Are All Right. But somebody who works for our local newspaper apparently decided that the movie producers didn’t know the correct title of their own movie – or figured that it didn’t make any difference.

If you don’t care about accuracy, you shouldn’t be working for a newspaper. (And if you don’t know that all right is always two words, you shouldn’t be holding any kind of writing job.)

Years ago, when I was a prison teacher, I submitted an article to The Journal of Correctional Education. The editor called to tell me that my article was going to be published after she corrected the spelling errors.

“I don’t make spelling errors,” I told her. There was silence at the other end of the phone.

Six months later, when my article was published, she’d changed my correctly spelled argument to the incorrect arguement.

She didn’t own a dictionary?

I talk to many people who wish they were better writers, and I’ll be the first to admit that good writing is a challenge. But there’s a simple principle that will instantly make any piece of writing better: Double-check what you’ve written.

 Today’s Quiz ANSWER

You can improve this sentence by removing the unnecessary word “currently.”

She currently lives in a beautiful apartment high over the city of Toronto. ORIGINAL SENTENCE

She lives in a beautiful apartment high over the city of Toronto. BETTER

Incidentally, you could argue that “the city of Toronto” can be shortened to simply “Toronto.” It’s also possible, however, that “the city of” helps you see Toronto in your mind’s eye. I’d call this one a judgment call.
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